Pfizer and Microsoft go after Viagra Spammers

Weird_Hock writes "This story from Reuters tells about the joint effort from Pfizer and Microsoft to go after illegal sellers of Viagra. Pfizer is going after the sellers and Microsoft after the spammers. Looks like they're targeting both sides of the money chain."

Comments

No Case

[fembots]

Spammers are selling V|agra you silly!

Microsoft should double-dip and file a parallel lawsuits against spammers who sell Full Version WinXP PRO for $35.

Re:No Case

[Jpunkroman]

Exactly, but i don't know what it would be good for since I don't have a pen1s. (I realize that this post could be taken entirely the wrong way)

Stop taking the fun out of life!

[themaddone]

First they go after my music... then they go after my drugs...

But they'll never get my... my... ohmigod, what do I have left??

Re:Stop taking the fun out of life!

[flint]

Your rifle. Cause without Viagra your gun is useless.

"This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for killing, this is for fun."

Re:Stop taking the fun out of life!

[lrwx]

You still have sex! I guess if you are going with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll theme.

Re:Stop taking the fun out of life!

[panaceaa]

by lrwx (800141) * on Thursday February 10, @05:01PM (#11635451)
You still have sex! I guess if you are going with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll theme.

Howdy partner! Let me be the first to welcome you to Slashdot! Have a nice day!

There's a joke here

[the_Bionic_lemming]

{{{groan}}} How long until the first viagra/virus joke gets included? I mean really, Microsoft and Pfizer? It's like shooting fish in a con - I mean barrel...

Re:There's a joke here

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets not go about this half cocked. Microsoft and Pfizer will need to get a firm grip on the situation, and stroking big egos won't make the solution come any sooner.

Analysts..

[Anonymous Coward]

..are predicting a long, hard battle.

Re:Analysts..

[Anonymous Coward]

...with stiff penalties.

Re:Analysts..

[Rei]

This is a daily show episode in the making ;)

Re:Analysts..

[WormholeFiend]

I hope that when Pfizer and Microsoft win, we can see footage of their CEOs dancing in the streets to the tune of Queen's "We Are The Champions".

Re:Analysts..

[AetherBurner]

From staid, upright lawyers...

Oh no!

[enoraM]

Now I have to settle for my increase in girth, length and volume, since they will also go for v1agra and v!agra

Anyhow - if the big dogs are moving now - after the can-spam-act, it's interesting what kind of stable equilibruum the next generation spam will be. It won't go away - It'll just reach the next stage.

On the bottom of the first page are the stock qoutes von Pfizer and Microsoft. There is a horizontal movement of Pfizer and a slight downward movement of Microsoft. What does that suggest about the markets expectation of future distribution of vi4gra?

As always

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Microsoft want to be the biggest dicks around...

Re:oh no!

[grub]

but then where will i get my illicit viagra that i so desparately need

Make sure you also buy Absorbine Jr. for when your arm gets sore.

How about castration???

[vudufixit]

To reduce aggregate demand for the stuff?

Just maybe...

[gammygator]

Maybe they'll come up with a product that keeps my servers up.

let the jokes begin!

[Maskirovka]

Time for the scumbags to bend over and feel the wrath!

Someone is gonna be in a world of hurt.

MS and pfizer are going to spread some love around.

There will be swelling in some lawyers'...pockets.

No carrots for the spammers. Just some bloated, throbbing, heavy-handed...sticks.

hmm

[GotSanity]

is it just me or does it seem like microsoft and pfizer are going to be mutualy beneficial out of this one. pfizer's profits get to go back up and microsoft gets a ton of viagra. That should make the programmers happy. :)

Re:hmm

[PedanticSpellingTrol]

Being both micro and soft, they could really use it too.

First draft of the press release:

[FunWithHeadlines]

Pfizer and Microsoft announced today that they had stiffened their resolve to go after sellers of counterfeit Viagra(r). They realized such spams were peaking, and they knew they had to harden the course for such counterfeiters.

