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Spam IT

"Spam King" Agrees to Stop Spamming For Now 194

Posted by CowboyNeal from the break-in-the-action dept.
Sandman writes "The AP is reporting that so called "Spam King" Sanford Wallace has agreed to stop spamming... at least temporarily until the FTC suit is settled" At best this is a precursor of things to come, and at worst it's a nice break.
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"Spam King" Agrees to Stop Spamming For Now More

"Spam King" Agrees to Stop Spamming For Now

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  • But I won't get my spam :( (Score:5, Funny)

    by Blapto ( 839626 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:06PM (#11270579)
    I *need* to know Candy misses me!
  • My server logs see a slight (4%) decrease in rejected email, but it's probably just noise. When will we see a significant drop in spam?

    -b0lt

    • Re:Interesting (Score:2, Informative)

      by kaustik ( 574490 )
      The article is in reference to spyware, not spam.

    • Re:Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

      by krray ( 605395 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:17PM (#11271231)
      I saw a 30-60% drop (depending on the day) over the holidays.
      The holidays are over. Volume is right back up to ~1,500 rejects daily.
      • I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was because of college students going home. God knows how many infected boxes there are at colleges on broadband connections.

  • one down (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:07PM (#11270594)
    a billion to go...

    but he'll be back

  • This is a duplicate.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by RonUSMC ( 823230 ) <RonUSMC@gmaiNETBSDl.com minus bsd> on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:07PM (#11270595)
    Wasnt this just reported yesterday? But it was under the title.. going to stop sending spyware, for now?

  • Spam? (Score:5, Informative)

    by elid ( 672471 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .dopi.ile.> on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:07PM (#11270598)
    It seems from the article that he's going to stop using spyware, not sending spam.

    • Re:Spam? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Shag ( 3737 ) * on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:18PM (#11270717) Journal
      Correct. He was forced to stop spamming a few years back.

      I just wonder what form of cyber-misbehavior he'll try next. :)

      • Re:Spam? (Score:5, Funny)

        by AceCaseOR ( 594637 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:40PM (#11270910) Homepage Journal
        And he kept doing it anyway. I don't believe a word the bastard says. Hell, if the asshole get's whacked tomorrow, I wouldn't beleive the obituary. If I saw the fuck's corpse maybe (and provided it wasn't disfigured - I've listened that episode of The Shadow.)

        • I've listened that episode of The Shadow.

          First thing to come to mind, from a comment a couple months back:

          "You are about to be eaten a grue"

      • He was forced to stop spamming a few years back.

        He was forced to start hiding his spamming a few years back. Before that, he just said "Yes, I did it, you don't like it, I dont care, I'm Spamford, King of Spam, and I'll never stop."

        Then he lost several major lawsuits and said "I've quit the spam business." But he never quit, he just started hiding it and quit bragging about doing it. He never got out of the business.

        He's vermin, and won't stop until he's locked up or dead.

  • Oh no!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by gremlins ( 588904 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:10PM (#11270625)
    Where am I going to buy my Penis Enlargement pills now?!?!?
  • He will just lose space in the profitable spam industry.

    When he wants to come back, his place won't be there anymore.

  • Too little too late (Score:3, Insightful)

    by albn ( 835144 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:11PM (#11270640) Journal
    They can give restaining orders all day long, but the spyware, adware and other crap is still on many boxes still generating ads for him.
  • Whoa whoa whoa... if he's spamming again, then he better have his lawyer on speed dial. He just violated court orders in lawsuits done by AOL, Earthlink, and about half the US ISP's!!!

    • Re:Wait a min... Sanford starting to SPAM AGAIN?!? (Score:5, Informative)

      by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:55PM (#11271043) Homepage
      I can't talk about any of the other ISPs, but I was at Earthlink when they sued him. The restraining order prevented him from using our servers to relay his spam. That's all. Of course, now, the Earthlink servers don't allow relaying, so he can't do that anyway unless he had an account with them. (BTW, Earthlink also blocks outgoing port 25 to keep their customers from relaying through other servers.)
      • I know Earthlink's policies all too well.

        Could not contact my parents by phone since they were vacationing in US.
        So I try to email their Earthlink account.
        Earthlink rejected my legit mail because I was running my server on a dynamic IP for cost reasons.

