Bernard Shifman is a moron spammer.
January 8, 2002 10:04 AM   Subscribe

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
posted by machaus (24 comments total)
 
To: 'abuse@google.com'
Subject: FW: Article regarding Bernard Shifman

ABUSE@GOOGLE. = This person is using your search engine to host a link. please read entire e-mail below to understand how this berson is abusing your service. It is your job to put a stop to this.


hehe
posted by machaus at 10:11 AM on January 8, 2002


Arrghh! I got one of those spams from this guy a couple weeks ago. Bastard.

Any other ones come to mind?

There have been a good deal of documented ones, there was one where the person being spammed screwed with an MLM guy for months, eventually finding out where he lived and figuring out he lived with his parents in the basement and alerting them to his son's activities.

There was this recent case of someone screwing with a spammer, which turned into a real lawsuit.
posted by mathowie at 10:18 AM on January 8, 2002


There was also the case of some woman on AOL who was using a program to send thousands of emails to different screennames. Some guy documented his crusade against her, including the personal info he found out about her, and stuff he found on her computer after he somehow gained access (I think). He even went so far as to post semi-nude photos of her that she was using in chat rooms and whatnot.
posted by Hankins at 10:27 AM on January 8, 2002


Hahaha. ahem.. Sorry, that was funny.

sol.net. Network Solutions. Small company.

Hee hee. Uh, why hasn't only actually brought legal action against the guy? They have quite enough to do it by now.
posted by rich at 10:44 AM on January 8, 2002


I picture this guy Bernard looking like the Max character in Rushmore.

Hankins -- that sounds interesting. Got a link?
posted by uftheory at 10:44 AM on January 8, 2002


ABUSE@GOOGLE. = This person is using your search engine to host a link. please read entire e-mail below to understand how this berson is abusing your service. It is your job to put a stop to this.

I thought that was funny, too, then I thought: Wouldn't that be very guerrilla? I mean, you could put up a site, have it indexed by Google, and then point people to the Google page cache, rather than the real site, until the cache expires. No hosting fees! (No images, either).
posted by Mo Nickels at 10:46 AM on January 8, 2002


uftheory I think this is the link that Hankins is refering to.
posted by CJB at 10:58 AM on January 8, 2002


OH! The link says moron, not morMon. Things are beginning to make more sense now...
posted by bradlauster at 11:10 AM on January 8, 2002


i love reading these thing too... check out the make money fast hall of humiliation though it's never updated despite a post last year saying it was back in business.
posted by mokey at 11:29 AM on January 8, 2002


If you look at the guy's posts on USENET (via google) he mentions not being able to score "smoke" (in a pot newsgroup) -- someone should get him raided. :)
posted by fnirt at 11:29 AM on January 8, 2002


Hopefully, this court action in California would allow people to really go after spammers if they wanted to.
posted by mathowie at 11:38 AM on January 8, 2002


Is it now illegal not to possess weed? :-)
posted by jpoulos at 11:55 AM on January 8, 2002


Max character in Rushmore

HEY! There's no need to diss Max...
posted by glenwood at 1:02 PM on January 8, 2002


hankins and uftheory - here it is!! great stuff!
posted by quonsar at 1:10 PM on January 8, 2002


sol.net != netsol.com
posted by glenwood at 1:48 PM on January 8, 2002


I could engrave it on a clue-by-four and deliver it to you in Chicago, I suppose.

hahahahaha!
posted by Modem Ovary at 2:14 PM on January 8, 2002


*Zoooooom!* The sound you just heard was this going over my head.

Why was the first email from Bernard considered spam? If someone called my work asking if there were any positions, I would not consider that a telemarketing call. (I have never considered unsolicited resumés "spam.")
posted by jennak at 2:29 PM on January 8, 2002


jennak,

I had the same thought, but the reality is that Mr. Shifman was the one who continued to escalate it. It's kind of like he sat down to play poker and thought that despite having the worst hand ever, he could win by bluffing, except he turned out to have been playing in Vegas.

I do seriously wonder if he'll ever be able to find work again. That's the problem with a permanent, easily accessible record of your actions.
posted by Sinner at 2:37 PM on January 8, 2002


If someone called my work asking if there were any positions, I would not consider that a telemarketing call.

Indeed. But if someone called you at home asking if there were any positions, you might become suspicious. This is essentially what happened here--he seems to have emailed several people at addresses that never asked anyone for resumes, and that had nothing to do with any business. Because of this, one suspects that he was just indiscriminately sending out mass-mailings. And of course, his attitude doesn't help.
posted by moss at 2:46 PM on January 8, 2002


In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: "What a Maroon!"
posted by Wildcat3 at 2:52 PM on January 8, 2002


For anyone who has the time/inclination to actively go after spammers, I've found a nice FAQ on the subject. Great info, imho.
posted by phalkin at 4:01 PM on January 8, 2002


Having been in "IT circles in Chicago" for something like a decade, I've never heard of the fellow. Remarkable, considering how influential he is.
posted by dhartung at 1:14 AM on January 9, 2002


If he's fishing for jobs, his initial responses to people who turn him away "bitch, fuck off" seems, umm.. very odd.
posted by rich at 7:54 AM on January 9, 2002


Thanks to Metafilter, Slashdot and all the bloggers who linked to him, the number one Google search result for Bernard Shifman is now this page.
posted by jpbutler at 11:43 AM on January 10, 2002


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