"These guys think they can keep profits rising endlessly," complained a Pfizer spokesperson. "They are really beginning to poke us in the eye with their nonsense. We are a big company, and Viagra has helped up grow considerably. We won't let these crooks cut our profits off prematurely."

(Memo to editorial staff: Does the above sound right? Something seems a bit odd.)

Re:First draft of the press release:

[ralphclark]

Yes, but the "micro-soft" part of the name might put people off.

If there's one thing big criminals don't like...

[Red Rocket]

...it's small-time criminals moochin' in on their racket.

I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[wowbagger]

I forward all spams I get that offer Microsoft software on to MS.

I figure that I'll let MS spend their money on going after the spammers - after all, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, and is useful to me.

I get a nice auto-ack from MS with a tracking number for each report. What does that mean? That I get a nice auto-ack from MS with a tracking number - I have no way of knowing for sure that they do anything with the reports.

But hey, it if nukes a spammer and/or costs MS money, then it's worth it.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[pe1chl]

I forward them the lottery scams that refer to domains registered on their "MSN Personal domains" service.
They do not seem to care.

Interestingly enough, the names shifted from (variations on) cashchangeukltd.org, which is just the name of a fraudulent organization, to (variations on) ms-wordpromo.com, which could be seen as a trademark violation by their triggerhappy lawyers. You know, those that went after names like mikerowesoft.com because it was too much like a trademark they registered.

But despite several reports, nothing seems to happen. They just go on facilitating fraud, and even do so under their own trademarked names.

I start to believe that there is nothing more than a tracking number generator behind those reporting addresses, and the big Microsoft company is not interested in abuse of its trademarks.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[dreamchaser]

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[AndroidCat]

That's not what pe1chl said. He said that they are the enemy of his enemy (spammers). That doesn't make MS his friend however.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[dreamchaser]

I stand corrected :) This 'enemy of my enemy's enemy' crap got me confused! I'm just used to knee jerk MS bashing around here. It's fashionable ;)

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[Maestro4k]

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

• Exactly what would it take for you to consider their actions with malice? Perhaps an upheld conviction of abusing their OS monopoly to move into other areas and take out other companies illegally? How about their secret agreements with OEMs in the past that required one copy of Windows sold per CPU, whether the OS left the building on the PC or not? I could go on listing more, but at this point in time it's pointless to just say it's business as usual and without malice. The courts have found MS to have broken anti-trust law, and it was upheld on appeal. Companies don't go around breaking laws, then pulling the type of defense strategies MS did without malice. They do that when they did it intentionally.

• But frankly your argument's silly anyway. I consider MS my enemy. I consider the RIAA and MPAA member companies my enemy. I consider most of the BSA companies my enemy, and I consider the OPEC members to be enemies. Why? Their goal, even if they aren't breaking laws, is to make money at all costs. If that cost is my freedoms (RIAA/MPAA and the congresscritters they own), my quality of life, or what else, so be it, they don't care as long as they make money. They're in business to make money from me even if I fully wish to not pay them a damned cent. I don't willingly, but my tax dollars keep going to them (at the least to pay the damn congresscritters they've bought who represent the companies first and the real people last). I consider that enemy worthy, and worth fighting.

  Power over me? They already have power over you, me and all of us. Hell just look at the litany of bills presented, along with the ones that made it into law. You can't tell me things like the DMCA haven't already given them enormous power over each and every one of us. Companies keep proving they're willing to abuse it any way they see fit. Want to stifle research into security flaws? Already been done, will happen again. Want to try and make sure no one can sell generic parts for your equipment? Already being done, look at the printer manufacturers.

  Sorry, but I don't have to do a damned thing for them to have power over me. They already do, and that's another part of why I consider them my enemies. If you don/t, well congrats on enjoying all those laws and restrictions they've placed on you. I'll be fighting them tooth and nail for the existing ones and future ones while you enjoy having your rights and freedoms removed. Personally I want mine back.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[oconnorcjo]

They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted.