        All I wanted to do was inform my parents of the birth of our new baby girl.

        They just ignored my every effort to have them pass the email.
        Years later though, my parents became friends with an Earthlink employee.

        I don't have problems emailing them anymore.

  • Spam King??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:12PM (#11270656)
    I didn't vote for him!
    • Sanford: You don't vote for kings!

      Peasant: Well, how'd you become king then?

      Sanford: The Goddess of the Net, her arm clad in the purest shimmering source code, held aloft Stealth Mass Mailer from the bosom of the data stream, signifying by divine providence that I, Sanford, was to carry Stealth Mass Mailer. THAT is why I am your king.

      Peasant [interrupting]: Listen, strange women lyin' in chat rooms distributin' emailers is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandat

  • "Spamford" Wallace has promised to stop before... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by martinbogo ( 468553 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:13PM (#11270667) Homepage Journal

    Most likely, he's working out a way to offshore the whole operation into a shell corporation in the Bahamas, and will (again) laugh his way to the bank.

    Infecting the net with spyware, choking the backbones with spam. Making his money in the sleazebag way he always does.

    This doesn't change anything.

  • obvious next step (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ChipMonk ( 711367 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:13PM (#11270669) Journal
    Don't settle the suit. Drag it on forever.
    • Don't settle the suit. Drag it on forever.

      Sure, because we all know that Spamford can be trusted to fulfill his part. Until he's dead or in jail, he'll continue, regardless of any silly little things like laws or morals.

  • yeah, right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by elmegil ( 12001 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:13PM (#11270675) Homepage Journal
    at worst it's a nice break.

    Because we know there's no way he's passed off his lists and primary business to someone else, a partner or whatever, so that the revenue stream just gets transferred away from him while he's under investigation.

  • You gotta keep yourself out there in the market place...building your brand and product image. Errr wait...never mind.

    I think he really quit because I finally configured to just delete spam since the false positive rate on Thunderbird is now really low for me :)

    Think of all the small penises (peni?) there will now be...

  • Oh, Really... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) *
    Over the Christmas break my spam went down to only about 50 per 24 hours, now it's up to about 200 again.

    Then again, maybe it's an indication most of this sh!t is perpetrated by students...

    • We're all adults here, you can swear..

    • Re:Oh, Really... (Score:5, Funny)

      by JudgeFurious ( 455868 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:16PM (#11271627)
      No. see what happened is this. A large number of people recieved new computers as gifts for Christmas and unplugged their old computers. An army of zombies vanished in a single day.

      Within a week the new machines were all infected and things returned to "normal".
  • "Sanford Wallace and his companies, SmartBot.net Inc. of Richboro, Pa."

    WTF! That's where I used to live! I can't believe that. Now I'm sure it's possible there's another richboro in PA but I doubt it....damn that's messed up. I never heard of his company though.

    • Re:holy shit (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Surprising. I would have thought that such a successful advertising company would want the world to beat a path to their door.

  • A Friendly Reminder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lead Butthead ( 321013 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:20PM (#11270732) Journal
    a. Spammers lie.
    b. See "a."

    Conclusion: Stop spamming as in stop spamming from US?
  • ...any laws against bulk mail spamming [pcweenies.org] a spammer?

  • Interesting article from '99 about Wallace. (Score:5, Informative)

    by PocketPick ( 798123 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:22PM (#11270750)
    Gotta love this:

    "I'm not spamming again," Wallace said in an interview with CNET News.com. "I am the most antispam person alive because of the trouble my old company got into."

    Apparently he didn't mean it.Here's the full article: http://news.com.com/Is+the+king+of+spam+back+in+bu siness/2100-1023_3-220427.html [com.com]

  • He's still spamming us... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...Now on Slashdot!

    I hope no one clicked them links: Read the article? I'm not going to support the spam buisness model.

  • Ya right! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:29PM (#11270811)
    spam king's promise not to spam is like promising not to send more emails after clicking the un-subcribe link for rolexes. >.
  • How about we just take the scum out of the loop all together? anyone know where he lives?
    • VENTILATE YOUR CAROTID ARTERY FOR FASTER OXYGENATION!

