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Hurricanes Affecting Spammers?
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.
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From the blurb:
I've not noticed any decrease.
From the article:
But daily results posted by MessageLabs, Earthlink (ELNK), and Symantec (SYMC) showed little correlation.
And neither has anyone else. It was only a single institution that claimed their weekly spam traffic was down 100 million messages. The article mentions that two top 10 spammers remained in the top 10 even during the storms. They even (hopefully) jokingly claim it was a heroic effort.
"Lots of folks think the hurricane hits in Florida, the Sunshine (and Spam!) State have taken slowed the volume of spam."
Lots of folks think there are black helicopters poisoning the citizens of our country too, but that doesn't make it the slightest bit true.
According to my Spam Stats (Coral Link) the level of spam going through my server is relatively steady.
If they think hurricanes in Florida did a decent job of taking out some spammers, they should wait 'til the next 6.0M+ earthquake hits Silicon Valley...
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
No, silly, spam is situated in California... The porn sites people sign up for are situated in Florida... Porn spam is down, overall spam is not.
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
and for the first time in months, no spam! Havent cleared it in days. Theres usually 100+ pieces in there, and now none! Not that this is evidence or anything, but interesting nonetheless...
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
Working in the internet marketing industry (not spam) I can tell you that Boca Raton in particular has a reputation for being host to some extra-shady operations.
So by that analogy, we are saying that most spammers live in Florida? eh... Jeanne's on the way, we'll keep kicking florida's ass with tropical weather, and eventually Mickey and all of the spammers will be washed out to sea.
At least I'm still get personal emails from high ranking democrats, why just today John Kerry himself sent me one.
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,
It's nature's way of making sure that the Nov. 2 elections won't be screwed up by that state. If everybody is evacuated, there won't be anybody left to vote.
If it's true, then let's not waste another moment -- blast a trench and cut the whole state off from the country while we have the chance! It'll solve a bunch of other problems in November too....
I've actually noticed an increase. They're getting spam through SpamAssassin, now.
Your ad here.
...the hurricane has increased the number of articles and reports about hurricanes. There is a direct relationship. I haven't run any analyses on it yet, but my hunch is that we can find a statistically significant result.
But seriously, why write this puff piece? Take a look at this quote form the article: "The bottom line: Nature's wrath on spammers makes for an eye-grabbing fable. But more likely, neither rain, nor snow, nor slashing winds will keep unsolicited e-mail from its appointed rounds." Sheesh!
How to Download YouTube Videos
Solution to anything(Political/Economical/etc..) is to wipe out Florida.
I admin several email servers for an ISP - there has been no decrease in spam.
The old sayings still hold true in the digital age.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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.
Apparently, Nigeria wasn't hit by any tornadoes since I'm still receiving several Nigerian letter scams emails daily. Sometimes I wish I'd get some sort of other spam, but no -- it's always Nigerian letter scams.
"You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but It always comes roaring back again." - Tom Waits
There's much joking about God getting back at Florida for the elections four years ago. But you know what? Now I'm thinking it's more spammers.
This sig no verb.
During Hurricane Frances, I was playing City of Heroes with a Super Group. One of our members lives down in Miami, and he was able to play through just about all of it.
He was worried that he'd get disconnected at some point, but we played for like 6 hrs straight on a Task Force that day, and I saw him online a couple of times throughout the hurricane days.
I guess he was lucky. I was surprised he was able to be online all of that time down there. We knew he was based in Miami since before the hurricanes, so it wasn't like he was trying to get attention.
Personally, I'm glad to be living on the upper-East coast. Our weather is mild, we have no earthquakes, mudslides, or raging fires to worry about (though my state is in the top 5 for largest forest coverage).
It would take A LOT for me to want to move down to Florida (though Spring Breaks are tempting).
I live in Indiana, but the company I develop for (and where they keep are mail server) is in Pensacola. There is apparently no power (or no server? who knows?) down there today, so I have received ZERO spams.
Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
A spokesperson for Hormel Foods reports that there has been no decrease in spam either ... however, there has been an increased interest in Spam Gifts and also in the Spam Museum.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
God promised you that he would never flood your ass out to sea and drown you. He never promised that he wouldn't send a category 4 hurricane after those who steal others' bandwidth. Be warned cyber sinners the end is fucking nigh!!!
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Hurricanes are living proof that God hates spammers and wants us to be happy.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
Funny, my wife's theory is that God is telling Florida that they need to learn how to count. Doesn't matter for who, just learn.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
The solution to spammers is simple, kill them. After enough of them go, the rest will soon be stirring in fear. Make spamming a capital offense. Then give all their earthly possessions to the good sysadmins of the world.
That my penis was finally big enough... They do stop sending you penis enlargement emails once it is big enough right??
If insurance companies have noticed that the cost of their spam filtering in their IT department is affected by Florida, then they should divert the costs of the filtering to premium rises in Florida alone, rather than dumping it across the board. Maybe then something would be done about it, when Florida insurance holders would notice raised premiums when they deal with their insurance to cover hurricane damage. And maybe it would actually affect their voting.
I would see this as no different from any of the other excuses that insurance companies use to raise premiums, like what kind of car you drive or the crime rate of where you live. Any company that has expenditures to cover spam filtering in their IT departments should charge florida a little extra.
He should launch Operation Unsubscribe
I'm thinking this means there will henceforth be a lucrative niche market in providing redundant mail servers to spam marketers.
M
Most of these spammers are con artist going back to the mid 80s boiler room stock market scams. If someone just did a background check for outstanding warrants, I would bet there is a good chance of finding them. That could give cause to go in an arrest them since we know where they are.
I sometimes ponder if anyone has thought about taking the Spamhaus top ten list and making it into a hit list.
It would stand to reason that the 80/20 rule could apply. Kill the top 20% of the spammers and we could eliminate 80% of the spam.
Oh, excuse we, did I just say that out loud?
.
"Your having a bad day when the voices in your head put you on hold"
I've sure noticed a decrease in the spam I've been getting over the past few days: About a fivefold decrease, down from about 20 per day to about four. I wondered why, but it didn't occur to me that it might be the hurricane(s). Since I only get 20 spams per day anyway, it might just be one particular spammer who was knocked out.
although it's a joke, it's kind of an interesting point.
Late last week there were still some people who hadn't had their power restored from the previous hurricane. With all the damage that has been caused (with more possibly on the way - here comes Hurricane Jeanne) there will still be many buildings that need to be repaired well into November. Who knows what the state of repair will be for the election infrastructure at that point?
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
Actually, I haven't seen much spam in my gmail account and I posted to usenet multiple times during the summer.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
I meant to through this link in there as well:
Jeanne Wind Speed Forecast - by the time it gets near florida it will most likely have 100mph+ winds.
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
Date: Thu, 16 SEP 2004 15:44:20 -0800 (PST)
From: ezeani madu
To: ezeanimadu@yahoo.com
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The one quote from the Business Week regarding the wrath of God smiting Florida came from a post on NANAE, where the poster was blasted with one negative comment after another.
To take the position that God should somehow clear Florida by sending hurricanes is absurd. Literally millions of people with no connections to spam were affected.
Four people died in Blountstown, an 8 year old girl in Milton, and several others in Panama City Beach, and so far, no connection between the deceased and spamming.
If Mr. Helm wanted to write a piece regarding spam and Florida, he should of posted all the comments flaming the moron that had written the original post.
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
Nothin' like "takin' the wind out of their sails" or sales...
I hear there are people on the east coast saying the same thing, that the damage to Fla is to rectify the theft of votes.
But, if Ivan the Terrible hit/s Louisiana and turned it to LOOuisiana, would that mean this is to wipe out voodoo or something?
Might be interesting if Louisiana and Florida were adjacents states. Imagine combining Voodoo and Spam...
VooDam
When that shit hits your inbox...
'VOODAMN!"
