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Spammers on the Run
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Aug 15, 2005 12:23 PM
from the canned-spam dept.
from the canned-spam dept.
ericald writes "An interesting
update from Blue Security, the group that introduces the Blue Frog initiative to fight spam, claims that during the past few days at least one spammer had frequently deleted domains he owned as a result of their system.
In another update in their blog
they report they have already recruited over 21,000 users.
It's about time spammers start feeling the heat! I'm just surprised they show results so soon."
Related Stories
[+]
Your Rights Online: Blue Security Reborn As Social Action Enabler 29 comments
griswaldo writes "Wired News writes about the re-birth of the ill-fated Blue Security as a social action company. According to the article, founders of the former anti-spam company that made headlines after incurring the wrath of a Russian spam king have set up a company called Collactive that provides tools to organize grassroots action on political and social web sites. The article mentions a global warming initiative called WorldCoolers and, for the Slashdot YRO crowd, the Privacy Alert Network that kicked off by letting people comment on Homeland Security's latest crazy idea."
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Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday September 07 2005, @06:09PM)
Re:Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Realistic View? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.fccfurn.com/~gregcrowe | Last Journal: Friday February 01 2002, @03:42PM)
Public ISPs, universities and government centers do not (and can not) take this route. So these orgs must take another path towards dealing with international spam.
Filtering works. Greylisting works. These technologies help a great deal against the zombie armies everyone said would be unstoppable spam sources.
I am glad you have a solution which works for you (and to some extent, I agree with your soultion), but I would hate for the balkanization of the Internet to come about due to the misbehavior of a few rotten apples. I think there must be a better way.
Cheers,
-- RLJ
Re:Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
However, it will not make spam unprofitable. To make it unprofitable, the costs of sending spam must be higher than the money you get from it. So in some way, we need to increase the costs of sending spam, or reduce profits.
The cost of sending spam is essentially zero. Sure, you may have to switch ISP once in a while, register some new domains, invest in some CDs with email-addresses, buy some software or consultants to infect machines, etc... But it really doesn't matter. Even with todays hostility towards spammers, the cost is still essentially zero.
The profits of spam is:
- price_of_whatever_you_sell * number_of_email_addresses * some_really_low_fraction
where really_low_fraction is the number of idiots who fall for your scam.Bayesian filtering doesn't address either costs or profits. It does not make sending spam more expensive, and it does not change the some_really_low_fraction, because the idiots who respond to spam wouldn't be using bayesian filtering anyway.
So Bayesian filtering is nice for the end-users who just want to get through their mail, but it doesn't really help solve the problem of making spam unprofitable.
Re:Spammers fate (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://home.arcor.de/36bit/samba.html)
Part of the problem is the legal framework, unsolicited mass mailing needs to become 'more illegal'. Paying someone else to spam needs to be targeted, if a company in the US pays someone in Uzbekistan to send spam, that company in the US has to suffer. Follow the money.
Blacklisting entire countries is a different approach, once strong anti-spam laws are in place in some of the main jurisdictions, recalcitrant areas can be *persuaded* to adopt/enforce similar measures by blacklisting. That blacklisting has to be done at the ISP level though, not by law.
Re:Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
I know we're living in the era where corporations and employers believe they have the right to do anything they want. But while refusing to employ someone on hearsay is within an employer's rights, there's a chance of shooting yourself in the foot and actually hiring the guy who was smart enough to cover his tracks, rather than the silly, average person whose box was "owned" and spammed without thier knowledge.
Oh but we all know that search engines are infalliable and are the best way to screen a potential employee, right? Come on. If I can steal your identity and borrow money in your name, how hard can it be to spam in your name? Frankly this would not be an employer worth working for.
Re:Spammers fate (Score:4, Insightful)
I dunno.. If I was a greazy marketing type I would love to find someone who was a greasy as myself and this kind of Google information would be perfect. And you have a hard time using the word illegally on any of this since you would have to have proof. How many spammers have been convicted?
Re:Spammers fate (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course it's successful. Any biological system obeys a gaussian or normal distribution. This includes patterns of behaviour in a population. There is always a bunch of people on the edge of this curve who will buy anything. The gullible, the impulsive, the mentally handicapped, the bipolars in their manic phase. If you spam enough people, you will hit enough of this extreme population to make a "business" out of it. What sucks is that the entire rest of the population who are not at all interested in the "product" will also have been spammed at this point.
But the spammers don't care, all they want is cash. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing I did this for a living, but the spammers obviously have no problem with it.
If the spammers were smart they would have a list of gullible people by now and target their population more intensly, to save on effort. You might as well bleed em dry, right?
Excuse me... (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://prompt.newsvine.com/)
...Unless of course Blue Security would like a list of the spammers who are filling my email, then perhaps I will change my opinion ;)
what do they do? (Score:1, Informative)
(http://snowulf.com/)
Its great and all yes? But what are they doing?