      From Frank R, of Rhode Island: "I was a busy, on-the-go executive, with no time for breathing. All this breathing and osmosis and hemoglobin is too slow! There has to be a better way! And there is! Thank you, Rustyblunt! Now I have all the time I need to rest in my office while reading the same page of the newspaper for hours until my secretary walks in to find my mutilated corpse!"

      From Cynthia S. of Rhode Island: "Oh my god, somebody call 911! Oh g
    • Perhaps the next anti-spam law should include a provision that people that engage in spamming activites and are convicted are to be excluded from using the internet anything other than personal reasons; if your a spammer and caught you can only use the internet for paying your bills, surfing the internet, etc, but if you use the internet for business purpouses, then your committed a felony and get to become Bubba's Butt Buddy -- again. Also make it part of the sentencing that those convicted can not engage
  • I have an Earthlink account that use for dial-up when the cable modem is on the blink. (It took the cable company three weeks to figure out why I wasn't getting internet access was because they installed the equipment backwards for a neighbor. Go figure.) I don't use this account at all for email, but I do get a ton of spam.

    Lately, there's been a significant decrease in the porn spam. What I'm seeing a lot of these days is home refinancings, free laptops and the Nigerian widow with too much money and no

  • Not to worry... (Score:4, Funny)

    by murphyslawyer ( 534449 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @08:37PM (#11270885) Homepage
    The Spam King will eventually be betrayed by his ex-best friend, Mr. Spam, and trapped under an avalanche of junk mail on forbidding Widow's Peak.
  • due to the karmic implications of the activities of spammers and spyware operators, asmodeus, mouthpiece of hell, would like to inform us that a new, technologically advanced circle of hell has formed recently. hell has said that over the course of its illustrious history, it has remained up-to-date with the various technological advances that its human fodder have created, and is happy to say hell is now no push over in the cyberspace department. just recently, hell's IT department was able to successfully woo and hire the BSD demon.

    asmodeus, on behalf of himself, beelzebub, azazel and baal, would also like to thank spammers and spyware creators for their innovations. they have been having a lot of fun playing with the new gadgets and technological doodads in this new circle and thinking up well, devilish new uses for them. just yesterday baal and azazel, after a rousing game of gta: san andreas, quite proudly demonstrated their wonderful new DDoS nipple clamps and botnet dental drills. The BSD demon cackled and chortled and choked on a packet in appreciation.

    the gang down there would also like to remind all spammers and spyware operators that this new circle of hell has amazing bandwidth capacity for eternal delivery of viagara and vioxx offers straight to the frontal cortex, representing a coup in the r&d department of the lost souls there, who will of course, never benefit from the ip capital of their hard work.

    spammers and spyware operators, azazel reminds us, will find that a *warm* reception will be awaiting them when they arrive in this new technologically advanced circle of hell.
  • We know he's in Vegas but where? Anyone interested in collecting donations so we could put a hit on him or at least break his arms so he can't press keys? Maybe a kneecap or two. Is there any Yakuza in the house?

    I mean the only way people would notice he is gone is that their email boxes would be more likely to full of their own mail. Strange concept but I think that over time, people may get used to it. Call me crazy but I think they will.

  • If only... (Score:2, Informative)

    by CypherXero ( 798440 )
    We could bring down all the spammers [computerhelpforum.org].
  • Actually the story reads, "Under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, a man known as the "Spam King" will stop infecting computers with advertising programs until a federal lawsuit against him is resolved."

    Installing adware and selling a product to remove it.... To me that would be about like a doctor walking up and shooting you in the leg and then offering to fix it for a fee. ;-)
  • Which reminds me. I had so much fun going through the list of famous ham radio operators (last slashdot story), then going through my email inbox (this slashdot story), I forgot to get dinner, later all.

  • Someone else will take up the slack (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...and offer to "Enrage Your Pennies!"
  • The preliminary injunction is over spyware, and specifically states [oreilly.com] that Wallace won't exploit two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer to install his spyware on the computers of people who visit his web sites.

  • Liar. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:01PM (#11271105) Journal
    Rule 1. Spammers lie.

    Rule 2. If spammer seems to be telling the truth, see Rule 1.

    Rule 3. Spammers are stupid.

  • Article refers to passthison.com (Score:5, Informative)

    by Serveert ( 102805 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:10PM (#11271177)
    passthison.com would set your homepage in order to generate impressions and get more revenue. The homepage would give you anti-virus/trojan ads.
  • Here is how spamford agreed not to send spam anymore:

    Spamford: "You can take my spam relay when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!"

