Lycos Anti-Spam Screensaver Brings Down Spam Sites

ChairmanMeow writes "According to BBC News, the screensaver released by Lycos Europe that targets spam websites has been a bit too successful at targeting spam sites, bringing down two sites, with a third responding intermittently, and raising concerns that the screensaver amounts to a DDoS attack against spam sites. Of course, spammers deserve to be punished, but will DDoS attacks against spam websites help to curb the problem of spam?" While the screensaver allegedly throttles back when a site slows, it would seem it's being a bit overzealous.

Bad? No way.

[Malevolyn]

It's nothing illegal. Just packet spam.

Quick!

[powerlinekid]

Post the links to the sites it targetted, we can finish them off!

OMG, you're right!

[rackhamh]

What a horrible thing to do to those friendly neighborhood spammers. :(

Re:Bad? No way.

[name773]

Spam is a bit harsh; the lycos screensaver is a legitimate bulk packet sender.

Re:Quick!

[powerlinekid]

A reverse slashdotting of slashdot? You anonymous coward are a clever one.

Summary of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Netcraft confirms it: Spam is dead.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Using a DDOS on spammers is kind of like sending an arsonist to burn down the house of a murderer...

I think it is more akin to a group of people going over to a murderer's house and beating him to death with baseball bats.

Nothing wrong with that.

Quick!

[UberOogie]

Someone get the world's smallest violin immediately!

Re:Bad? No way.

[Rei]

I can just picture the packets now. They try to send to every destination port on the target machine, the control bits are always set to "Urgent!" (URG), the source IP is deliberately set incorrectly, the data segment is malformed and contains a fake "opt out" message at the end...

Re:Quick!

[powerlinekid]

Fatality!

I love spam

[sparks]

I am always interested in novel commercial propositions. There's nothing I love more than seeing what exciting offers are available in the way of bodily enhancement, alternative medicines, and high-return investment opportunities.

Don't you feel the same? I'm sure you do.

Wouldn't it be great if someone would create a screensaver that would automatically visit the websites of the vendors of these enticing offers and display them on my screen? I'm a fast reader so it would be great if it could show a few each second.

That way, I'd be able to read all about their exciting products without having to do anything at all.

If there was such a screensaver, maybe lots of people would download it. After all, I'm sure we're all interested in the products on offer. And what e-entrepeneur wouldn't want to have thousands of interested potential customers visit his web site every second?

Re:Worrying

[arodland]

It's not a DDoS, it's just unsolicited bulk requests!

Re:Worrying

[raehl]

line will creep down at Internet speed.

African internet speed or European internet speed?

Re:Hmm.

[legirons]

"Using a DDOS on spammers is kind of like sending an arsonist to burn down the house of a murderer..."

except without the fires and dead people...

Re:Bad? No way.

[severoon]

Well, wait a minute. It's clearly unethical if the screensaver sends random data to these spammers web sites--that's clearly a DDoS attack. On the other hand, if it's not random data and it's, say, business opportunities and offers of various useful products that the spam sites might want to know about, I'd say this screensaver is providing a valuable service to them!

So I guess you really CAN say it this time....

[WebCowboy]

...NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT
the Lycos screensaver is dying (but it'll take a few spammers down with it)

Re:Quick!

[oexeo]

All those links are down, do you have any mirrors?

Re:I love spam

[. visplek .]

I don't think there's a screensaver that can do that but there might just be a browser that can set you up. It also enhances your Web browsing experience (TM).;)

Re:What's really cool is...

[ryanmfw]

see how geeks communicate...

Uh, they probably won't see much communication here...

Cheers, Ryan

Re:Bad? No way.

[Jim_Maryland]

It's clearly unethical if the screensaver sends random data to these spammers web sites--that's clearly a DDoS attack

Wouldn't the fact that we've all gotten spam from a site constitute a previous business interaction (of course initiated by the spammer)? Maybe the screensaver just needs to send a unsubscribe link to another spammers site. Lycos could claim that the unsubscribe link was coded in error.

But sir....

[krbvroc1]

Dear Spammer,

I hope you enjoy the packets we are sending you. This is a not SPAM. Previously you opted-in for these packets. If you would like to be removed from our packet list, please turn off your machine. Thank you.

Re:Hmm.

[djdavetrouble]

It's only funny til someone gets hurt.......... then it's hilarious !

Re:Berman tried that

[Anonymous Coward]

I *really* like the sound of the phrase let their routers burn. Beautiful. Thank you.

They Opted In

[PetoskeyGuy]

When someone sends a SYN, you don't have to respond with an ACK. If they don't like it, they should delete those packets and get on with their day.

Whiners

We need some cool new technology

[_iCeb0x_ (1337 and k]

Like screensavers capable of emiting EMP's targeted at those spammer boxes. That would be really cool.

"... a bit overzealous"?!

[Anonymous Coward]

"...a bit overzealous." Are you an idiot or what? If spam servers anywhere catch fire and melt it's a gift to humanity. Those bastards are a blight upon the entire industry. Nuke 'em!

"...a bit overzealous." Bullshit.

Re:Bad? No way.

[ArcticCelt]

I think we are on something here! The screen saver should send something through the GET like:
http://www.spamersite.com/?do_you_want_to_increa se_you_bandwich_by_three_full_gb

Re:Bad? No way.

[Anonymous Coward]

They've sent the opt out requests, we're processing them. Please be aware it may take 1-3 weeks for their request to be fully processed.