Re:what do they do? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.elflord.net/ | Last Journal: Monday March 19 2007, @10:35AM)
Spamming is cheap, and virtually without risk. Essentially, this is a legal way to shift reality so that it's more risky to pay a spammer for your advertising.
Yes it's legal. No, it's not spamming the spammers. They only get one complaint per spam recieved. You'd do it yourself, given the time to do so. Meanwhile, you've explicitly installed a piece of software to do it for you. If that breaks their server, well they probably shouldn't be sending so much goddamn spam.
Re:what do they do? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.darklock.com/blog/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 28, @02:44PM)
I see this as having two major effects. First, it keeps the spam away from you. Second, it informs the spammer that nobody read his spam. Spammers *depend* on human beings reading their spam. As long as nobody reads it, nobody buys.
Re:what do they do? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://nedwolf.com/ | Last Journal: Friday September 30 2005, @01:10PM)
You really don't know? Geneticists have engineered a breed of frogs that subsist entirely on Spam. An interesting side effect is their attractive blue coloration.
That's funny. I'm still getting spam. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.insurancegenius.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday March 22 2005, @07:26PM)
The odd thing is, I'm still receiving as much spam as I've always received. No matter how many tens of thousands of users they sign up for this process, I fear this is going to be a very small drop in a very large bucket.
Re:That's funny. I'm still getting spam. (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.aliassketchbookpro.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday September 04 2005, @10:37AM)
feh.
Blue Security (Score:5, Informative)
(http://pyscrabble.sf.net/)
Basically, they DDOS spammers websites in hopes that they will shut them down.
Re:Blue Security (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday February 10 2006, @02:51PM)
Those are lauded in all of the history books as an application of peaceful economic pressure.
Peaceful, yes; lawful, no.
Good old detective work for a chance? (Score:2)
Running out of hiding places (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.stevenvansickle.com/)
Give everyone in the world email for a week and then see all the government action we desperately crave
Sounds like bullshit (Score:1)
(http://www.jerryodom.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 29 2005, @01:31PM)
But I guess it may work in some cases. I bet these guys making headlines for getting retaliated against sometime soon.
Anti-Blue Frog (Score:5, Informative)
(http://prompt.newsvine.com/)
Re:Anti-Blue Frog (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Anti-Blue Frog (Score:5, Funny)
You misspelled "best".
Re:Anti-Blue Frog (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://geocities.com/nelstomlinson | Last Journal: Wednesday January 22 2003, @01:19AM)
Isn't that spelled ``best''?
Seriously, the grandparent post refered to this as a DDOS. If the spammer sends me an email, he's certainly got no right to complain if he gets one back. If he gets enough back to shut down his website, well, he shouldn't have sent so much spam, should he? My understanding is that Blue Frog tries to send an unsubscribe message for every spammed address (their website is slashdotted)? If so, the spammers have already announced their willingness to get that message, and it is obviously legal.
Re:Anti-Blue Frog (Score:4, Informative)
TechNewsWorld? Ah, one of those ECT publications. They have such esteemed writers as Maureen O'Gara on their payroll. Their publications are barely news and frequently contain some form of troll or flamebait to get them posted on Slashdot.
If you thought ZDnet was crap, ECT makes them smell like roses.
The missing link (Score:2, Informative)
domain names (Score:2, Funny)
(http://dotpavan.googlepages.com/home)
asdlkjfea.com, alsfajega.com, aksdfaewl.com, hkassautdn.com, egmymaridjk.com, lhperdixnd.com, clthriftbf.com, bibiae.com, romisingfeasibility.com, betheuplift.com, fundamentalstojoy.com, dealandvaluematch.com, valueandassets.com, oursuperbiz.com, and best of them: truthfoundhere.com
maybe spamfoundhere.com?
Nibbling (Score:2, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday May 29, @09:14PM)
Sue/fine/arrest/jail spammers? They'll move abroad where we can't find them.
Get a legal framework that will be enforced in all the countries connected to the Internet? Good fscking luck.
System Requirements? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.8-95.com/)
System Requirement
Windows 2000/2003/XP
Ok so I'm out, last windows I read email on was Win95 or maybe Win98, some bullshit virus or another screwed me over, I ain't "done email" on Windows of any type since. Oddly enough, I haven't had any viruses, spyware, adware, or malware since then either.
So while I applaud efforts to reduce spam, efforts that requre Windows seems silly at best and are efforts I can't join in on. Even my wife no longer reads email on Windows, the last time her Windows PC slowed to a crawl due to spyware instead of spending 3 or 4 hours googling for the latest cleaners and finding out what new and not at all entertaining spyware she had, I said "fuck this' gave her my new and as yet unpacked Mac Mini and she hasn't had any spyware problems since. Ripped her PC apart and installed Linux on it to replace my laptop as my main "work" pc.
