CDT Releases New Report on Origins of Spam 376
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! (Score:3, Funny)
Chuck
Spamburgers for Hotmail (Score:5, Interesting)
happy 1.3 user (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:happy 1.3 user (Score:4, Interesting)
I did get a great laugh though. One of the sales guys wants to send out a renewal notice. I read the text and realized it was worded like a stereotypical SPAM. I raised objections, but was ignored.
Then the Mozilla SPAM filter caught it during the test phase.
The registration notice is now being rewritten.
Re:happy 1.3 user (Score:5, Funny)
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:happy 1.3 user (Score:2)
Re:Spamburgers for Hotmail (Score:3, Funny)
huh... (Score:2)
Re:Spamburgers for Hotmail (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Spamburgers for Hotmail (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh well.
Other amazing discoveries... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Other amazing discoveries... (Score:2, Funny)
I don't eat pork!
Re:Other amazing discoveries... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, it is suprising, but I think there is an important distinction between opting out via the same web site form that you opted in through, as opposed to opting out via the dodgy "Reply to remove" message at the end of most spam.
They se
Did they use IE? (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet the web bugs would have kept the recurrences high even for addresses that were removed...
Re:Did they use IE? (Score:2)
Burn in Hell, Son of Spam! (Score:3, Insightful)
I am sorry, smack me down if you must, but... Aaaahhhhhhhh!!!! Die Spammer, Die! Friggin White Trash sonsabitchin spammers. I feel slightly better now. Ready for Karma extraction.
Re:Burn in Hell, Son of Spam! (Score:4, Funny)
I smell a challenge.
Re:Burn in Hell, Son of Spam! (Score:5, Insightful)
That aside, this guy is a total scumbag. Any cop who is fired for selling drugs and then becomes a spammer gives a perfect image of the integrity level of spammers. His assertion that spammers level the marketing playing field is total garbage. Any company who has to disguise their address and use deception is not one working in the ethical realm.
At some point, these slimy jerks are going to get what they deserve. I just hope I'm there to see it...
How about, "Burn in Hell, Dirty Cop"? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, this guy is a real success story to be immitated.
Re:Burn in Hell, Son of Spam! (Score:5, Interesting)
8002 Bellcreek Ln
Dayton, OH 45426
(937) 837 - 6997
I also tried to find a satellite image, but no luck.
If someone can verify this info, that'd be great. This was the only one I could find.
My spam research (Score:5, Interesting)
Which means that every email to that domain goes to me.
Every time I give my Email online I give a diff name, for instance if I buy at yahoo I give "yahoo-shopping@mydomain.com".
If I get spam to this address I know who gave it to the spammers.
- only been doing this for a week, no spam so far but there is still hope
Note: I am not actively looking to be spamed, just doing my usual stuff.
Re:My spam research (Score:2)
Re:My spam research (Score:2)
Any addresses that you use for business or personal stuff. Then anything going to other email addresses on your domain (ie, moofoo@mydomain.com) sent to
As long as you don't have a massive and always changing user base with email addresses at your domain, you should be fine,
I would think...
Re:My spam research (Score:3)
Re:My spam research (Score:3, Informative)
You need to use >>.
Re:My spam research (Score:5, Interesting)
It helps you track spam AND get rid of annoying companies' e-mails.
Re:My spam research (Score:4, Informative)
|exit 100
The 100 exit status causes all mail to that address to bounce, not just get sent to /dev/null. And a bounce is the most reliable way to get off a spam list. AFAIK, qmail is the only MTA that allows user-level control of bounces like this.
Re:My spam research (Score:3, Informative)
| bouncesaying "Better luck next time"
Re:My spam research (Score:5, Informative)
And, if you want to accept everything that starts with your username, you set up
So, you can have
This info is pretty much available in the man page "dotqmail" and some info may be found at the author's web site at http://cr.yp.to/qmail.html [cr.yp.to]
or the Life With Qmail web site, http://www.lifewithqmail.com/ [lifewithqmail.com].
Re:My spam research (Score:5, Interesting)
Once I get spam sent to one of the addresses, I change the forward so it no longer goes to me, but forwards to a number of addresses at their domain.
For example, if i signed up at yahoo.com and they spammed me, I would change my yahoo@mydomain.com forward to send to:
abuse@yahoo.com,staff@yahoo.com,support@yaho
etc
As they are all at the same domain, my mail server only sends one copy to the yahoo.com mailserver. Their server breaks it up then so I only really send one email out.