I think they do Maliciosly attack any technology that threatens thier OS monopoly. They try to keep Web standards to "IE only" thus forcing Web Surfers to have Windows. They try to make MS Office the defacto standard in bussiness thus forcing most bussiness machines to have Windows. They are trying to make windows audio/vidio formats the future "standard" with WMP thus forcing people to stay with Windows.

They push these propritary standards by providing them with thier OS (with exception of Office) and not providing them with any other OS (except perhaps Apple).

As a person who likes and uses Linux and would like to be able to interact with the rest of the world as easily as Windows users do, I find myself directly opposed to the strategies of MS. They are my enemy because they are trying to destroy my choice of computer experience down to just thier stuff.

I can not use IE/WMP or MS Office when I am using a Linux desktop so I use alternatives to those products (even when I am using a windows OS).

I suggest FireFox to as many people as I can to not only help give the user a better web experience, but to give MYSELF a better experience by hopefully forcing Web Developers to adjust thier IE Only compatibility standards.

I occasionally suggest OpenOffice to users but have a difficult time justifying it. MS really does have a solid product in MS Office.

I tell people to try to stay away from WMP and am quite happy that ITunes is doing well and that mp3 is still the defacto standard.

You may not find MS to be your enemy but I will fight them to keep/get my freedom to have a Microsoft free desktop (without having to sacrifice compatibility).

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[SwervingVector]

I'll come out of lurking to just comment on this one... I don't like pop music, so I don't care if I can download songs or not. I use various OS'es (Windows, *nix, OS X), so I'm hardly a prisoner of any monopoly. So you don't like pop music, what's stoping you downloading what you do like? You use various OS'es, do you enjoy not being able to edit images in Photoshop on *nix? Not getting the latest games (if at all) on OS X? Do you enjoy trying to configure a WinModem to run on *nix? Ah well, it's your choice. Personally, I'd prefer that the general populace wasn't so accepting of the Spyware, Malware and Crapware that Windows staggers under the weight of. Then maybe MS would be forced into coding a hardened OS off the shelf. I can accept that there will always be a need for updates (duh) but the sheer magnitude of the flaws found in Windows XP cannot be tolerated. You are liable to reply with the stock standard call of "Windows has so many discovered flaws because of it's monopoly of the OS market" so I will take the liberty of dispelling this myth right now. Lets take the path of MacOS as an example; OS 9, despite it's market share, had roughly 50% of the crapware released on the internet, OS X has 0%. When you do the math, taking into account the amount of people using OS X compared to Windows, there should be about 3000ish viruses out for OS X. By the way, before you come back and try to tell me that there already have been viruses released for OS X, I'll define a virus for you: Self-propagating, not proof of concept and not something that requires you to enter your password to delete your homefolder (the virus this point deals with happens to be proven not a virus by the first point)...

Wrong Target

[Eskimore_]

I worked on an ISP's helpdesk and I can tell you that the number 1 spam complaint I got was those adverts for having a bigger penis.

Why can't someone go after those spammers. At least viagra actually works.

Vested interest?

[HardsetHead]

I suppose since no-one yet has made this crack...

I wonder if Microsoft has an ulterior motive in this whole crackdown.

Thank you. I'm here all week.

It's just a front:

[Morning $tar]

Pfizer is actually working on Longhorn with hopes of keeping it up longer and giving it that spine-tingling performance

mmmmpffff

[Goeland86]

I really don't think it's going to change much. Let them try. Most of the spammers are outside the US. Pfizer might be a little more lucky. It sounds kinda useful, but in the end it probably won't change much to the 500+ spam messages I get a day.

I knew Bill was getting old...

[DarkMantle]

When I first read that I saw. "Microsoft goes after viagra"

Trademark dilution?

[Tackhead]

I remember the first time I started seeing Viagra (and other prescription drug) spam. It was long enough ago that I figured the pharma companies would want to crack down on it.

Up until that point, I'd been getting spams for "pharmaceutical" (read: "quackery) products, like the usual "herbal penis pills", "natural apricot pits cancer cure!", "b00st your immune system", "legal pot substitute", and so on.

