Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Wins $3.95 Million from Spammer
LehiNephi writes "A Washington, D.C. judge fined Daniel Khoshnood, a major spammer, for pretending to be Microsoft in order to attract customers. Specifically, he registered windowsupdate.com (not to be confused with windowsupdate.microsoft.com), then sent out mass email encouraging users to download a toolbar from that website. Although the suit was not specifically about spamming, the mass emails (and subsequent complaints) were what caught Microsoft's attention. So far, Microsoft's campaign against spam has netted them $54 million from six judgments, one dismissal, four settlements, and two bankruptcies. The article doesn't mention whether the toolbar actually lived up to its claims of automatically applying security patches."
yep, thats what I was saying, but now it belongs to them.. so I guess alls well that ends well :)
_____
Josh Powell - www.ki4bbo.org
Talk about conflicted. I'm not sure who to root for. Did the spammer use Linux?
So, what do you do when evil is fighting evil?
"Microsoft has recently won a large lump sum of money from a spammer, and is redistributing the money to customers who may have been affected by his spam. In order to claim your money, forward this email to ten of your closest friends within the next 15 minutes"
"I think everyone is an agnostic but just doesn't know" - Frazz
1. Write a popular mail client which automatically executes arbitrary code.
2. Sue the people who hijack PCs via the above mentioned mail client.
3. Profit!
The enemy of my enemy is my friend...
I feel confused.
bash$
As one of those who reported this to Microsoft, perhaps I should get some of the settlement? Don't suppose that's likely though...
rewarding Microsoft = bad!
why am I so split over this?
[set headbangmode = 1]
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I'm not at all surprised by that, considering that Microsoft can't even remember to register their own domain names ;-)
Wow with all the "How should we feel?" questions, I'm suprised its microsoft with the Borg icon.
In other news, SCO wins $699 from Satan, Lord of Lies.
Yep.
"In normal times, evil should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil." ..Come on, I had to.
Registering a domain name is negative money. Letting someone else register it and then suing them is positive money. You might even be able to get the domain thrown in with the settlement.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
... is that of thousands of Slashdotter heads simultaneously exploding.
They did register windowsupdate, but did it on RealNames(tm).
Remain calm! All is well!
I guess that it's not dead after all...
No, he uses BSD, so his business is dying.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
"The article doesn't mention whether the toolbar actually lived up to its claims of automatically applying security patches."
If it really did, Microsoft would have a fit! Either that, or it'd automatically download and install the Linux distro of the writer's choice.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
WARNING - do NOT click on the link above if you are running Microsoft Internet Explorer with Active-X controls enabled.
Did they click on the blinking monkey?
My new
It was actually windowsupdateNOW.com.
Of course, it is interesting to see a bunch of slashdotters actually taking a pro-microsoft stance on something. Must be getting pretty chilly for the devil about now...
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Dust Devil Reviews