Using procmail to do this, i usually turn on logging until it hits a certain size.
If no real/ligit emails come to me before the log of spam reaches a couple megs, i turn off logging and leave it.
This generates surprisingly little traffic on my mail server, and one would hope they get the point
This way yahoo (only using as example of course) may remove me from their mailing lists, but they have to deal with the spam from all of their 'business partners' they signed me up for, and at that point i dont care if the address is removed or not
So what?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Your still getting spammed because in most places, it's perfectly legal for them to do so. Your bandwidth is still absorbing spam. Your mail server still deals with the spam/bounces.
Just making a cute address doesn't solve the problem.
Re:My spam research (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are just giving the address because they demanded one, and you have no reason to expect them to contact you for any reason, set up a filtering/procmail config so that any mail sent to that customized address is automatically forwarded to EVERY corporate address for the site to whom you originally gave it. That way, if someone spams that address, the corporate addresses of the sleazebags who gave it out are the ones who get it returned.
the two things I've seen increase spam for me... (Score:5, Informative)
2) Register a domain name.
I have multiple domain names and I know for certain that much of my spam originated from either scanning the whois database, or someone selling the e-mail addresses from there.
I don't gamble, but I noticed that the java applets that were used for 99% of the gambling sites were all from the same place. In other words, if you want to start a gambling site, but you don't want to write software - you can pay to use the java applets of this one company. There is some rebradning that goes on - but in the end, it all goes through their servers and uses their code.
Because of that, I figured if there were any holes in the software, that would mean a whole crapload of open spots out there. So out of curiosity I registered at a gambling site and then looked at the source (you can get the source from a java applet).
After that, my spam increased exponentially - the immediate group was spamming me, as well as selling off the address - which then gets repeated over and over.
I use spamassassin now and I have it tweaked to the point where out of over 100 spams a day, I only have 1 get through - and that is because the code times out and lets it through, not because SA hasn't caught it.
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.
I use one of the more recent 2.60 versions, have the spam threshold lowered to 3.5, and I have tweaked a few of the score settings. Workds great for me.
Fix for problem number two (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone know of any other services like this?
Re:the two things I've seen increase spam for me.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I've posted to usenet, and with only a couple of instances excepted, I've munged my address both in the from header and in the sig.
Yes
Re:the two things I've seen increase spam for me.. (Score:2)
Very true. But in fact, it doesn't just apply to Java. Even in other languages you can disassemble the code and work out what it does. It takes longer than it would to decompile Java bytecode, but it can be done, and if security is important to you then the
Responses (Score:2)
Would he also say the same thing if a bunch of people hacked his email server and redirected all his crap toward this guy's own personal email box? Or if he was sent those 2 mil AOL CDs? Also, the places where he has his server's, ar
Why am I getting all this spam? (Score:2, Funny)
Because your penis is small, you'd like to work from home and everybody loves baklava?
Unreported Cost of Spam (Score:5, Insightful)
Spam makes money? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Spam makes money? (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Re:Spam makes money? (Score:3)
LOL!!
--K.
Re:Spam makes money? (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like his attempt was a little limp.
FTC links on Charles Childs (Score:5, Informative)
Re:FTC links on Charles Childs (Score:2)
(Apologies to all the real trannies out there, I know slashdot has a few. Nothing against you, Linda Lightfoot just sounds like a bad porn name.)
Re:FTC links on Charles Childs (Score:5, Interesting)
Rules of spam:
0) Spam is theft.
1) Spammers lie.
2) If you think a spammer's telling the truth, see Rule #1.
3) Spammers are stupid.
Corollary: Spammer lies are really stupid.
So when I read this:
I immediately thought "This asshat wants me to Just Hit Delete. Every time I've heard that excuse, the guy saying it has been either lying (Rule #1), or stupid (Rule #3). This guy sounds like both. (Corollary). So I'll lay odds that this guy's a spammer."
I was just about to Google for the proof, when you did all the leg-work by posting the FTC links. Thanks. J00 r0x0r!
Not stressful at all... (Score:3, Funny)
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 some
Re:FTC links on Charles Childs (Score:5, Informative)
Charles F Childs
and Linda Jean Lightfoot
4132 Pompton Court
Dayton
Ohio 45405
Keywords: "Spammer's address, Universal Direct, Pyramid marketing scam", for the benefit of google.
