HOWTO: Annoy a Spammer 981
Bob writes "I think everyone by now has heard of the millionaire spammer Alan Ralsky. Here's a follow-up to the previous story. It seems that since the story was posted, people have signed him up for every advertising campaign and mailing list out there. And he doesn't like it." They're talking about this Slashdot story.
ROTFLOL (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe that is what should happen to script kiddies and hackers. They should be dos's to death!
I'm all for extrme methods when extrme methods are used against me.
heh (Score:2, Interesting)
Spam the spammer (Score:2, Interesting)
Beautiful plan , but I do this every day. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Cyclical spamming!
How's he going to know who to sue? (Score:5, Interesting)
How does he plan to identify who to sue? And is he really going to pay to have his lawyer track down the 300+ slashdot users who posted "anti-Ralsky posts"? This just seems silly.
Curing Spam (Score:5, Interesting)
It is impossible to stop this
Is Spamming profitable when 100-1000% of the spams get replies?
If a company sees that it loses several thousand dollars in bandwidth costs, broken equipment AND the people who want to buy can't place orders, AND the spammer demands unreasonable amounts for the millions of replies, said company MUST stop paying for spam. When enough companies stop, spam will stop.
Time to set up a SLASHDDOS effect.
Sigh (Score:3, Interesting)
An open Reply (Score:4, Interesting)
Alan,
Sue me bitch. I don't give a care. For years now, you and your have somehow gotten my email and sent me all sorts of shit that takes my time from me. My time is money, and if you want to go down that route, then go ahead.
You take my time, I'll take yours. You can sue the anti-spammers all you want, but your dumb ass will smaked so hard your head will spin and will take you another 5 years just to get over that.
So sue bitch. You take my server space, my bandwidth, and my time and force me to clean up the shit you leave on the internet.
If you don't like it, leave us the hell alone, or find a better way of doing your "job"
"Bastard operators don't win...anyone can win. Bastard operators win and TOTALLY demoralize. That is REAL winning."
Re:Eating his own waste (Score:5, Interesting)
Hopefully when he thinks about that, he'll realize the fundamental problem with a business like that: There's no verification process.
Let me give you an example: I did an experiment with Slashdot a few weeks ago. I created a brand new, never before used email address and made it visible in my info w/o the anti-spam armor. Within days, I was on a mailing list for volunteer fire fighters. Volunteer Firefighters? I'm reaaaaaaaaaaally curious how I ended up with that. heh.
It's too easy to sign up anonymously. Because of that, it's too hard to sue somebody over a stunt like that. Want my opinion? Blast a few other people in the same way until they realize that the only way to deal with this problem is to make the signup process more secure. When that happens, (hopefully) we'll see less unsolicited advertisements.
Maybe I'm too optimistic.
My own little spam tale (Score:5, Interesting)
I opened the html body, then did a whois search on all six domains in the email. Four were owned by the "sender." One was for the content company, another for a payment processing company. I also looked up Virginia spam laws. There is one, section 18.2-152.4: Computer Trespass. It states
A. It shall be unlawful for any person to use a computer or computer network without authority and with the intent to:
7. Falsify or forge electronic mail transmission information or other routing information in any manner in connection with the transmission of unsolicited bulk electronic mail through or into the computer network of an electronic mail service provider or its subscribers.
The offense is a class 6 misdemeanor. In addition section 152.12 has civil relief and damages of legal fees, court costs, and the greater of actual damages or $10 per email (limited to $25,000/day) payable both the receiver and the email provider.
I replied, as the postmaster of my domain, that the email was unwanted, and I was not to receive any transmissions in the future to any emails in this domain. I sent the email to the admin contact of each domain, and to the return-to addressee with a return receipt. I notified them that, should I not receive a response from the return-addressee, the email would be assumed to include "falsified mail transmission information" and would be in violation of the applicable Virginia statute.
A week later I received an inquiry from the payment processor asking for the email body in order to identify the spammer. A day after sending the body text, I received a nice email from the same company, apologizing for the inconvenience and informing me that the spammers account had been frozen, as he was in violation of his terms of service.
It's a shame he hadn't sent me a couple hundred emails at once, so I could have filed in civil court for a couple of grand. Spending 30 minutes to piss him off is worth my time, but filing in court for $10 isn't.
Magazines (Score:1, Interesting)
Not even close (Score:5, Interesting)
Check out the background a little bit. From the original article [freep.com]:
So it seems Ralsky is the one who has engaged in illegal activity. Further:
So he also has a history of fraudulent business practices in multiple other businesses before coming to SPAM.