If I'd never heard of Viagra before, I'd have lumped it in along with phen-phen, ephedra, and laetrile as the quack medicines I'd historically been getting spams for: that is, substances of questionable efficacy, safety, and/or legality.

Quickly now, (off the top of your head, without googling and without being a pharmacist), which of the following - Effexor, Paxil, Viagra, Cialis, Phenteramine, Valium, Xanax, Soma, Lipitor, Zyban, Zantrex, Xenical, Meridia and Fioricet - are "real" medicines (that is, which have been approved by FDA for the treatment of medical conditions), and which are fake/quack/banned?

If you get even one false-positive (that is, a "real" drug that a reasonable person dismiss es as "quacky" due to its prevalence in spam), I'd say the manufacturer of that drug has a prima facie case for trademark dilution against every spammer who spammed for it.

Spam in general

[mszeto]

Since I had moderator points, I wanted to read all the crap that gets posted and see if there was anything that needed to be modded up. I was very dissapointed to hardly see *anything* relevant to the topic other than lame jokes.

I think that this will be good for users. Both companies have something to gain by there being less spam, and thus it will help both companies bottom lines to get rid of it.

What I hope they *don't* do (since both companies are large) is throw money at the problem and hope it gets fixed.

I think this is a good day for the internet in general!

Re:Why not go after the users?

[ThomasFlip]

Middle aged men who need pills to induce raging hard ons have enough problems as it is.

That's ironic...

[triffidsting]

Because of Microsoft, I can't get my box to come up, and because of Pfizer, I can't get... oh, nevermind.

Stupid claim

[PornMaster]

I saw somewhere that Pfizer said that part of the reason they're doing this is that people think that it's Pfizer sending out the spam...

Huh?

I think that not only is that bullshit, that they're actually doing it to try to prevent reimportation (as well as the stopping of non-Pfizer sildenafil citrate).

We have discussed this before

[rbanffy]

I know we have discussed this before, but shouldn't someone go after Microsoft for a very insecure OS that happens to be a petri-dish for spamzombies everywhere? Isn't it negligent behaviour? It would be a lot easier for law enforcement if you could really say where a message originated instead of discovering that the spammer address is from an old lady who never updated her machine since her grandson installed it.

When taking over IT on a small advertising agency with lots of Macs at the creative dept and lots of Windows PCs on the rest of the office I had the firewall to deny and log all attempts to connect with SMTP servers outside. Guess what side of the net was infested?

It appears to me that most of _my_ problems with spam are due to spambots sending mail from ADSL or cable-modems (It's common to have companies whose IP addresses fall in blacklisted ranges and that have to send some or all of their e-mail over ISP servers - raising a lot of security/privacy issues)

With "LongHorn" coming out....

[jamesdood]

This should be no suprise. After all the name
"Short-limp horn" is not nearly as compelling!

And in other news....

[mikael]

... Microsoft announce that they are partnering with Pfizer to produce their own generic brand name of Viagra.

Critics point out that the first version of any product from Microsoft never stays up for long, and that users should wait for the second release, unless they are willing to accept permanent loss of data assets.

Merger

[http101]

In today's MarketWatch, software giant, Microsoft and Pfizer have formed a business alliance to combat spammers and illegal manufacture of Pfizer products. The new company name will be, "Macrohard".

I wonder ...

[A nonymous Coward]

...what kind of defense the spammers are erecting?

Re:Now if they would only attack WaMu phishers

[Christianfreak]

If you have anything to do at all the administration of your mail server then I would suggest looking into greylisting. Has helped tremendously with the volume of spam I receive to the server I admin because it forces spammers to use a single point to send spam from (a point which you can identify).

Also ClamAV can be used to scan incoming email on the server side and has definitions for many phishing attacks as well as worms and viruses.

A killer combination...

[kbnielsen]

MicroSoft + Viagra + Penis Enlargement Pills == HugeHard

That doesn't sound good :)

Re:Shouldn't the headline really read:

[MightyMartian]

"Pfizer and Microsoft rise to the challenge."