Russian spammers fate (Score:1)
Foot, meet bullet (Score:5, Funny)
An interesting update from Spammers-R-Us, Inc [...] In another update in their blog, they report they have already gotten over 21,000 Slashdotters to hit the Blue Frog site. It's about time spamfighters started feeling the heat! I'm just surprised they show the results within 20 posts on the thread!
- with apologies to the original article poster :)
Let's not forget... (Score:1)
A better idea (Score:5, Funny)
Litigate against all the spammers. (Score:2)
(http://www.barbieslapp.com/)
If even .1% of spam spam victims sued Snotty for the spam that he sent, he would be out of money.
One large spam suit usually does not take out a spammer, but 1000 or 10,000 smaller suits will.
On the use of this to decrease your competition (Score:1, Interesting)
of Spam, I would send email
for competitors.
More people will hire
me - my competition is
DOSed to death!
Poor solution (Score:2, Interesting)
IMHO, sender pays (ala hash-cash or something like it) is the only way to make a meaningful dent in the spam problem. I know this fails one or two of the "reasons" on that list as to why it won't work, but doing nothing also doesn't work. Why don't Free programs implement this so people at least have the option of using it? I'd actually prefer a problem that can scale much larger - like taking a minute or even an hour on todays computers - so it will still be viable in the future. Yes, there are issues (like mailing lists) with this approach, but there are ways around those too. People have to be willing to do SOMETHING. If someone doesn't do something, someone else (think MS) will. Then we'll have a proprietary "standard" for dealing with it. You folks maintaining the software just have to get some nads and take a little initiative on this. If you wait for some company to devise a solution, they aren't going to just give it to you.
Summertime and the spamming is easy (Score:1)
(http://www.users.qwest.net/~waffleck-asch/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @04:46PM)
I'm just saying it's not news per se, nor is it really tech per se.
sigh.
Make them run using Postfix? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://en.xiando.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday May 18 2005, @07:44AM)
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
permit_sasl_authenticated,
reject_non_fqdn_sender,
reject_non_fqdn_recipient,
reject_unknown_sender_domain,
reject_unknown_recipient_domain,
reject_unauth_pipelining,
permit_mynetworks,
reject_unauth_destination,
reject_rbl_client ombie.dnsbl.sorbs.net,
reject_rbl_client relays.ordb.org,
reject_rbl_client opm.blitzed.org,
reject_rbl_client list.dsbl.org,
reject_rbl_client sbl.spamhaus.org,
permit
We are also using SpamAssassinn / razor / clamav using amavisd-new. The main mail account used for everything from clients webmaster@ mail to contact@ are getting numerous spam daily, yet only three or perhaps four a month get delivered... and those are added to our body_checks.txt which is publicly available for download [linuxreviews.org] by anyone, including spammers who I have a feeling makes spammers think twice and clean us off their list when they find themselves listed there using search engines etc.
This gives me an idea... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://whitehouse.com/)
Simple solution.... (Score:1)
Kill profits by consuming resources (Score:5, Insightful)
In contrast, a bot that visits a spammer's site consumes the spammer's valuable resources in far greater amounts that is consumed by the original spam e-mail (spam emails often being under 10kB and sent via low-cost zombies vs. 50kB or 100kB for most web pages begin hosted on the spammer's e-commerce site).
Run. (Score:1)
Junk faxers, too! (Score:2)
(http://ninenine.com/)
Actually, since I started using my sig, I've called these particular junk faxers back to see if they're feeling the heat, and one exasperated woman told me that they were! Keep up the good work Slashdotters! If we do the same thing to spammers (using something like SpamVampire), we will eventually have the same effect of hitting them where it hurts: their wallets.
Just don't hang honest people with Identity theft! (Score:1)
(http://tarrysingh.blogspot.com/)
Here's my idea (Score:2)
(http://infaux.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 01 2005, @02:08PM)
Sure, it will take 20 miuntes for an image to show, but think of the fun! Mosaic time!
Wait, was that already done?
Slashdot needs new editors (Score:1)
Elimination of voice.. (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Wednesday December 06 2006, @11:31AM)
Side question, how does Blue Frog respond to spoofed return addresses? Do they try to ascertain the correct 'sent' address instead of the 'reply' address? Has anyone complained of being flooded with replies from Blue Frog when it really was not their fault?
Don't give it out... (Score:2, Insightful)
New Idea (Score:1)
False "Results" (Score:3)
(http://store.mycoinfo.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday March 31 2005, @06:07PM)
Correlation is not causation!
Spammers have been rotating through domain names for years now. You can watch it on a week-by-week basis, as a whole series of domains with the same nameservers takes responses for the same spam months on end. Even when the spammers change nameservice, they tend to do it in predictable ways.
