MetaFilter posts tagged with spam and spammers

You say Viagra, I say \/!@&2^

Horace Rumpole — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:06:08 -0800

How Many Ways Can You Spell V1@gra? Building on previous research (Cockerham, 2004), Brian Hayes attempts to find the limits of Viagra-spammer ingenuity.

The Scum Behind the Spam

crasspastor — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 20:58:55 -0800

The scum behind the spam "These anti-spammers, most of them are unemployed people. . .No life, miserable. They thrive on attention. They have their little newsgroups, and they argue with each other. They're their own worst enemies. I used to care what they think, but not anymore." Now, presumably, Scott Richter may have Metafilter to add to his list of projected insecurities.

Spam Rage

fenriq — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 15:00:26 -0800

Penis Enlargement Web Ads Prompt Calif. Spam Rage
The guy lost his cool because the pop up spammers basically unleashed all their tricks on him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
So he threatened to unleash anthrax on them, to use a power drill and an ice pick and to shoot them.
He doesn't own any guns nor did he have access to anthrax and yet he now faces up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Does this set a bad precedent for fighting back against spammers? Or did he get what he deserved for threatening them like this? The case raises some interesting issues about how hard you can fight back against spammers and pop up 'noids.

Clone blogs

moonbird — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 14:12:24 -0800

Clone blogs: spurious blogs that look real, but exist solely to purvey smut in a very shady way. They're becoming ever more clever, those spammers.

A pox on your house, Spammer

swerdloff — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:00:10 -0800

Spammers strike back? Well then call this return of the Webmaster Jedi. As a blogger and domain owner, I am sick of waking up to fifty new comments, all of which are spam for something of dubious legality. The fine folks at Kalsey are angry too. And they declared war. Lots of people stood up and took notice. What can you do to help stop this infestation? Blacklists and Bayesian filtering come to mind... (Via Smart Mobs)

Spam, Spam, Spam

MintSauce — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 08:26:29 -0800

Italian spammers face jail. The ruling follows estimates by the European Commission that spam e-mails cost EU companies approximately 2.25bn euros in lost productivity last year.

Tracking the spammer hackers

dirtylittlemonkey — Wed, 02 Jul 2003 07:54:54 -0800

"Mail order brides are not British Airway's normal line of business." BBC reporter wonders where his spam comes from and is surprised to learn that a major airline has become an unwitting accomplice with a trail leading through South America, Moscow, and Scandinavia.

Mmmm...fried spam

gottabefunky — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 12:42:58 -0800

So you’ve just received a junk email encouraging you to visit a website for some irresistible pornography or to consolidate your debts! Well, it’s time to oblige the people who fill your mailbox with spam. Let FriedSPAM visit their sites for you -- about a million times! After all, you are only doing what the spammers are asking you to do. (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)

Slicing off the spam

apocalypse miaow — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 22:48:29 -0800

So... Microsoft sue some spammers. Isn't this an unique case of the nut trying to hit back at the sledgehammer?

vowe — Mon, 26 Aug 2002 11:11:03 -0800

Fighting back: Spammers want e-mail addresses. Give them e-mail addresses. Tons of e-mail addresses. This handy PHP script will add as many fake e-mail addresses to your web site as you want. 20 is the default, with command and space delimited, just like this:

lebsda@fihnekyjvbj.de, tzckk@zcwgituizwjgy.eu, lzteth@gvxmzqphddvhsd.de, wspvnmpitk@adlruenmiupuglcqn.nl, toulr@cttzrgrb.it, gxgb@yqkeermxyxxozvfws.dk, ucldeo@lwytvqqq.nl, brddshal@qmyhquiqtbaeggpx.com, ovu@zzxlbismicnqsuiubkfl.de, txxewr@ogpzcomgrhkd.br, goluv@twcnkfeghsh.com, tfexbuous@heev.ar, zjgeaztzvm@rvonhfrd.de, nhsgikjvjb@stncbqtnyyclaflm.jp, svgfdh@zeynvdd.nl, hxqios@yrdlshpyscndoslt.de, fxglj@sfkdxgyadbqk.ca, mtskzv@carbd.de, pigm@vnkcalneewdulz.com, nqnjwldpfk@ecifc.edu

And each call to the web site will give the spam harvester 20 spanking new addresses. (Web site is german, but the script is in english)

dayvin — Mon, 01 Jul 2002 09:17:22 -0800

Spam King Living High In The Bayou Ronnie Scelson, a professional spammer, openly discusses his business and attitudes about spam. Reminiscent of Barry Dennis's infamous "Why I love spam" article recently featured on C|Net.

machaus — Tue, 08 Jan 2002 10:04:13 -0800

Bernard Shifman is a moron spammer. I love detailed spam wars that are this fully documented. Any other ones come to mind? link via GMSV

Steven Den Beste — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 09:44:23 -0800

How low can we go? Spammers are soliciting funds for bogus charities to help the victims of the disaster.

tweebiscuit — Sat, 19 May 2001 17:56:23 -0800

Who knew? Apparently porn spammers were actually providing us with valuable service all along! (Me, I'm springing for the penis enlargement.)

paladin — Mon, 16 Apr 2001 16:02:15 -0800

Vigilante against spam: "A self-appointed global army has taken on the mass Internet mailings that annoy users and crash systems. It is a demanding and risky hobby."

Brilliantcrank — Fri, 23 Feb 2001 12:25:31 -0800

MIT spam study find instant wealth, sexy-coeds just a click away. A two-year M.I.T. study of unsolicited email, or "spam," has concluded that you can earn $50,000 in the next 90 days by sending e-mail from your home, which is located near a college where sex-crazed coeds are anxious to meet you.

warhol — Thu, 15 Feb 2001 08:12:07 -0800

Network Solutions sells out. The once-monopoly has decided to pool all their domain name registration information and sell it to the spammers of the world. From their marketing website, "Taking advantage of our position as a market leader, we have organized our pool of over 15 million registered domain names into a customer database of over 5 million unique customers. Our data service offers access to the key decision-makers behind millions of leading Web businesses."

True, there is a privacy policy, and you can try and protect yourself following their instructions, but it would seem that once the cat's out of the bag... And, what's to keep someone from purchasing the database of email addresses, fax numbers, telephone numbers, and addresses and selling them off to someone else?

mathowie — Tue, 11 Apr 2000 09:17:19 -0800

Cell phone spammers will be hated more than email spammers, but I just hope someone stops Plugout.com before some competitors think it's a good idea.