CDT Releases New Report on Origins of Spam

Carnth writes "CDT has released a new report based on a six month project entitled "Why Am I Getting All This Spam?" The results offer Internet users insights about what online behavior results in the most unsolicited commercial email and also debunk some of the myths about spam." A very good report - read it. There's also a story about yet another sleazy spammer in Ohio.

Spam? I thought I was posting!

[chuckfirment]

Spam comes in the form of unrequested text, right? So saying "FIRST POST" every time there's a new topic is simply a way of spamming Slashdot?

Chuck

Other amazing discoveries...

[psoriac]

In other news, it was announced today that after careful study, researchers confirmed that fire is hot and pointy objects hurt.

Why am I getting all this spam?

[Weaselmancer]

Because your penis is small, you'd like to work from home and everybody loves baklava?

Spam makes money?

[ShwAsasin]

I was considering moving into the spam market, but decided that was too controversial. I opted to start pornography business instead.

pr0n Spam

[ackthpt]

Number one reason(s) for receiving pr0n spam:?

Visited a pr0n website for research

Posting anything on a Usenet newsgroup

Registration of any product over the internet

Responding to any survey on the internet, in which you indicate you are 18 or older.

Having an email address

Breathing

Getting a 'first post' on /.

Posting anything on CowboyNeal's Blog of Doom

Re:Burn in Hell, Son of Spam!

[ToadSprocket]

And as for angry e-mails and junk mail, he said, "I can give as good as I get."

I smell a challenge.

spam forecast

[obli]

monday: small showers of florida vacations through the .net and .org domain
tuesday: threathening cloud of penis enlargement pills coming up from the south and webMD health issues are clearing up
and so on...

Ohio

[Anonymous Coward]

There's also a story about yet another sleazy spammer in Ohio.

Why don't these guys ever live close to me?

Re:Spamburgers for Hotmail

[Rebel Patriot]

I'm still wondering why when I have my hotmail filter set to "exclusive" (only recieve from those in my address book, which contains 10 addresses), I continue to get loads of spam each day in my inbox, including some very embarassing things that would cause my mom to faint if she walked in. Dude, you wouldn't have that problem if you didn't put those spammers in your address book!

Re:Spam makes money?

[doublem]

Depends on how you advertise.

If you're up front and don't SPAM people, selling only porn that features consenting adults, then I'd say go for it.

I was thinking of starting a porn site myself, until my GF nixed it.

Good luck though. One of my buddies tried it, and failed due to the stiff competition. You have to have a new and unique angle, something really different, to make it now.

Yeah, right . . .

[Our Man In Redmond]

Childs blamed the mix-up on a programming accident and said he has since apologized to Smithson [for using her site as an open relay].

Reminds me of the old saying, "I might have believed it was an accident if you hadn't stopped twice to reload and once to chug a couple of beers."

The gauntlet has been thrown!

[douglips]

None of this puts a chill into Childs, who said he has nothing to fear from anti-spammers. "I don't ask for understanding from anybody. I follow the law." And as for angry e-mails and junk mail, he said, "I can give as good as I get."

Geez, I sure hope he's right. It sure would be a shame if his physical mailbox overflowed with a gazillion free catalogs.

Did anyone explain to him what happened to Alan Ralsky [slashdot.org]?

Re:happy 1.3 user

[ToadSprocket]

Amen to that.

I had been using the 1.3 beta for weeks before the release version. "Yes, this is junk, I am going to mark it as such and then sit here and laugh at you." I felt so... impotent I guess. All of these naked women, and nothing I could do about it. But yeah, since 1.3 came out, I am laying more pipe than Charlie Sheen in his heyday, and not with hookers either.

1.3 kicks ass.

Re:Spam makes money?

[Anonymous Coward]

....One of my buddies tried it, and failed due to the "stiff competition"

isn't that the point of p0rn sites ? LOL

Re:Other amazing discoveries...

[EvilBudMan]

In related news, after more objective study, it has been postulated, pointy objects that are hot and thrusted hurt more than unthrusted cold pointy objects.

I don't eat pork!

Re:the two things I've seen increase spam for me..

[Anonymous Coward]

> I first installed it in January and in that time have only had it
> once grab mail that it shouldn't have - from my mom. I added her to
> the whitelist and have never had a problem since.

Why would your mom try to sell you a penis enlarger? That's just creepy.....

Re:Spam makes money?

[YrWrstNtmr]

One of my buddies tried it, and failed due to the stiff competition.

Sounds like his attempt was a little limp.

Re:How is old Alan doing?

[Tackhead]

> Is that maggot-eaten sack of whale drek still getting a gazillion pieces of snailmail every day?

Ahem.

I represent the Cetacean Fecal Matter Anti-Defamation League. Please retract at once your defamatory comments against whale dreck.

I have also been informed by the Head Maggot of the Fly Larva Anti-Defamation League that although his members will gleefully chow down on any form of cetacean poop ranging from Dolphin Doo to Blue Whale Bombs, they'd definitely draw the line at Ralsky's carcass. They've got standards, y'know.

Not stressful at all...

[gillbates]

I'm asking you, how stressful is it to push the delete button? We have become a nation of crybabies.

Oh, say, no more stressful than pulling the trigger on a high powered rifle...

Some people just don't get it. Spam is an invasion of a personal space - it's the intrusion into our personal lives by a stranger that we resent, not the fact that we have to hit the delete key.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that these guys are still alive. Spam is something that really angers people, and I can imagine someone unfamiliar with the 'net getting scammed and taking a high powered rifle to some spammer's house. Not everyone believes in the sanctity of life, you know, and if you blanket email the U.S., you're bound to put spam in the inboxes of criminals... But hey, the risk is up to you.

Re:My experince is very different

[Anonymous Coward]

I have had the same Yahoo address on my web site since 1998. The address is a simple mailto link - I'm doing nothing to hide the address. That account gets 4 or 5 spams a day.

Have you considered that your website is just not very popular with spammers? :o)

Re:The gauntlet has been thrown!

[apoupc]

he sholdn't have a problem if he received a gazillion free catalogs.....all he has to do is throw them away!