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Project Honey Pot Traps Billionth Spam

Posted by timothy on from the spam-sequestration dept.

EastDakota writes "Project Honey Pot today announced that it had trapped its 1 billionth spammer. To celebrate, the team behind the largest community sourced project tracking online fraud and abuse released a full rundown of statistics on the last five years of spam. Findings include: spam drops 21% on Christmas Day and 32% of New Year's Day; the most spam is sent on Mondays, the least on Saturdays; spammers found at least 956 different ways to spell VIAGRA (e.g., VIAGRA, V1AGRA, V1@GR@, V!AGRA, VIA6RA, etc.) in mail received by the Project; and much more."

40 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Spelling by Foxxxy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have seen 945 of the spellings in my inbox just last week.... damn spammers

  2. Spam = spy chatter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is spam even really spam anymore?

    Every now and then I take a look at my gmail spam folder, and none of the messages contain links or even coherent sentences.

    Nothing being sold, nothing being said... What's the point?

    1. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      *slow golf clap*

      Gmail strips most of the links.

    2. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by maxume · · Score: 5, Funny

      My favorite theory is that spammers are making money by selling spamming services to suckers, not by actually selling a product in the spam.

      I guess there is also some chance that there is some botnet out there set to verify that mail reaches addresses, and it is just running out of control.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    3. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by CorporateSuit · · Score: 2, Informative

      I guess there is also some chance that there is some botnet out there set to verify that mail reaches addresses, and it is just running out of control.

      This. It's not just about finding whether the email address is correct, though, it's also testing the junkmail filters -- seeing what words will get a domain on a blacklist and which will still get delivered or bounced at the directory level. I learned this after researching why I got a promising email titled "TEENAGE GIRL HAS SEX WITH BAT!" only to open it up and find a disappointing message like "Gillette rosemary is talking sweet sound to hair bounces great. Sounded of?"

      --
      I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
    4. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by hvm2hvm · · Score: 2, Informative

      in short... yes

      --
      ics
    5. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by Frigga's+Ring · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Who needs to enter anything? You can install plenty of malware simply by having the user click on your link. Plus, it depends on who the spam comes from. Would you really check the URL if you received an e-mail that looked like it was from a close friend that simply read, "Check out this link: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/12/15/1652236/Project-Honey-Pot-Traps-Billionth-Spam"? (Disregarding, of course, the Slashdot URL display feature)

    6. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by sentientbeing · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wow cool link. Thanks for that.

      --

      ------
      beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
    7. Re:Spam = spy chatter? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      in short... yes

      This is not true. All SPAM needs to get published is somebody to spend a few bucks to get their message out there. That's it. SPAM rates are not goverened by success of the ad. SPAM is, however, dirt cheap (I think I read something like $100 for 50,000 messages...) and a number of people use that stupid "if I only get 1% of those...." logic.

      Advertising in general works like that. We still have pop-up ads because some dumb-shits out there are ordering them.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  3. ok by nomadic · · Score: 4, Funny

    1 billionth spammer

    So approximately one out of every 7 people on earth is a spammer?

    1. Re:ok by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Funny

      And thats only the ones they've caught.

      In fact, almost everyone on the net is a spammer. It's kind of a secret club, where you have to pass a secret trial, to gain your secret right of entry. It's so secret, I shouldn't even be divulging this secret information. If the secret spammers found out, I could get

    2. Re:ok by MozeeToby · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nice of them to hit the Submit button for you though, though it does seem to defeat the purpose of killing you for trying to send it.

    3. Re:ok by idontgno · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Spam Club is sending a message. That posting was the /. equivalent of a horse's head in your bed.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    4. Re:ok by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did you check if your mail server is actually an open relay?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    5. Re:ok by Narpak · · Score: 2, Funny

      In fact, almost everyone on the net is a spammer. It's kind of a secret club, where you have to pass a secret trial, to gain your secret right of entry. It's so secret, I shouldn't even be divulging this secret information.

      Order your copy of the Secret Guide to Membership NOW. Only 19.99$, for 29.99$ you get the extra DvD and you own genuine signet ring!

      --
      The Long Now Foundation
    6. Re:ok by Dan+Ost · · Score: 3, Informative

      If my understanding is correct, project honey pot puts bogus emails in webpages and any mail sent to those email addresses are, pretty much by definition, spam.

      If that's true, then that would indicate that your machine is sending email to honey pot addresses.

      --

      *sigh* back to work...
    7. Re:ok by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 2, Funny

      I used to be into sado-necro-bestiality, but then I realized I was just beating a dead horse.

  4. People fall for spam? by rehtonAesoohC · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's been a long lonnnng time since I've actually seen a spam message that I didn't immediately recognize as spam... Maybe some people are completely ignorant of the fact that someone on the internet is out to take your money (*gasp!*), but honestly, how can the amount of effort expended in creating spam compare to the amount of money they receive from suckers who click on "V1AGRA!11!!" links?

