Real-time Spam Map

iggychaos writes "Mailinator, the free, temporary email service gets a lot of spam (over a million emails a day). And with another cool application of Google maps, the site now shows a Spam Map indicating what sites are spamming mailinator in (nearly) real time. It's oddly addictive to poke around and see where the spam is actually coming from."

Re:Hey! It's Steve Jobs!!

[yotto]

From TFA: Spam counts are rounded to the nearest hundred

There's more, but I'll let you read it yourself.

Re:not slashdot

[filenabber]

Use one of mailinator's alternate domains! [mailinator.com]

Re:Purpose

[xtracto]

Dunno but I have found it very useful, you may want to try www.dodgeit.com

It even has an RSS feed of the mailbox. This kind of recyclable mailboxes are useful for signing up on Torrent, Ed2k and other distribution sites.

Re:Not all that accurate

[filenabber]

We threw in a couple joke locations just for fun. The algorithm is sound.

Re:Apple?

[TheRaven64]

There is no algorithm. People sign up and get a one-shot email address. The first email sent to this address is forwarded to another address, and all subsequent ones are considered spam.

I suspect the reason for the large number of Apple emails is idiots who download iTunes and supply a one-shot email address instead of simply unchecking the `send me iTunes newsletters' box on the download page.

Invalid Survey

[Anonymous Coward]

This is really an invalid survey because of tunnels and portals that most spammers use. This link [spamhaus.org] gives a far better representation of the overall spam locations in the world. They actually trace backed the mail to its origin to map where it was coming from.
On a side note there are far better services out there similar to mailinator like shortmail.net [shortmail.net] and pookmail.com [pookmail.com] that should be checked out.

Re:Wow... no FL?

[filenabber]

I have been playing with it for about a week and Florida shows up now and then. By far most spam for Mailinator comes form the NE USA.

Re:Not the source of spam

[Clovert Agent]

Correct. From TF..er...Map: "This map shows (in semi-realtime) ip addresses that are currently sending the most spam to Mailinator."

Re:interesting, Hmmm.

[filenabber]

We only show the TOP spammers in the system at the time the map data is output. Our algorithms to determine what is spam are more about self-preservation than catching pottywords.

Brian (a mailinator developer)

Re:Incomplete

[filenabber]

We only show the top spammers and we classify spam a bit differently than most - we are all about self-preservation. If one guy sends a Viagra email, that isn't spam for us. If he sends 1000, it's spam. It's not about the subject, it's the volume. p. Brian - a mailinator developer

Re:No Australian spammers!

[parkrrrr]

Last time I looked, Google wasn't using a Mercator projection. The Mercator projection adjusts the distance between latitude lines as you move further from the equator so as to keep Rhumb lines straight, but Google's projection is just a plain ol' cylindrical projection with a standard parallel of 39.5 degrees. The result is that while Greenland still appears too large, it doesn't appear as large as it would on a Mercator projection (because it's only exaggerated horizontally, not vertically.)

Re:OT: Google Maps and Mozilla

[ccozan]

you need to check the javascript permissions. Usually enable the "Change Images", and it will work.

Re:So how long unitl the Spammers...

[Drinian]

So how long unitl the Spammers simply block the mailinator.com domain? Or websites refuse to take email addresses from that domain?

From the FAQ:

What are alternate domains?

Every now and then you bump into a website that does not permit email addresses at mailinator.com (scoundrels!). Don't fret. There is more than one domain pointing to the mailinator system. If you send email to one of the listed alternate domains - it will come to mailinator.com just as if you sent it directly. For example, [e-mail] is EXACTLY the same as [e-mail] (which are exactly the same as any other domain in the list).

EasterEgg

[flatass]

Check out Antarctica for an easter egg.