Now from you:
This example is of a company trying to get a law changed to make it legal for them, and only them, to hack into other people's computer systems. The people who signed Ralsky up for all this junk mail did not enter his home or his systems, did not illegally release any information that was not pulicly available, and did not violate -- nor attempt to have changed -- any laws preventing what they did.
How exactly is this the same?
Turnabout Fair Play (Score:5, Interesting)
Whoever said pondscum and their ilk have to have a sense of irony, or even humor? He's a sore loser, for certain. Keep in mind that Slashdot, should his shark decide to pursue, has a presence in Michigan, same state Alan infests.
Also from the article:
"That they are. Gleefully. Almost 300 anti-Ralsky posts were made on the Slashdot.org Web site, where the plan was hatched after spam haters posted his address, even an aerial view of his neighborhood."
"Ralsky is indeed annoyed. He says he's asked Bloomfield Hills attorney Robert Harrison to sue the anti-spammers."
It would seem just too bad if his attorney advised him thusly:
"Look, Alan, you're a problem yourself, you steal bandwidth, you fill paid resources with unwanted clutter, which robs people of their time to clean it up, you collect a lot of money doing it and then you flaunt it, so you're stupid, also. All this is part of the environment you've chosen to do business in, deal or get out of it."
BTW, slashdot seems under considerable strain. Is this a freep-effect or might Ralsky be lowering himself to launch a DoS attack on slashdot?
An afterthought... Alan Ralksy has chosen to locate his business inside his new home. Doesn't this mean, if he were collectively sued, and lost, the house as part of the business assets, could be seized?
Re:An educational tidbit... (Score:3, Interesting)
Are you talking about snail mail or email opt-in? For email opt-in, it's pretty easy. You send the subscribee a confirmation mail containing a random number string, and if they send it back (just hit 'reply' and quote the whole thing) they're confirmed.
The only way to spoof this is to gain access to the victim's mailbox, so you can receive the confirmation mail with the random number in it. And if you have access to the victim's mailbox (or a router in between, etc) there is nothing that can prevent opt-in spoofing, short of everyone having pgp or some other pki, with a web of trust spanning the whole world. Like that's ever gonna happen.
Re:5 years? You are an optimist (Score:5, Interesting)
It's called a Dogbert [dilbert.com] complex.
I know a Spam Guy (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Spam the spammer (Score:5, Interesting)
An alternative might be to poison his system. Keep in mind that Ralksy sells spamming services. He sells the service of using e-mail to advertise products that other companies sell. He doesn't actually sell penis enlargers and fake diplomas himself.
So we could poison this system by actually responding to every spam and providing erroneous payment details, mailing details, etc to the companies who want to hawk their products by spam. Obviously they would waste plenty of money processing and shipping these orders, only to find out that they are getting no profit for it. This way, Ralksy's customers go under. Essentially, Ralksy's air supply would be cut off.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that takes the time (Score:1, Interesting)
Life is good...
Re:Vigilante justice ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically the idea is that Matt Smith is going to publish in a consolidated place all information on John Pointdexter that is available publicly/legally, in order to demonstrate just how thoroughly scary the TIA project could be.
(Background: the TIA is yet another US government database project to track "undesirables", with the definition of undesirables being left alarmingly vague, and without a defined scope as to the usage of the gathered information...)
Question (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Spam the spammer (Score:3, Interesting)
When do I get mod points? That is a cool idea. The problem with spam is that it's so easy and cheap. Waste their time and money and maybe they'll find a more legitimate form of advertising. If way less than 1% respond with orders, if we can get just a % or two to respond with fake orders maybe they'd give in.
Wait, there's probably something illegal about this. How can we do this without breaking a law? I know some people won't care, but I do.
Re:street address redux (Score:3, Interesting)
*huddles in corner, whimpering. Please don't slashdot my house too!*
Re:He won't understand it (Score:4, Interesting)
THis is a project for slashdot. (Score:5, Interesting)
Legal action with spammers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is different (Score:2, Interesting)
His lawsuit is claiming harrasment; so its ok if someone wants to give me a great deal on crap i don't want, but its not ok when people are trying to make a legitimate point? Frankly, i don't see the difference. If this is harrasment for him, then its harrasment for me.
Would it be insult to injury?? (Score:5, Interesting)
You think he'd actually answer the questions?
Re:Turnabout Fair Play (Score:5, Interesting)
Dunno about that, but I'm curious about how his property is zoned. Most housing developments, especially in his price range, aren't zoned for dual-use.
