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Time-travel Spammer Strikes Back

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the attacks-from-the-future dept.

HopToit writes "Robby Todino is apparently upset about being outed a couple months ago as the source of all those wacked messages about 'Dimenstional Warp Generator Needed.' According to Wired, someone has pulled a major joe-job spam attack (forged 'From:' lines) on three popular sites in retaliation for making fun of Todino's goofy search for alien technology. Robby, if you're out there, you have ceased to be amusing."

8 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... by Jin+Wicked · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone needs to get that guy on Coast to Coast AM, with Art Bell/George Noory stat.

    Knowing that show, there's someone else in the audience that actually does have all that equipment he's searching for. =)

    --
    My Webcomic: Asylum on 5th Street
  2. Time travel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The very fact that we received spam proves that time travel is impossible: If it was possible, someone would invent it, travel back in time and beat up all the spammers so that they would never have sent any in the first place.

  3. Time Cops by t0ny · · Score: 5, Funny

    we need to send Van Damme after this guy.

    --

    Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.

  4. Re:E-mail tax by MarkJensen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure. The honest ISPs will have to bear the burden of administering this tax (for which, they will have administration costs - passed on to users). But what about these Hong Kong spamming sources? Or anything outside the jurisdiction of the 'email tax law'? An email tax is both unworkable and ineffective

    What is needed, and has been pointed out in many other places, is a reform of the SMTP method. SMTP was designed many, MANY years ago when the only people on networks were technicians, academics, etc. These people created a system for THEM to use. They didn't really anticipate spam, because for spam to become effective, email needs to be wide-spread to the point near ubiquity. When email services are as common, you are going to get a lot of simple-minded gullible people out there. And these are the people who click on those ads, and bring in the spam revenue.

    So, I guess we either need to reform and properly lock-down email sending to show only accurate information, or require a simple I.Q. test before logging into email! ;) Of course, the latter opetion would surely bring about the swift demise of AOL...

  5. The guy is mentally ill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the article, the reporter states that Todino's father says his son has mental problems. OK, fair enough. Then his father needs to step up to the plate and get the guy some help.

    Barring that, the people being joe'd really need to follow up on this. Either this guy is an unrepentant spammer, in which case he needs to be made to pay the price, or he's mentally unstable, in which case he needs professional help. The latter possibility is really more serious, since Todino could conceivably go off the deep end and do something more serious. Possibly, the best approach would be for them to contact Todino's father and tell him that if he doesn't get his son some help immediately, they're going to pursue the case with law enforcement. Assuming the father's statements are true and that he gives a damn, this should at least get the ball rolling.

    1. Re:The guy is mentally ill by bluesangria · · Score: 5, Informative
      A decent post, why anonymous? Oh well.
      Regarding this statement:

      Possibly, the best approach would be for them to contact Todino's father and tell him that if he doesn't get his son some help immediately, they're going to pursue the case with law enforcement. Assuming the father's statements are true and that he gives a damn, this should at least get the ball rolling. It is *very* difficult to enforce medical treatment on someone who has NOT been legally declared mentally incompetent and assigned a guardian. This is why you have a situation where many clinically diagnosed schizophrenics, manic depressives, etc. can STOP taking their medication and going to treatments and they are perfecty within their rights to do so.
      Note, I'm talking about mentally ill people referred to as "high functioning", meaning they are mostly normal acting or their quirks are not considered "dangerous" to society, i.e. wearing tin-foil because the "aliens are out there" is ok, but killing "all girls who look like Brittany Spears" is not.

      In general, a high-functioning, but clinically mentally ill person is going to be very emotionally tiring to live with, but there's really nothing Todino's father can do. His son is an adult and therefore dad is no longer the responsible guardian. Filing a motion to declare his son mentally incompetent and assigning dad as the guardian has its own drawbacks, not to mention earning the unending emnity of the very person you are trying to help. It's just too much of a lose, lose situation.

  6. Re:Let's review.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Would you like mail from president@whitehouse.gov, or maybe brittany@spears.com?
    No, but I'd be happy if you'd forge mail from one to the other. It might keep them both occupied long enough for the country to emerge from the half-flushed toilet bowl we're sitting in right now...
  7. Re:Where to really look... by GMontag · · Score: 5, Funny

    a hundred million years or so and will continue only for a few hundred million more - quite a small window in the history

    Statements like this are why I never lend money to anybody in Astronomy or Geology.

    --
    Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL