Mmmm...fried spam
June 24, 2003 12:42 PM Subscribe
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)
Is there any kind of verification system (not that I see so far)? I mean, couldn't someone add metafilter.com er sumthin'?
posted by Witty at 12:48 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by Witty at 12:48 PM on June 24, 2003
Reminds me of the concept of stuffing the business-reply envelopes with all of your snail-mail spam. Cute, but who has the time?
posted by TurkishGolds at 12:50 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by TurkishGolds at 12:50 PM on June 24, 2003
If it can crash a spammer's server as fast as it crashes Mozilla 1.3, I will be impressed.
posted by Galvatron at 12:50 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by Galvatron at 12:50 PM on June 24, 2003
Word to that, Galvatron. I went on and tried it with IE, and so far it's been stuck "validating" the URL for a couple minutes.
posted by badstone at 12:54 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by badstone at 12:54 PM on June 24, 2003
Sorry, FriedSPAM is optimised for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please re-visit this website using Internet Explorer. Since over 97% of people use Microsoft Internet Explorer to surf the web, most websites are now optimised to work with that browser. Download Internet Explorer
Oh poop.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:04 PM on June 24, 2003
Oh poop.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:04 PM on June 24, 2003
I love Pop Culture Junk Mail. Gael once replied to my email about the performance-enhancing properties of mixing Lucky Charms cereal with Mr. T. cereal before taking exams in college (It gives you the luck of the Irish and the wisdom of Mr. T.) Yippee!
posted by trigfunctions at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by trigfunctions at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003
Don't knock spam. I found my penis enlargement, mail order bride and a vast amount of pornography through it.
posted by ciderwoman at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by ciderwoman at 1:08 PM on June 24, 2003
it's hard to tell from the site, but FriedSpam isn't DDOS, it's actually an automated page that a) reloads a particular site many times and b) cleans up the crap the site loads up (pop up windows etc). All HTTP requests come from your machine.
The basic idea is that one person running Fried Spam is a minor pin prick to the server, but a thousand (as in 1% of the recipients of your typical spam mail) might do some harm.
That said. it is a type of ddos, since they encourage you to send mail (unsolicited, I presume) to your friends linking FriedSpam attacks inline, but this is hardly the thousands of zombies scenario...
posted by daver at 1:12 PM on June 24, 2003
The basic idea is that one person running Fried Spam is a minor pin prick to the server, but a thousand (as in 1% of the recipients of your typical spam mail) might do some harm.
That said. it is a type of ddos, since they encourage you to send mail (unsolicited, I presume) to your friends linking FriedSpam attacks inline, but this is hardly the thousands of zombies scenario...
posted by daver at 1:12 PM on June 24, 2003
I love PCGM too, and considering the capabilities of the Evil Spammasters, I have a bit of advice for you, Gael...
DON'T OPEN YOUR EMAIL BOX!!!!!
posted by wendell at 1:17 PM on June 24, 2003
DON'T OPEN YOUR EMAIL BOX!!!!!
posted by wendell at 1:17 PM on June 24, 2003
*anxiously awaits his next spam*
I use spamcop.net so the amount of spam I get is very minimal.
posted by Nauip at 1:37 PM on June 24, 2003
I use spamcop.net so the amount of spam I get is very minimal.
posted by Nauip at 1:37 PM on June 24, 2003
97% use IE? I always knew I was in a small, superior minority, but that's just lame.
posted by divrsional at 1:49 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by divrsional at 1:49 PM on June 24, 2003
skallas, you're right, the spammers can track you with the URLs that they give out. But if you just remove the tracking information from the URL, you should be fine.
For instance, in a spam that I just got, this is the URL:
http://kingkong.clickformail.com:8080/track?m=2596021&l=0&.e=5y3LjbNjrSzz9UzC
So if I wanted to go to that site without it tracking me, I'd just go to
http://kingkong.clickformail.com:8080/
Also make sure your email client is set not to view pictures in emails -- those can be used to track you too.
posted by zixyer at 1:56 PM on June 24, 2003
For instance, in a spam that I just got, this is the URL:
http://kingkong.clickformail.com:8080/track?m=2596021&l=0&.e=5y3LjbNjrSzz9UzC
So if I wanted to go to that site without it tracking me, I'd just go to
http://kingkong.clickformail.com:8080/
Also make sure your email client is set not to view pictures in emails -- those can be used to track you too.
posted by zixyer at 1:56 PM on June 24, 2003
aside from the fact that it doesn't work on anyone's browser, and has a Metafilter failure rate of 100% so far, it's an interesting idea. Getting it to actually work would be an even better idea.
posted by Outlawyr at 2:29 PM on June 24, 2003
posted by Outlawyr at 2:29 PM on June 24, 2003
I always knew I was in a small, superior minority
Would you like a cookie, or are my baking skills too inherently inferior?
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:27 PM on June 24, 2003
Would you like a cookie, or are my baking skills too inherently inferior?
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:27 PM on June 24, 2003
Nauip, me too.
What I've noticed is that my spam load drops a lot (though not to zero) if I regularly report it through spamcop, being reasonably careful not to bother addresses that aren't related. When I stop reporting it, my spam load gradually climbs again, until I get frustrated again and start sending it to spamcop again.
posted by hattifattener at 5:12 PM on June 24, 2003
What I've noticed is that my spam load drops a lot (though not to zero) if I regularly report it through spamcop, being reasonably careful not to bother addresses that aren't related. When I stop reporting it, my spam load gradually climbs again, until I get frustrated again and start sending it to spamcop again.
posted by hattifattener at 5:12 PM on June 24, 2003
The biggest problem I see with this is that, in order to get to the URL, you have to open the message, which often contains code that will send a validation back to the spammer, tagging your address as a valid one and shifting you to the A1 list, so opening yourself up to even more spam. Now, if someone could come up with a way to make this work without having to open the e-mail...
I am not sure whether to be offended or complimented that I am part of the top 3% of 'net users, but I cannot understand why the site can't be made to work in any standards-compliant browser. Surely anything that works in Mozilla-based browsers will work just as well in IE?
posted by dg at 6:48 PM on June 24, 2003
I am not sure whether to be offended or complimented that I am part of the top 3% of 'net users, but I cannot understand why the site can't be made to work in any standards-compliant browser. Surely anything that works in Mozilla-based browsers will work just as well in IE?
posted by dg at 6:48 PM on June 24, 2003
in order to get to the URL, you have to open the message, which often contains code that will send a validation back to the spammer
If you're already using Mozilla, hit File->Work Offline and then use the browser to open up all the HTML attachments you want. Remote access is disabled, so you're safe.
posted by Galvatron at 7:06 PM on June 24, 2003
If you're already using Mozilla, hit File->Work Offline and then use the browser to open up all the HTML attachments you want. Remote access is disabled, so you're safe.
posted by Galvatron at 7:06 PM on June 24, 2003
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posted by fishfucker at 12:45 PM on June 24, 2003