Fraud Fighter "Bobbear" To Close Up Shop

Krebsonsecurity.com has a writeup on the decision of UK anti-fraud activist site bobbear.co.uk to retire from the fray. The 66-year-old fraud fighter said he was getting too old for the work, which takes him about 15 hours a day. "We had so many messages of thanks, and congratulations on the site, but it is so stressful and takes so much out of you, and there is always the worry of litigation hanging over your head." "The owner and curator of bobbear.co.uk, a site that specializes in exposing Internet fraud scams and phantom online companies, announced Saturday that he will be shuttering the site at the end of April. Bobbear and its companion site bobbear.com are creations of [the pseudonomous] Bob Harrison, a 66-year-old UK resident who for the last four years has tirelessly chronicled and exposed a myriad of fraud and scam Web sites. The sites, which are well-indexed by Google and other search engines and receive about 2,000 hits per day, often are among the first results returned in a search for the names of fly-by-night corporations advertised in spam and aimed at swindling the unsuspecting or duping the unwitting." Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.

Comments

Go wiki

[girlintraining]

Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.

Turn it into a moderated wiki. Allow interested parties to post, and a queue of submissions from forwarded emails to be reviewed. Like the slashdot of the spam underworld. :|

Re:Go wiki

[dmomo]

> Like the slashdot of the spam underworld.
Wait. Don't you want to encourage people to actually review the proposed scam site before posting their opinions?

--- I didn't rtfa

Consumers Union

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.

Sounds like something that the Consumers Union might want to take a look at.
They publish Consumer Reports and recently acquired The Consumerist website.

Any of the following....

[reverendbeer]

...could take it over: www.scamwarners.com, www.scamorama.com, www.419eater.com, or www.aa419.org. They've already proven their worth on the anti-scam front and have people that can keep it current.

How about the Government?

[Bearhouse]

Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated

If one man can be acknowledged by the cyber-community to make a difference, (and, in passing, hats off to him), imagine what Government could do with a well-financed team of, say, ten people?

Cyber-crime costs a hugh, and increasing, amount of money, (see comments here on /. about the true cost of spam). Unfortunately, Governments do not seem to take it seriously enough. Maybe because it rarely hits to headlines, and so is perceived as less of an issue, (i.e. vote winner). Shame.

Re:How about the Government?

[Z34107]

If one man can be acknowledged by the cyber-community to make a difference, (and, in passing, hats off to him), imagine what Government could do with a well-financed team of, say, ten people?

Hahahaha! Oh, man. You're killing me.

How about Google

[Herkum01]

Since these sites keep turning up high in the search results, it would be to their benefit if there was someone to help cleanup the mess.

Re:Uh?

[FatdogHaiku]

Does a bobbear shit in the woods?

I'm not sure. But if you're a scammer he will happily pee in your revenue stream...