    I'm just sayin'...

    1. Re:People fall for spam? by Thanshin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You should reason the opposite way.

      Knowing that spam gives benefit. Who are the people who fall on all those traps and how could we help them not to?

    2. Re:People fall for spam? by castironpigeon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      how can the amount of effort expended in creating spam compare to the amount of money they receive from suckers who click on "V1AGRA!11!!" links?

      You're saying you don't know anybody who clicks on ads because they read "Click Here" ?

      --
      mmmm...forbidden donut
    3. Re:People fall for spam? by Again · · Score: 2, Informative

      because if you send a million spam mails you only need a handful of people to actually buy anything, I'm talking a few dozen, to cover your costs.

      And if the spam includes a link to a website which is ad-based the user doesn't even need to hand over his credit card number to make the spam worthwhile.

    4. Re:People fall for spam? by zullnero · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You'd be surprised. There are still people out there dipping their first toe in the Internet pool because they felt it was time that they learn this "email" thing for various reasons. Those are precisely the people that spammers are targeting.

      That said, bulk email is very 1999, and the spammers know it. The real goal these days is to try to get as many systems out there connected to botnets as possible and try to "force feed" as many people with spam as they possibly can. The key is to fashion emails to look as concise as possible, and get your parents' and friends' computers to send that email to you instead of a complete stranger. Suddenly, the basic spam defense tactics that we all know and live by go out the window. Everyone's mom or dad has a mailing list for forwards, and that is a prime target. If you got an email from your dad saying "I just made my own website!" and a link, you can bet there'd be at least a few kids who'd try to be good kids and click that link. And they're always the ones who don't patch their systems up, too.

    5. Re:People fall for spam? by armareum · · Score: 2, Funny

      ..your link doesn't work :(

      --
      Is this a rhetorical question?
  5. Maybe by machinelou · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe now with a billion samples, we can start training people how to recognize it.

  6. In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can't fix stupid.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    1. Re:In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes you can. Smith&Wesson released their first debugging tool for it over a century ago. The application remains illegal for some odd reason I don't really understand.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by dissy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes you can. Smith&Wesson released their first debugging tool for it over a century ago. The application remains illegal for some odd reason I don't really understand.

      Ah yes, the original 'point and click' interface for remotely managing stupid.

      And it is illegal now you say? My apologies but from the place I hide to avoid stupid, we don't get many updates on all these new fangled laws.

    3. Re:In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes you can. Smith&Wesson released their first debugging tool for it over a century ago. The application remains illegal for some odd reason I don't really understand.

      Ah yes, the original 'point and click' interface for remotely managing stupid.

      And it is illegal now you say? My apologies but from the place I hide to avoid stupid, we don't get many updates on all these new fangled laws.

      It probably violates Amazon's one-click patent.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    4. Re:In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by cybiko123 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's not for debugging, it's for troubleshooting.

    5. Re:In the terribly elegant words of... someone? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hmm. I'm not sure that destroying something really qualifies as fixing it...

      Dunno, but we'll soon see, there's an experiment with this method currently being tested on our economy.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Re:Thanks for the info on misspelling Viagra by Publikwerks · · Score: 3, Funny

    Jesus, even spamers have better hours than me

  8. Legalize OTC Viagra ? by FauxPasIII · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Putting aside for a moment the potential medical issues, I wonder how much money would be saved in the US economy if we just legalized the selling of Viagra over the counter?

    --
    25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
  9. Cost-benefit by delirium+of+disorder · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you total up all the productivity lost to fighting spam and time wasted getting spam, it's probably cheaper to just put the spammers out of business by giving every male on earth free Viagra.

    --
    ------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
    1. Re:Cost-benefit by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hope they start spamming "Meet hot and horny girls!" more then.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  10. 956 ways? by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

    viagra can be misspelled many ways
    in an email message.
    all of them not as direct as
    going and using this way of
    routing the word around filters,
    and not even misspelling it

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:956 ways? by daveime · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Pare, considering you've been in the "editing" stage since February 2007, perhaps it's time to update your sig to "I've grown tired of making a Low Budget HDV Filipino Horror Movie in NYC" ?

  11. no ipV6 by mabu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The most effective way of stopping spam thus far is using IP blacklisting. It should be noted if the net moves to ipV6, that will be the end of blacklist effectiveness for some time.

    1. Re:no ipV6 by Straterra · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not really. Every end user is supposed to get a /64. You could just block their /64 and accomplish pretty much the same thing.

  12. I wonder by tool462 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder how many of those Viagra spelling variations are valid Perl code...

  13. Re:It's not easy being a Viagra spammer... by fafaforza · · Score: 2, Funny

    Depite all that, they still try to stand up and deliver, with their heads held high.