Spam (Score:3, Insightful)
I participate in none of these activities. I have my email address on my website, but I spell it out instead of using the at@symbol.com . I've had two e-mail addresses since Summer 2001 and the only spam I get is from Windows e-mail viruses, which aren't compatible with my operation system. Yes, it *is* possible to have a public e-mail address that doesn't get spammed.
Re:Spam (Score:2)
So these viruses are able to get hold of your email address even though conventional address harvesters cannot. I wonder how long it will be until a spammer creates a virus or worm which as well as mailing itself to everyone in your address book, sends the contents of the address book back to the spammer (by some indirect route). There are probably large numbers of 'lost' addresses which don't appear on the Web but are in somebody's Outlook address boo
Re:Spam (Score:3, Informative)
At this point I'm praying for legislation that makes UCE illegal to government entities! You would think it would be misappropriation of resources or something. But the Ashcroft says no, I guess he is too busy chasing terrorists.
Use javascript (Score:3, Interesting)
<script>
document.write("me");
document.write("@");
document.write("wherever");
document.write(".tld");
</script>
It works pretty well, I've found.
pr0n Spam (Score:5, Funny)
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:pr0n Spam (Score:2)
Actually I don't get that much spam. (Score:2, Interesting)
Moral of this story? Post to usenet (and mailing lists) with a junk account. Keep a private account for friends and
Slashdot advertiser facilitating SPAM (Score:4, Informative)
spam forecast (Score:2, Funny)
tuesday: threathening cloud of penis enlargement pills coming up from the south and webMD health issues are clearing up
and so on...
spammers should be shot (Score:2)
I actually had to go re-read that quote. What a prick! I sincerely hope the FTC continues to investigate this guy and his company. Then I hope he goes to jail. I'm not talking white color resort prison; I'm talking federal pound-you
Re:spammers should be shot (Score:2)
And let's take away his stapler, too.
Hotmail is good for some things (Score:2, Insightful)
At first, receiving email that said, - -, you too can have a larger penis! was funny. That wore off... oh... five years ago. Now I'm just annoyed.
I've opened hotmail accounts and left them alone, never used them for anything, never registered them with anyone, never posted or emailed from them. And two months later, there's spam in them.
Since I figure hotmail is going to get spammed anyway, I use a hotmail acc
bah (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh god, here we go with the old "waah why isn't everyone as tough as I am" complaint.
I wonder, does he have children? If not, would he relish the idea of them constantly being hit with sex ads? How about elderly relatives?
Re:bah (Score:4, Interesting)
And let us all hope that he doesn't pollute this world with offspring.
Re:bah (Score:3, Interesting)
Clearly he doesn't care. We're talking about a guy who violated his public oath as a peace officer to make money by selling drugs on the street. In my opinion, breaking that oath is a far worse crime than selling drugs because it illustrates a perfect lack of integrity that the simple act of selling illegal drugs does not. Someone who would sell out the citizens he has sworn to protect certainly wou
Surprised 'bots are that stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
The above CDT finding is mildly surprising to me. Is there a reason people haven't built 'smarter' Web scrapers that filter and convert character encodings of things like the '@' sign in email addys? Doesn't seem too difficult, but if the report is to be taken at face value, it seems a simple precaution to take (still). I had always considered it a low-tech defense easily overwhelemed. Guess I was wrong?
Re:Surprised 'bots are that stupid (Score:2, Interesting)
Then again, I have always used that method of hiding my email address for newsgroup postings, despite the fact that I thought it wouldn't really work. Good to know that it does, I suppose.
I'm actually interested in how well spambots deal with something like the email address listed at this page [plogs.net] listing my contact info. Do they parse html info and realize that this is just a normal email address in a t
Re:Surprised 'bots are that stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
The people who obfuscate their email address to avoid spams arent the ones you want to spam, since they're pretty much 100% guaranteed not to even read the email.
The spammers want the messages sent to the dopes who might actually buy the product/service.
Re:Surprised 'bots are that stupid (Score:3, Informative)
There are better obsfucators [arizona.edu] available.
Overall 80% spam... (Score:2)
Still, notice that they received more than 10,000 emails... and more than 8,000 were spam. That's around 80% spam, and it includes the accounts that actually took some measure of protection against it. Naturally accounts that didn't bother to protect their email addresses got a much greater proportion of spam.
It's a shame we have to protect
Yeah, right . . . (Score:4, Funny)
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."