David Syes
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Here in Florida the people are a bit paralyzed in fear right now... Every two or three weeks, there is a new storm headed our way. One of the biggest changes to weather reporting recently is "doppler indicated tornado cell activity", as the meteorologists call it. Basically they find pockets of cyclonic air on their doppler radar, and they issue a full blown tornado warning for it, whether it really is a tornado or not. It gets a little grating on the nerves to have 5-10 tornado warnings per day when a hurricane is nearby. But, when it's not raining, hot, humid or generally miserable, Florida can be nice. :^)
As for the spammers, I thought they were all in China (we outsourced spam too, right?).
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
I must agree. I barely saw any SPAM last week. However, I think that may have to do with my losing power for 128 straight hours.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
The 1989 Loma Prieta quake had a magnitude of 6.9 and affected the entire San Francisco area. The InterNet and computers did not go down, except in the few places that lost power.
"Solution to anything(Political/Economical/etc..) is to wipe out Florida."
"Economical" ???
My thought was, "That's right up there with "analyzation," "resignate," and "foreign-handed policy."
But maybe you were being subliminable and I just didn't get the ironical parts.
Finally a solution to SPAM:
More hurricanes!
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
The amount of garbage I've seen in email, snail mail, and cable TV has started to turn a mental red flag on: Beware of anything that comes from a Florida address.
It's not just spam. I've seen bogus sweepstakes from Clearwater, but most importantly, a vast majority of those "minimum investment required" "business opportunities" (the usual fodder of late-night cable TV ads) all come from south Florida...note all the addresses of the defendants in this comprehensive list.
The state, to me, seems to produce a disproportionate amount of schemes, spam, and crap. If I were a legitimate businessperson in southern Florida, I'd be really pissed because of all the negative associations.
Which of course begs the question--what is it about Florida that attracts such low life businesses? Mob connections, ineffective leadership, bad judicial processes?
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
God got so ticked at getting so much spam that he decided to smite Austin, MN with a great flood. Then Noah tapped him on the should and said that SPAM != spam.
Seriously though - the had like a foot of rain up there on Tuesday night. Nothing like a hurricane, but it still causes problems.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I know it's not some new thing, but they're getting hit pretty hard this year. And you're statement about Ivan missing Florida is incorrect. Ivan hit the panhandle of Florida pretty hard. 300,000 are without power there.
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
"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."
... explain it!
Was the lower volume in spam reported by people living in Florida? That would
I trust these stats better.
h
http://www.spamcop.net/spamgraph.shtml?spammont
What's going on here? Is this some kind of nexus for comments from alternate universes? I have no idea what the hell half the people here are talking about. It certainly ain't hurricanes!
But then there would be no more Spring Break Girls Gone Wild videos...Floridas only redeeming product!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
as a california resident, let me just say you are crazy with all those blizzards!
theres ICE on the ROAD in the middle of the day! it's unnatural!
FROZEN WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY! THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE!
I've been pretty impressed with gmail thus far. Honestly, I haven't done much to research their spam filtering, but it seems effective. I specifically used one of my invitations to create a spam box which I went about submitting to various web sites & posting to usenet about a month / half ago - mainly out of curiosity to see how long it would take to fill with spam. I've yet to get the first bit of spam. In fact, I've had absolutely no spam in any of my gmail accounts.
Check my journal for gmail invites!
Date, RBL rejects:
Sep 6 19190
Sep 7 19202
Sep 8 20092
Sep 9 23417
Sep 10 23229
Sep 11 17529
Sep 12 19330
Sep 13 27464
Sep 14 24520
Sep 15 20670
Hey spam decreased on Sept 11 - that's surely evidence that the spammers were taking a moment of pause to honor our nation's "sacrifice".
Maybe the reduction in spam is causing hurricanes...
We must all realize something though. In actuality there is no Florida, just Southern Georgia, Northern Cuba and the New York Colony. Unfortunately, I'm on the border between Southern Georgia and the New York Colony
Less and less spam is getting through my filters. I'm not getting the really clever messages that slip through as much.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
What slow down on spam? In fact in the ever since Saturday I had the nearly the double the amount of spam at our email server. Amount from each catagory (porn, drugs, software, etc.) seems to be in same percentage.
Quoting a certain Cameron flick, a spammer ...
"It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with... it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
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.