"Pfizer and Microsoft erect barriers to Viagra spam."

"Pfizer and Microsoft have the balls to go after Viagra spammers."

Everyone else against spam too: Earthlink & th

[D4C5CE]

In related news, simultaneously Earthlink (in an anti-spam coalition with Microsoft) also announced filing numerous lawsuits to hopefully litigate some major spam operations into oblivion.
Winning these cases (and most importantly, many more) against the spammers would be much easier, of course, if the U.S. finally adopted an opt-in requirement as well, stating that there is no way you CAN SPAM, like in the EU where under a new agreement on anti-spam enforcement, one single complaint will now even suffice to send the authorities round to eradicate any remaining spammers' hideouts in 13 Member States at once.

They're ALL crap if they're sold over the Internet

[BattyMan]

Particularly without a prescr|pti0n.

V1@gr4, C|al1$, 0xycOnt1n and the rest of those (the real ones) are PRESCRIPTION drugs - "Controlled Substances" - the distribution of which (without proper licensing & documentation) is a Big Federal Felony(tm). Anyone "selling" any of those things on the Internet is selling - at best - fakes, and is more likely a simple fraud.

Even if they're doing it from offshore, selling the REAL stuff (particularly narcotics like Oxyc0d0ne) is a big enough crime (in the US) to obtain action from Interpol resulting in extradition of the offenders. These are scams, every bit as much as Muhammed Al-Quedah, who wants to cut you in on the $22e6 which he skimmed out of Sadam's treasury, and now needs your (confidential) help to get it out of the Netherlands.

Re:Shouldn't the headline really read:

[SirModem]

Or...
Pfizer and Microsoft rise to the challenge with barriers erect showing they have the balls to go down on these Viagra spammers.

OEM viagra

[Vivski]

Does this partnership between Microsoft and Pfizer mean I'll be able to get OEM Pfizer Viagra bundled with my WinXP Pro?

Simple

[obeythefist]

Microsoft's traditional embrace and extent methodology in practice.

1) Threaten spammers
2) Buy out or eliminate
3) Pick up the spamming technology and patents
4) Bundle with windows
5) CTRL-ALT-DEL to log on and would you like some V1@gR@ with that?

Is Microsoft friend or enemy?

[Vitus Wagner]

Lets consider this problem:

What good they did to me?

• They create very big market for powerful 32-bit PC. If anybody still use 8-bit CP/M machines, I doubd that I could afford dual PIV with 1Gb RAM at home to run real OS on it. It seems good. But I suspect that i could be just as happy with some 300Mhz UltraSparc.
  
• They create potential market for software I write. But really I make my living from market where computers was used long before PC era.
  

What bad they did for me:

• They are ultimate cause of spam, adware and other crap which fills my internet channels now. They give millions of uneducated users access f\to internet by selling internet-enabled OS and telling that no education is required to use it.
  
• They pushed their complex and closed document formats as standard de-facto. Yeh, I got some pride from community for writing catdoc, but I'd rather live in the world where I don't need to write such strange thing just to read price-lists downloaded from Internet.
  
• They are hugely responsible for degradation of computer science education. They created so big demand for second-class coders, that no one teaches good programmers nowadays. It is quite hard to us to find new employees. And this is in Russia. I think in US it is much worse.
  
• They also create demand for IE-only internet sites, and encourage uneducated webmasters to do this silly designs, which render blinking pages almost unreadble.
  

Obligatory lame Leno joke about Viagra

[Laconian]

Seriously, I can't separate that whiny lameass comedian from the word Viagra anymore.

JAY: Hey Kevin.. just read the newspaper..
KEVIN: What, Jay.. chortle, gahahaha..
JAY: and get this--true story!!--a train was derailed today--i'm not making this up here!
KEVIN: *laughs*
JAY: Apparently, Hillary Clinton Lewinsky Viagra William Hung Bush's Pretzel!!!
KEVIN: *laughs hysterically and strums a few nonsensical bass notes*