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Hurricanes Affecting Spammers?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the show-me-the-proof dept.

Ant writes "According to BusinessWeek Online's article, Lots of folks think the hurricane hits in Florida, the Sunshine (and Spam!) State have taken slowed the volume of spam." I've not noticed any decrease.

7 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. So what... by grub · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Just as Microsoft learned when they had a DDoS against their DNSs and subsequently went to Akamai, the spammers will learn from this. After all, email is their livelyhood.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Correlation does not equal causation by Myrrh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because you happened to receive less spam this month than you did last month, and at the same time, hurricanes happen to be slamming Florida, does not necessarily mean hurricanes are slowing spammers down. Nor does it mean that all--or even most--spammers are located in Florida.

    Sometimes luck is just luck. There is such a thing as coincidence, in spite of what the religious nuts may try to tell you.

    1. Re:Correlation does not equal causation by Myrrh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      (cracking knuckles and leaning back)

      Well, let's have a careful analysis of what I wrote, shall we?

      I believe the phrase in question is "religious nuts."

      What I meant to say, specifically, was that there are certain people who are rather religious and would have people believe that there is no such thing as coincidence -- everything that happens, happens according to a plan. See, for example, the "intelligent design" school of thought.

      I personally disagree with it, and I think a lot of those people are nuts.

      Now, I did not mean to say I think they are all nuts. Neither did I mean to say that all people who subscribe to some sort of religious philosophy are nuts.

      But, of course, your opinion (that anyone who does not have faith is an "asshole" and a "bigot") is perfectly valid. I happen to disagree with it, but it's cool with me if you want to say it.

      However, I know at least half a dozen people who subscribe to no religious philosophy whatsoever, and who are neither an asshole nor a bigot. Who have you been hanging out with?

  3. Re:Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! by morcego · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, of course I have not RTFA.

    On the other hand, I have noticed a slight decrease on the number of spams both me and my clients receive during the last 5 days. Something like 3-10% decrease.

    On the other hand, this have happened before, even with no hurricanes looming over Florida.

    This kind of assumption if very dangerous. Just because for some reason we have some decline on the number of spams, it doesn't mean any single facts from the news is responsible by it. Anything, including a heavy spammer motherboard burning can be responsible by it. This kind of thing is very hard, if not impossible, to prove.

    And we can predict (*crystal ball growing*) that the number of spams will increase again soon.

    --
    morcego
  4. Re:Hard evidence? by JustNiz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well if you can identify it as spam, why are you allowing it through your server?

  5. Why would it change? by AssFace · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wrote about this over on my spam blog today.

    While this is a reasonable idea on the surface, the reality is that spammers aren't necessarily spamming from their own computers. So if they aren't spamming from them, it doesn't matter if their power is out due to a hurricane.

    Florida houses the people that are responsible for the most spam, but that is a legal thing (especially Boca Raton which has the most favorable bankruptcy laws for spammers - they get to keep physical assets such as their Porsches) - it doesn't necessarily mean that they send the spam themselves.

    The spam is cheaper to send from elsewhere (cheaper largely in the legal sense of avoiding "local" prosecution) such as servers overseas (Brazil, Korea, and Russia - used to be China until they recently cracked down on it), or from zombied machines.

    I have noticed no drop in spam, and I can't logically think why there would be one (although on the news they said there were millions without power - so perhaps that means there are zombied PCs taken offline that aren't spamming).

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  6. Re:From an insider's perspective... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    > "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the
    > Bible"--George Washington, 9/17/1796

    An American religious zealot who kept slaves? We can all learn from such a man, I feel.