Slashdot Mirror
Tech Reporter Pursues Spammer
girish writes "Technology reporter extrordinaire, Mike Wendland, is at it again tracking down spammers. Wendland conducted the infamous interview with Alan Ralsky, the alleged mega-spammer, a few years ago. That article spawned a lively discussion on Slashdot and eventually resulted in hundreds of pieces of junk postal mail flooding Ralsky's million-dollar home. Now Wendland is using a new tool from a service called Project Honey Pot to track email address harvesters. He posted on his technology blog this morning about catching a company that is holding itself out as a legitimate bulk mailer, but appears in fact to be sending to harvested addresses and conducting on the side some other seemingly seedy businesses. Interesting stuff."
Honeypots are lurking all over the net... spammers don't have a chance. They are so indiscriminate and stupid with their harvesting that they are just announcing their presence through a digital loudspeaker, "I AM A SPAMMER".
There might even be some on slashdot! Who knows?!
But, with a honeypot address(es), you know it's been harvested, and who the mail was sent for. If you can keep track of all of the people that used the spammer, you may eventually find the spammer through his own ineptitude.
...is forfeiture laws.
any property used in the commission of a crime (in this case, relay rape, botnets, spamming, etc) is seized and auctioned off to the public.
it's even better than destroying their property -- its taking their property away from them altogether. their home, their car, their computer, everything.
They have a gateway page to keep prying eyes out. I've seen it quite a few times in recent spam. For example, the spammer can include links like:
spamsite.com/?code=A2LKJ34AOD012LNVLA9OO38
The codes can be generated in such a way that they are unique to each message sent (for example, they could be a hash of the TO address). Without a valid code, you get a page like that one you saw. Lets the spammers track who's visiting their sites, and block the prying eyes of anti-spam activists.
I bet there's a good chance that's what's happening here.
The interesting thing is Slashdot seems to be the #1 place (that I have seen) that readers regularly bash SPAM, but that also participate in one of the the MOST MASSIVE email campaigns I have ever seen - the FREE iPOD DEALS.
Look in just about any thread here on slashdot - you'll see a dozen signatures with people linking to THEIR free iPod link so they can get their required 5 people to join.
What happen is your email is INSTANTLY sold to OptInRealBig when you sign up for this page. OptInRealBIg in turn - is also a harvester - but they can legitimately prove they buy email addresses. So, if quetioned by novice understanding authorities - they can prove they are legit.
Point is - the very people that complain about it [slashdotters] - as far as I can see - are the main contributors to it.
People also fall for these emails from websites like wotch.com that have little funny flash cartoons. People forward these sites to dozens of their friends - which in turn - each of those emails are harvested.
It kinda is like the election scenario - the people that complained the most either didn't vote or couldn't vote!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Beating up journalists is hazardous to your health. Some crooks have tried. What happens then is that hundreds of other journalists start investigating the story. TV trucks start showing up in front of the bad guy's house. Stories like "Why isn't this guy in jail yet" appear. Soon, there's heavy police attention focused on the crook.
Few crooks survive heavy press coverage. It's hard to stay in the shadows when there's a TV light in your face.