... then again, I don't get spam, so it's impossible to decrease the amount of what I DO get.
Old people are set in their ways. They don't want to evacuate therefore the elections will still be screwed up.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Back then, if you used the Internet, it was all a text-based interface. You'd log in to other machines by telnet. File transfers were by FTP. IRC was established in 1988 but not well known until the 1990's. (I ported IRC to HP/UX, sent the patches to the author, and didn't touch it again for over a decade because it looked addictive.) HTTP (the protocol of the web) wasn't invented until 1990.
I was a Computer Science student at California State University, Chico at the time. I think it was a great time to be studying Computer Science and networking.
By 1989, the Internet was already an international network spanning the US and all its Cold War allies (western Europe, Japan, Australia, etc.), with hundreds of thousands of users. The vast majority of users at the time were at large corporations, educational institutions and government/military sites. Direct access from residences was not yet common, though there were already some at the time. A lot of e-mail at the time was still transported in batch mode via UUCP over 1200-2400 baud phone modems, using the Internet only as a backbone along a multi-hop e-mail forwarding path.
The Internet has always had some decentralization by design - it was designed by the US military to be decentralized so that there was no center of the network for an enemy to attack. Even after it went into civilian use, that was enough for it to "stay up" through the 1989 quake even though some sites went down.
In 1989, San Francisco wasn't the center of the Internet or the quake - San Jose/Silicon Valley was. The World Series at Candlestick Park, the Bay Bridge collapse and the I-880 Cypress Freeway collapse that most of you saw on TV were all 80-100 miles from the epicenter, which was in the mountains spanning a 35-mile segment of the San Andreas fault between San Jose, Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
However, many phone switches in the region crashed when SF's phone switches went off-line. Most of the phone outages were just due to too many people picking up their phones to make phone calls at the same time after the quake, which happens after every quake.
Even so, many direct-connected Internet sites took as long as a few days to get back online. So as far as disasters go, it was comparable to Florida's hurricanes.
Anyway, so that's a bit of the history. It was a well-documented quake so there's a lot of history to look up if you want to. Some of our younger readers were too young to be aware of it at the time, or not even born yet. The 15th anniversary of the quake will be next month on October 17. Those of us who were in or near the area still remember where we were at 5:04PM, or shortly thereafter when we first heard about it. I was just far enough away in Chico that I didn't feel it. (My parents lived in San Jose at the time and I had been here for both of the 5.1/5.8 pre-shocks, so I was very interested.) But others in Chico either felt it (in tall buildings), saw chandeliers sway or saw swimming pools start sloshing. Many in the US learned about it quickly because of the World Series (baseball) - it was San Francisco vs Oakland and the game was just about to begin. Live news coverage had just begun and all the satellite uplinks were already reserved and live when the quake hit so the media couldn't have been more prepared to cover a major quake. So you'll find a lot of info about it out there.
"Hurricane (insert name) pounds Florida"
"New Microsoft patch to fix security flaw"
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
Keyboard Error. Press F1 to resume.
Read all about it at billjonessucks.com
last I heard teh river had creasted and that the spam museum was safe.
I am sorry but not trying to post anything that maybe regarded as flame bait but I could care the F*** less if i got less spam due to the hurricane. I am sorry I would rather deal with 50 more of those tid bits of joy a day being filtered out and deleted by my filters rather than see the destruction that has been caused the past couple months.
To rejoice or even bring this up as something great due to the fact you got one less viagra email calling your wang small is sick and repulsive...
I really do hope that everything is ok up in Austin. I was in Ankeny during the "floods of 93" and know how much that kind of thing sucks.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I'm a network admin for a small ISP in NW Ohio, and as a general rule, we outright block between 45k, and 52k letters a day, just from real time blacklists. The past week has shown us blocking over 60k a day, which almost never happens, but its been consistently high for a week now. So, I have to disagree, spam levels have not dropped off because of Ivan, or any of his less bolshevik friends.
--Nuintari
slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.
i am also in a state of euphoria.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
damn't your right! :P
(yes, that was intentional)
I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
> "Economical" ???
I hope you aren't suggesting that Economical isn't a real word.