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Facebook & Myspace Taking Some Spammers To Court

Posted by timothy on from the why-can't-they-take-them-all dept.

kevinqtipreedy writes "Social networks like Facebook and Myspace are now bringing spammers into the court systems in new attempts to put a stop to it. Although spammers rarely show up in court and the suits do not always lead to monetary reward, companies are hoping the 'chilling effect' will help in the effort to curb spam."

4 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. What are people using to dodge spam? by $pace6host · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've been a long time user and proponent of sneakemail.com, I love the "whitelist" approach for filtering out SPAM, I love knowing who leaked or shared my address, and I love that I can turn them off if they start sending me junk I don't want. I also like that it forwards to my main email address.

    Unfortunately, sneakemail has recently been getting blocked by more and more sites.

    GishPuppy looks similar (and maybe even easier to use). Is anyone using it, or another, similar service?

    1. Re:What are people using to dodge spam? by maztuhblastah · · Score: 2, Informative

      I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net's e-mail forwarding. For 2 pennies per day, they forward any mail received at my domain. I've got both specific mappings (box1@example.com forwards to something) and blanket mappings (anything sent to a box without a specific mapping is sent to my address.) When I need to give out an address, I simply make one up. If that address starts getting spam, I simply blackhole it (i.e. I map it to discard@nearlyfreespeech.net). Simple, effective, and cheap.

      Yes, I know I _could_ run my own MTA -- but I'm willing to pay a couple bucks a year to get something that "just works." That, and their privacy policy is pretty kick-ass.

      --
      The real litigious bastards...
  2. Re:Good Luck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This reminds me of a somewhat similar concept used by American Express in the past. They used have a service where for online credit card transactions you could generate a one time use credit card number set for a specific amount of money. I thought it was brilliant, especially when dealing with a website that you are unfamiliar with. Sadly they got rid it though.

  3. Re:What about their users by Risen888 · · Score: 2, Informative

    They're not within their rights. See the "user conduct" section of the Facebook terms of use.

    --
    Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!