IANAL but IAAHO (I am a homeowner), and AFAIK, if I run a business out of my house and my property is not zoned for it, the town could conceivably slap an injunction on the business activity, or at the very least, have some fun with my property tax assessment after costing me hefty fees and legal expenses to get the proper variances.
Re:Turnabout Fair Play (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember though, he has a pre-existing business relationship with me via business related e-mails which he sent to me. I reserve the right to share any information about my business partners with entities which I believe might be able to provide a valuable service.
If he chooses to press the issue I may unleash the wrath of half of the lawyers in the state of Georgia upon him....
Kintanon
Re:This is different (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The only thing that would piss me off more... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Harassment, no matter how funny, is illegal (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm glad I didn't get involved, because I'm too stupid to have done this without getting caught. But I'm glad someone else did, because it was the right thing to do -- maybe not equivalent in degree to the Boston Tea Party, but equivalent in kind.
Re:Will something click... (Score:3, Interesting)
Somebody who cannot consider what it's like to have their own actions on others switched back around on them are lacking a personality element that is essential for effective social functioning. Lack of empathy can if not remedied lead to far more serious crimes than spamming people.
If I were his friend, I'd be telling him to see a doctor.
Re:Uh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Other ways to Annoy Spammers! (Score:2, Interesting)
First way (less vicious): Contact the spammer, tell them you're interested, but would prefer to have hardcopy material - pamphlets, etc. Delivered to your PO box.
I have a friend (in
Second way (more vicious): Do nearly the same thing, but say you'd rather communicate via the postal service. Ask for some information plus reply paid cards (I believe these exist in the US, I've never seen them in
Wait with baited breath for the reply paid cards.
Once you recieve them, find a nice large, heavy brick, bundle it up, and mail it back to the spammers. They get billed for the cost of sending the large, heavy, package.
Apparently this approach works in the US, or so an american friend told me. Their email addresses got removed from quite a few lists after a few iterations of this scenario.
Photos? (Score:2, Interesting)
Since we have his address anyway, can somebody get a picture of the pile of junk stacked up outside his house?
And I wouldn't worry too much about a lawsuit. He'd need a really good lawyer to avoid setting a legal precedent that could then be used against him.
The best way to fight spam (Score:2, Interesting)
Calling their 800 number and listening to the pitch costs them money in at least 3 ways:
1. 800 number calls are billed to them
2. It will take up the time of sales people
3. If enough people do it, eventually real customers may not be able to get through.
:) umm... Don't do anything illegal... it makes you as bad as the spammers. there, i'm covered
If there's a snail address listed, send an inquiry to their services... Probably should use a P.O. box for this, so you don't clog up your personal mailbox. Anyway, this would hurt them even more. They've got printing fees, whatever fees for employees making & processing the information, and mailing fees to deal with.
The only problem with this, is that it targets people that use the spamming services... but then again, aren't they just as bad as the spammers?
I'm not sure how legal any of those ideas are... If enough people did it though, it might be somewhat effective
As something of a disclaimer.... dunno if it's necessary, but i wanna save my ass if at all possible
Bryan
HOWTO: Annoy a spammer, cost them money. (Score:4, Interesting)
Things I have started doing recently include: Mixing up the junk mail so that, for example, Company A receives some junk from Companies B and C in the reply envelope. This way, it's not even useful to them as they cannot simply re-mail the returned items.
One thing I intend to start doing in the future is partially filling out the forms that come with the materials I send back, but, for example, writing VOID where the signature is supposed to go or something. This way, someone will start entering data only to discover that it's bullshit... Or putting X's in all the little boxes and writing "Wasted your time!" Where the signature is supposed to go. Stuff like that. Oh yeah, I always rip my name and address off the documents so they don't know who's doing it. What a waste of time for that company! Hey, they wasted my time. I'm wasting their's back.
(The fine print: I don't actually do any of what I just said I do. It's a joke. Don't take it seriously. Just leave me alone.)
Re:5 years? You are an optimist (Score:2, Interesting)
Johnny Cash basically said the same thing I'm saying right now but a lot more eloquently in his autobiography. God, I'm tired of people whining about the "good old days."
Re:Moving? (Score:1, Interesting)
Good point. The same thing that happens if I leave my ISP. The next person who picks "jojo@myisp.com" is going to get a ton of spam. No fault of anyone ('cept the spammers who guessed the username), but it will be rolling in.
Re:Moving? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, a certain percentage of the material in junk mail is not cleanly burnable, so you'll have to toss that. If you live in an area where you're required to pay per-bagload for trash disposal, this is probably a losing proposition.