Pfizer and Microsoft go after Viagra Spammers

Weird_Hock writes "This story from Reuters tells about the joint effort from Pfizer and Microsoft to go after illegal sellers of Viagra. Pfizer is going after the sellers and Microsoft after the spammers. Looks like they're targeting both sides of the money chain."

Oh no!

[enoraM]

Now I have to settle for my increase in girth, length and volume, since they will also go for v1agra and v!agra

Anyhow - if the big dogs are moving now - after the can-spam-act, it's interesting what kind of stable equilibruum the next generation spam will be. It won't go away - It'll just reach the next stage.

On the bottom of the first page are the stock qoutes von Pfizer and Microsoft. There is a horizontal movement of Pfizer and a slight downward movement of Microsoft. What does that suggest about the markets expectation of future distribution of vi4gra?

If there's one thing big criminals don't like...

[Red Rocket]

...it's small-time criminals moochin' in on their racket.

Wrong Target

[Eskimore_]

I worked on an ISP's helpdesk and I can tell you that the number 1 spam complaint I got was those adverts for having a bigger penis.

Why can't someone go after those spammers. At least viagra actually works.

mmmmpffff

[Goeland86]

I really don't think it's going to change much. Let them try. Most of the spammers are outside the US. Pfizer might be a little more lucky. It sounds kinda useful, but in the end it probably won't change much to the 500+ spam messages I get a day.

Stupid claim

[PornMaster]

I saw somewhere that Pfizer said that part of the reason they're doing this is that people think that it's Pfizer sending out the spam...

Huh?

I think that not only is that bullshit, that they're actually doing it to try to prevent reimportation (as well as the stopping of non-Pfizer sildenafil citrate).

We have discussed this before

[rbanffy]

I know we have discussed this before, but shouldn't someone go after Microsoft for a very insecure OS that happens to be a petri-dish for spamzombies everywhere? Isn't it negligent behaviour? It would be a lot easier for law enforcement if you could really say where a message originated instead of discovering that the spammer address is from an old lady who never updated her machine since her grandson installed it.

When taking over IT on a small advertising agency with lots of Macs at the creative dept and lots of Windows PCs on the rest of the office I had the firewall to deny and log all attempts to connect with SMTP servers outside. Guess what side of the net was infested?

It appears to me that most of _my_ problems with spam are due to spambots sending mail from ADSL or cable-modems (It's common to have companies whose IP addresses fall in blacklisted ranges and that have to send some or all of their e-mail over ISP servers - raising a lot of security/privacy issues)

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[dreamchaser]

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[AndroidCat]

That's not what pe1chl said. He said that they are the enemy of his enemy (spammers). That doesn't make MS his friend however.

Doesn't pfizer get it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have they ever checked their inboxes? It is full of ads for cheap copies of XP i would guess. Or not?

And they expect Microsoft to help them when MS can't do a decent job on the piracy of its own stuff?

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[Maestro4k]

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

• Exactly what would it take for you to consider their actions with malice? Perhaps an upheld conviction of abusing their OS monopoly to move into other areas and take out other companies illegally? How about their secret agreements with OEMs in the past that required one copy of Windows sold per CPU, whether the OS left the building on the PC or not? I could go on listing more, but at this point in time it's pointless to just say it's business as usual and without malice. The courts have found MS to have broken anti-trust law, and it was upheld on appeal. Companies don't go around breaking laws, then pulling the type of defense strategies MS did without malice. They do that when they did it intentionally.

• But frankly your argument's silly anyway. I consider MS my enemy. I consider the RIAA and MPAA member companies my enemy. I consider most of the BSA companies my enemy, and I consider the OPEC members to be enemies. Why? Their goal, even if they aren't breaking laws, is to make money at all costs. If that cost is my freedoms (RIAA/MPAA and the congresscritters they own), my quality of life, or what else, so be it, they don't care as long as they make money. They're in business to make money from me even if I fully wish to not pay them a damned cent. I don't willingly, but my tax dollars keep going to them (at the least to pay the damn congresscritters they've bought who represent the companies first and the real people last). I consider that enemy worthy, and worth fighting.

  Power over me? They already have power over you, me and all of us. Hell just look at the litany of bills presented, along with the ones that made it into law. You can't tell me things like the DMCA haven't already given them enormous power over each and every one of us. Companies keep proving they're willing to abuse it any way they see fit. Want to stifle research into security flaws? Already been done, will happen again. Want to try and make sure no one can sell generic parts for your equipment? Already being done, look at the printer manufacturers.

  Sorry, but I don't have to do a damned thing for them to have power over me. They already do, and that's another part of why I consider them my enemies. If you don/t, well congrats on enjoying all those laws and restrictions they've placed on you. I'll be fighting them tooth and nail for the existing ones and future ones while you enjoy having your rights and freedoms removed. Personally I want mine back.

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[oconnorcjo]

They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted.

I think they do Maliciosly attack any technology that threatens thier OS monopoly. They try to keep Web standards to "IE only" thus forcing Web Surfers to have Windows. They try to make MS Office the defacto standard in bussiness thus forcing most bussiness machines to have Windows. They are trying to make windows audio/vidio formats the future "standard" with WMP thus forcing people to stay with Windows.

They push these propritary standards by providing them with thier OS (with exception of Office) and not providing them with any other OS (except perhaps Apple).

As a person who likes and uses Linux and would like to be able to interact with the rest of the world as easily as Windows users do, I find myself directly opposed to the strategies of MS. They are my enemy because they are trying to destroy my choice of computer experience down to just thier stuff.

I can not use IE/WMP or MS Office when I am using a Linux desktop so I use alternatives to those products (even when I am using a windows OS).

I suggest FireFox to as many people as I can to not only help give the user a better web experience, but to give MYSELF a better experience by hopefully forcing Web Developers to adjust thier IE Only compatibility standards.

I occasionally suggest OpenOffice to users but have a difficult time justifying it. MS really does have a solid product in MS Office.

I tell people to try to stay away from WMP and am quite happy that ITunes is doing well and that mp3 is still the defacto standard.

You may not find MS to be your enemy but I will fight them to keep/get my freedom to have a Microsoft free desktop (without having to sacrifice compatibility).

Re:I forward all WinXP spams to MS

[SwervingVector]

I'll come out of lurking to just comment on this one... I don't like pop music, so I don't care if I can download songs or not. I use various OS'es (Windows, *nix, OS X), so I'm hardly a prisoner of any monopoly. So you don't like pop music, what's stoping you downloading what you do like? You use various OS'es, do you enjoy not being able to edit images in Photoshop on *nix? Not getting the latest games (if at all) on OS X? Do you enjoy trying to configure a WinModem to run on *nix? Ah well, it's your choice. Personally, I'd prefer that the general populace wasn't so accepting of the Spyware, Malware and Crapware that Windows staggers under the weight of. Then maybe MS would be forced into coding a hardened OS off the shelf. I can accept that there will always be a need for updates (duh) but the sheer magnitude of the flaws found in Windows XP cannot be tolerated. You are liable to reply with the stock standard call of "Windows has so many discovered flaws because of it's monopoly of the OS market" so I will take the liberty of dispelling this myth right now. Lets take the path of MacOS as an example; OS 9, despite it's market share, had roughly 50% of the crapware released on the internet, OS X has 0%. When you do the math, taking into account the amount of people using OS X compared to Windows, there should be about 3000ish viruses out for OS X. By the way, before you come back and try to tell me that there already have been viruses released for OS X, I'll define a virus for you: Self-propagating, not proof of concept and not something that requires you to enter your password to delete your homefolder (the virus this point deals with happens to be proven not a virus by the first point)...