Interview With a Spammer

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Posted by michael on Saturday September 27, 2003 @04:53AM from the need-a-wooden-stake dept.

Shipud writes "The NYTimes interviewed Richard Colbert, under the title of 'Confessions of a SPAM King'. Richard talks about one-time credit cards, WiFi, 'good' vs. 'bad' spam and more."

12 of 429 comments (clear)

Eh? by Garrett+Combs · 2003-09-27 04:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

"good spam vs. bad spam" Hrm... Is there such a thing?

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1. Re:Eh? by jellomizer · 2003-09-27 05:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Well in the article he states it this way.
  
  Good Spam. With Proper from line and workable remove links that actually remove your list and not used to verify your address.
  
  Bad Spam. With altered from addresses bounced from every open relay on the planet to hide it origin. Remove links that are broken or use it as a method of verification.
  
  Although I think all Spam is bad. I would focus my energy to getting all Spammers to get the "Good Spam" type first. That is why I forward all my Spam to uce@ftc.gov. That way the Federal Trade Commission checks the legality of their Spam. Usually when it is "Bad Spam" the FTC will go after them. After forwarding all my Spam to use@ftc.gov after many years there has a been a decrease in Spam. When I first got my current email address I had 3 or 4 Spams a day. Now I get 1 or 2 a month. Plus I know at least one of the Major Spammers has gotten hit with the FTC. Which was the Married but Single site. Which was Bad Spam because they Hid their identity their remove was a bad false link. And bounced over a variety of open relays. After I heard that the FTC went after them their Spam magically stopped.
  
  If it is "Good Spam" I can normally handle that much easier without much effort. I just hit my Bounce to Sender feature on my email client and then I send them back a standard bounce-back message saying that my address doesn't exist thus making them take me off the list to save their bandwidth. Or if they are really annoying me I find the contact of the site can call them up by telephone telling them to stop. And most of the time they will be polite about it because they are sending "Good Spam" they have some morals and will follow my request.
  
  So "Good Spam" is Spam that you can easily get off of, and often done by people and companies that don't realize the spam problem, or from Pointy Hair Bosses who don't think it is a problem because their Sysadmins did a good job to blocking them so when one or two gets in they think it is novel Idea.
  "Bad Spam" has SCAM written all over it. Where it is just bad news all around.
  
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Finally, confirmed. by Faust7 · 2003-09-27 04:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

When an "out of the office" auto-reply comes back on one e-mail message, Colbert says: "Oh, we love those. They confirm that the address is active."

This should put to rest any remaining doubts about whether or not "unsubscribing" from spam lists actually works.

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1. Re:Finally, confirmed. by MassacrE · 2003-09-27 05:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I get excited about an awesome car with a sexy girl in it, who has an active e-mail address ;-)
Obligitory link... by dnaboy · 2003-09-27 05:00 · Score: 5, Informative

The obligitory link to the New york times random login generator for those who don't feel the desire to identify yourself (or bother to create a clever alter ego).
These days you actually have to downlad the java script to your computer, because of those clever NYT people, but it's still possible for those who have personal issues with registrations....
'good' vs 'bad' spam by Kjella · 2003-09-27 05:01 · Score: 5, Funny

The spammers' definition:
Good: The spam I send and make me money
Bad: All that junk that fills up my inbox

Kjella

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"a second hard drive"? by way2trivial · 2003-09-27 05:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yes, the sent a reporter who refers to the computer itself as "the hard drive", Nice solid reporting.

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Re:Spamming must be lucrative by Lord_Slepnir · 2003-09-27 05:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Unfortunatly, the Mobile home has become a necessity for the spammer. The need to relocate on a moments notice and be able to out pace the lynch mob once they have your address should not be underestimated.
I've gotta hand it to this guy... by rwven · 2003-09-27 05:11 · Score: 5, Interesting

LOL, i got a few good laughs out of his story. one of my favorite parts:

'"I was thrown off more BellSouth accounts than half the state of Florida,'' Colbert says. His name was known, and he was a marked and wanted man. But he found a way around the heat. ''Do you remember when American Express came out with temporary credit cards?'' he recalls happily. ''You could go to the 7-11 convenience store and buy a $25 credit card -- sort of like you buy a $25 phone card, only it was good for just $25 worth of credit."

Armed with a dozen of these cards, Colbert would go to the BellSouth Web site and create numerous e-mail accounts from which to send spam, each account with a fictitious name and address. Since the credit card couldn't be connected to him in any way, he could spam away until BellSouth finally got around to canceling that particular account. ''They were great, totally untraceable,'' he says of the credit cards. ''They don't sell them anymore. I think it's because of me.'' '

pretty smart feller ;)
spam would stop tomorrow if... by professorhojo · 2003-09-27 05:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

...people stopped buying their crap.

i mean -- who the HELL buys penis enlargements, weight loss drugs and college diplomas from these sites? obviously -- too many of us.

prof.
Distributive justice by wytcld · 2003-09-27 05:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

But the distributive-justice approach is all but dead in Congress, at least in part because of the Republicans' deep antipathy for trial lawyers.

If we empowered individuals to sue spammers, then trial lawyers would make money, so it is bad. Ours is a system of laws, but setting up laws so that individuals can hire lawyers to protect their health, property or privacy is bad, because any lawyer who would profit by helping individuals in those causes is bad. Laws should only provide opportunities for corporations and corporate lawyers, never for individuals and the guns-for-hire they bring to the arena.

Republicans ... beloved of Libertarians ... why?

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Re:All I want to know is. . . by Blkdeath · 2003-09-27 08:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Hope he really really likes pepperoni.

Nice sentiment and all, but as someone who's worked both for pizza places and as a delivery driver I ask you; please don't. It costs the restaurant money in wasted food and preparation time, costs the delivery driver time and gas to make a round-trip for nothing, and is generally a Very Bad Idea.
If you want to annoy the man, please find a means of doing so that won't affect the pocketbooks of innocents.

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