In one week's time Blue Security has manages to slightly ruffle the feathers of a total of THREE distinct spam operations. Big whoop.
from "Solution Overview" on their page: (Score:1)
(http://piotru.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday August 11, @08:47PM)
" Spammers are required to download Blue Security's Registry Compliance Tools to clean their mailing lists from e-mail addresses appearing in the Registry."
" The Registry is enforced by the Blue Community and uses Blue Security's Active Deterrence, a patent- pending technology that disrupts the business of merchants, advertisers and spammers who choose to ignore the Do Not Intrude Registry."
Well, PATENTED idea? - no, thank you then. I thought it was a community effort, based on free ideas and standards. Isn't it like paying for "protection" to your neighbouhood bully after all?
Thank god for Crazy Frog (Score:1, Funny)
Oh wait...
Why did the registrar change their policies? (Score:1)
(http://www.fungible.com/)
Spammers Fate? (Score:1)
Cheers!
Profits From Nothing? (Score:1)
(http://www.theogb.com/)
Terms of Service (Score:1)
(http://www.kakistocracy.org/ | Last Journal: Monday January 08 2007, @05:54AM)
You agree to comply with all treaties, laws, rules and regulations applicable to your use of the Site. You agree that while using the Site You will not:
*harm minors in any way;
*"stalk" or otherwise harass another person;
*restrict or inhibit any other User from using and enjoying the Site
Indemnity.
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold Blue Security, its directors, officers, employees, agents and affiliates harmless from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, in any way arising from or related to your use of the Site, your violation of the Terms..."
(emphasis mine)
In other words, I'm not only not allowed to smack minors, have sex with minors, or in any other way harm them while simultaneously using the site. We're not allowed to "stalk" spammers. Oh, and we're not allowed to DDoS it by posting a link to it on slashdot, since that will restrict others' capabilities to access the site.
To top it all off, I agree to defend them should my use of the site result in any sort of legal actions? Am I reading this wrong? By signing up am I actually agreeing to DEFEND them, in court, or just agreeing to PAY for their defense? Or maybe testify on their behalf? I'm no lawyer, but these contracts scare the crap out of me.
The Ethics of Self Defense (Score:1)
(http://www.crucifictiongames.com/)
Re:So what is spam? (Score:2)
Re:You Only Think You're Winning (Score:2)
Say what? Which planet is this information from?
The sales figures for the businesses we serve prove this.
How do you get this information, exactly? By comparing the number of sales to the number of times people click on the useless, "sign me up for more spam" unsubscribe link?
important commerce
Yes I understand that "h3R|34L v1aGr4", having my penis enlarged, and a fake degree are important commerce. Yup. Real important. So important that I delete it on sight. Along with 99.9999% of other users. You guys make a living on the 0.0001% of people who do not act rationally, but to do so, you bother everyone else.
Nice troll, AC. You've been fed. Now die. The sun's coming up.
Re:First Prime Factorization Post (Score:2)
(http://www.kickthebobo.com/erotech/index.html | Last Journal: Thursday November 15, @02:53PM)
Re:You Only Think You're Winning (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 15, @01:51PM)
Sent: Tue 2/8/2005 3:49 PM
To: T4$
Cc:
Subject: Does your son suffer from your chronic Impotence
Attachments:
Your heartbeat are like mine
V.I'o'X.X 25 m,g 3o PILlS 72.50
V.1,A.G.R'A 1oo m'g 32 PiL|S 149.o0
C.1.A'L*1.S 2O m*g 10 P1lLS 79.00
0.r.d.e.r quickly :
http://pont.newyorkmedz.com/?wid=209015 [newyorkmedz.com] ! Same Day Sh1pp1ng !
We Also have in St0ck:
X*A'N.A,X 1 m*g 3O P!|LS 79.Oo
P.R*0.Z.A.C 2O m,g 3O PiL|S 11o.0O
P,A.X*1,L 2o m,g 2O P!llS 155.0O
M,E*R,I'D*I.A 10 m.g 3O PiL|S 147.OO
,p> see you soon
Jasper Trujillo
President
CarboMer, Inc., San Diego, United States of America
Phone: 474-941-7114
Mobile: 198-316-6411
Email: kgbjenx@fsf.com.au
This is a confirmation message
This package is a 3[2
You will go to jail and .. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:WTF? (Score:1)
Personally, I am all for it.
Re:An Error in this program would be a shame... (Score:1)
(http://www.buymeaferrari.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday November 13 2003, @04:42PM)
So what happens when Mr. Innocent, unpatched server, gets a bill for $10K in a month for bandwidth fees?
Re:You Only Think You're Winning (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 05 2006, @05:31AM)
-jcr