    Alien Cockroach: "Your proposal is acceptible"

  • Interesting tactics (Score:4, Interesting)

    by E IS mC(Square) ( 721736 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:18PM (#11271238) Journal
    Here [ftc.gov] is the link to the complaint filed by FTC.

    The best part is the description of the tactics and messages used by the Spam king! Its stupid, but effective way to fool most of the surfers!

    One advertisement mimics the "Notepad" feature of the IE web browser and displays a message stating:
    If your NOTEPAD launched and is displaying this message. . . Then 'Spyware' programmers can ontrol applications on YOUR computer and it is URGENT that you download SPY WIPER immediately. Do not allow spyware programs to damage your insecure computer!! (See other window).
    [Exhibit 1, as of August 30, 2004]
    A separate advertisement causes the computer's CD-ROM tray to open and states:
    FINAL WARNING ! !
    If your cd-rom drive(s) open . . .
    You DESPERATELY NEED to rid your system of spyware pop-ups IMMEDIATELY!
    Spyware programmers can control your computer hardware if you failed to protect your computer right at this moment!
    • Yeah....but when you think about it, lots of advertising can be effective when you break advertising law.

      I mean, who wouldn't buy a product that claimed to give you immortality, a 10" penis, the ability to sleep with a girl just by looking at her, and the ability to lose as much weight as you want by just eating junkfood. Thats why advertising law exists in the first place.

  • He'll go to the Caymand Islands (Score:4, Funny)

    by Man in Spandex ( 775950 ) <prsn DOT kev AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:27PM (#11271318)
    I'm sure it won't be long until he moves to the Cayman Islands, buys a white suit, gains some pounds and answer a certain phonecall regarding one of his customer's transactions regarding enlargement pills.

    Wallace: I'm sorry, I cannot divulge information about that customer's secret illegal account.
    Oh crap. I shouldn't of said he was our customer.
    Oh crap! I shouldn't of said it was a secret.
    Oh crap! I certainly shouldn't of said it was illegal.
    Ah.. it's too hot today.

  • Article (Score:5, Interesting)

    by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @09:48PM (#11271453) Journal
    According to the article, he just said he wouldn't infect anyone with spyware or send spam to anyone... *unless* they had ever visited any of his websites or if he had "prior business dealings" with them. From a spammer, "prior business dealings" probably means "are on my email spam target list somewhere".

  • Follow the Bouncing Malware! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cef ( 28324 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2005 @10:02PM (#11271549)
    The Internet Storm Centre's "Follow the Bouncing Malware" diary entries (written by Tom Liston) covers passthison.com (which belongs to Spamford). Quite a good read.

    Following the Bouncing Malware: Part I
    http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-07-23 [sans.org]

    Following the Bouncing Malware: Part II
    http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-08-23 [sans.org]

    Following the Bouncing Malware: Part III
    http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-11-04 [sans.org]

    Following the Bouncing Malware: Part IV
    http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2004-11-24 [sans.org]
  • At best this is a precursor of things to come, and at worst it's a nice break.

    The day we stop spammers is the day we stop file traders. I'd rather keep both. I can mitigate spam.

  • The AP is reporting that so called "Spam King" Sanford Wallace has agreed to stop spamming...
    ...and in related news, the RIAA promises not to sue you for any P2P activity if you contact them with your name, address, contact details and an apology.
  • Hopefully he also consented to death by lethal injection.

    Personally, I believe that cruel and inhuman torture would be more appropriate.

  • What else should the Sanford Wallace should stop doing:
    1. Pro-creating.
    2. Wearing his seatbelt.
    3. Looking both ways before crossing the street.
    4. Complaining about all of those unexplained magazine subscriptions.
    5. Breathing.
    6. CowboyNeal.
  • I was pretty much ignoring this story (knowing that he will just start right back up again) until I heard that his place of business is in Barrington, NH. I know people who live in that town. So I do a Google search and find that his address in the legal complaint is:

    495 Route 9
    Barrington, NH

    That's within a few minutes walk of these people. Just down the street. They practically live next door to him!

    My $DEITY. I don't know what I would do if I found out I was living next door to Sanford

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