ARG (Score:2)
Sleazy Spammers in Ohio. (Score:2)
I wish I remembered his name.
He is a
The gauntlet has been thrown! (Score:5, Funny)
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]?
How is old Alan doing? (Score:2)
Re:How is old Alan doing? (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Hmmmmm. (Score:2)
Can anyone narrow that down a bit?
My Active Michigan Lawsuit (Score:5, Interesting)
About 2 or 3 years ago, my wife visited a store in the Lansing, Michigan area and gave them my email address. From time to time, I would receive email from them. Eventually, I asked them to stop. They stopped.
On November 21, 2002, I received an email from them asking me if I would like to begin receiving advertisements and marketing offers from them again. There was a link to click on, if I didn't want to opt-in. I clicked on that link.
Approximately 2 months later, I received an email from them. They had an option to unsubscribe by sending an email to their unsubscribe address. It said I would be removed immediately. I even received a confirmation stating that I had unsubscribed. For the next month, I continued to get 2-3 emails from them per week. Each time, I clicked unsubscribe and was told that I had indeed been unsubscribed.
After the 2nd email, I contacted customer service and reported the problem. No response. After the fourth time, I contacted them again, and threatened legal action, if they didn't stop. No response. I called customer service, talked to a live person, and was told that I would be removed from all their lists. But the email continued to come.
I filed a lawsuit in Michigan small claims alleging violations of the "junk fax" law, having heard about a Michigan man who had won by doing so. 6 violations for $500 each, resulted in $3,000, the maximum allowable under Michigan Law for small claims. As evidence, I have nearly all of the advertisement emails as well as my requests to be unsubscribed, and their acknowlegements stating that I had been unsubscribed. Additionally, I have the emails I sent to customer service, which never received replies.
About 2 weeks after filing suit, I received an email from their customer service stating that they were finally looking into the problem. I haven't received an email from them in the last 2 weeks, so I assume that I'm finally off their list, and it only cost me $36.50 ($32 small claims, $4.50 certified mail).
However, now their attorneys have demanded that the case be removed from small claims and placed into general civil court (which is their right). Unfortunately, I plan to do just that.
The FTC has publicly stated that not honoring removal requests is illegal. However, I'm not sure I have a private right of action in this situation. Using the Junk Fax law in general civil court is probably a bad idea, and I think I would likely have to claim actual damages in order to pursue it in general civil court.
I don't really want to get in over my head. I'm sure they realize this, which then makes me WANT to get in over my head. However, I'm still not sure that I have a legal basis for my case. Even in a state like Washington, where anti-spam laws exist, half of the cases get dismissed by the judge.
I called a local attorney and was told that I should dismiss, or risk being counter-sued for a frivolous lawsuit. Essentially, what they did is illegal, but there really isn't much I can do about it other than contact the FTC and the state attorney general, and if I pursue my case against them, I could wind up paying them.
--
Slashdolt
Re:My Active Michigan Lawsuit (Score:2)
There's no advantage to you in going to regular court, and many disadvantages. Oppose their motion to move the case to regular court.
Oops... (Score:2)
"They're trying to get my to dismiss. Unfortunately, I probably do just that."
--
Slashdolt
Re:My Active Michigan Lawsuit (Score:4, Insightful)
For anyone out there who cannot convince FirstUSA bank to stop telemarketting to your house, call the assistant to the CEO at 888-622-7547 x6839.
Tell her that you will call her back each time you get one of their calls. If she tells you that it could take several months to get off their lists, then tell here that it will also take several months for her to get off *your* list.
I went thru this about 7 years ago and finally put a stop to it with this method after my "properly channeled" requests were ignored. They started up again recently; so I went straight to plan B. It works! Just call the CEO, or as close as you can get.
Re:My Active Michigan Lawsuit (Score:2)
Now why dont you sue me, you shitwit?
Because you didn't do anything illegal. They did. Read the law, shitwit.
-- SlashdoltWoah woah woah, wait a minute. (Score:2)
So let me get this straight. Not only is this Childs guy a commercial spammer who says people should "Quit your whining" about receiving spam, but he was also a drug dealer and a corrupt cop.
So now, my question is how the hell isn't this guy in jail? You'd think between dealing drugs, being a corrupt police officer, and being a spammer this guy would be behind
Origins of spam? (Score:2)
On the second day, the Lord created spam, and it was bad.
Smart Programmers proved Lawful Good (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought for sure by now spammers would have figured out regular expressions and e-mail address verifying modules, and I'm glad they haven't.
But doesn't that prove that there's never been a smart programmer who's worked on an e-mail harvester?
I think that says alot about the profession.
Spam is an end in itself. (Score:3, Interesting)
But, many spammers exist solely to sell other spammers email addresses. So, an obscured email address is just as valuable to such a spammer as any other email address.
Of course, they won't tell their spammer clients that the email address is for a spam-averse user, they'll collect their
My plan for spam.. (Score:4, Interesting)
We need the ISPs to work WITH the spammers ( or vice cersa). Make it trvial to filter, and only send it once. Give everybody a shared "Spam box", as place to go and see if they really need to acclerate their dialup to new levels, or a vacation, or whatever (I'm assuming 18" Penis and XXX TEEN LESBIANS will not be considered legit). We need stiff penalties to those who violate the law. We can't enforce the law in other spammer friendly countries, but we can enforce the law in our own. The company marketing should also be held responsible for violations, preventing American companies from just outsourcing their spam. Any spammer friendly ISP's either deal with their spammers or risk the entire range being blocked (voluntarily) by American ISPs. I know 99% of service providers would have no problem blocking out spammers voluntarily, especially if they are being good Americans while they are doing so. Let's not forget that as rapidly as it's changing, a majority of popular sites are American based. I know all you Norwiglians out there would probably drop your ISP if you couldn't get to slashdot just because your ISP supported spam.
The DMA has too much money to let spam die, and apart from the slashdot crowd a majority of people don't find spam to be a big problem in their daily lives (albeit mostly thhanks to us busting ass). Some people actually enjoy getting spam. I don't understand it either, but to each his own. As an option in a recent poll said, grey areas definately exist.
I think spam is a fact of life. Sometimes I get emails from business friends who include a small ad as their sig. We can't kill spam but we can change the face of it to be ever os less intrusive. We're going to have to compromise our "FUCK YOU AND YOUR GOD DAMN SPAM" attitudes if we plan on giving our credibility to our cause.
We want complete restriciton, and they want no restriciton. Somewhere in the middle there's a feasible solution for both of us.
Re:My plan for spam.. (Score:2)
Simple:
Duh.Uhh (Score:2)
Which means 5% want to receive spam? I'm surprised there's anyone at all that doesn't loathe spam except the spammers themselves.
Spammers and arses (Score:2)
The Game Is Afoot! (Score:2)
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge....
New Acronym (Score:2)
Lots of filters, just a few spam (Score:3, Interesting)
spammer's home address (Score:5, Informative)
ABUSERS: C. Fielding Childs
cf_childs@yahoo.com
Bulker's Paradise
4132 Pompton Ct.
Dayton, Ohio 45405
FAX: (937) 275-3741
ALSO: Charles Fielding Childs, Jr.
"MAIL ORDER ALLIED COMPANY"
2936 Melbourne Ave.
Dayton, OH 45417
Google Groups (Score:3, Interesting)
I imagine that harvesting software would crawl Google groups regularly. Is there anything I can do about this? This study makes it clear that after an email address is removed from the web, the amount of spam it receives drops off dramatically. It makes sense that removing my email address from google groups (the last remaining place it exists on the web) could help substantially.
So the question is, will Google remove my email address from their site if I ask them? Has anybody else tried this?
- j
Have you already forgotten the lesson? (Score:2)
In Ohio, SPAM is Illegal! (Score:4, Informative)
New Tactic (Score:4, Interesting)
HTML copy of the report now available (Score:4, Informative)
Great article but one fundamental oops (Score:3, Interesting)
1. E-mail addresses harvested from the public Web are frequently used by spammers. By an overwhelming margin, the greatest amount of spam we received was to addresses posted on the public Web.
They have forgotten to mention the very mailto: tag in their research. IMHO this might have been a crucial factor to their research.
Although on the majority of web pages you have the mailto: link to be the same as your email address (duh), for research purpose it would have been interesting to separate the visible email address and the one in the mailto: tag. I am confident that whatever is in the mailto: link is what attracts spiders, and the email address displayed on the page gets less.
Can someone with knowlege of harvesting get back to us and tell me if this assumption is correct ? Better yet, does someone has any data ?
Re:Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.visi.com/~rwglynn/030319spamreport.pdf [visi.com]
Re:Can we close the holes? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's possible that some government fiat could ram this new standard down everyone's throats, but I don't think anyone would be happy with that.