Anti-spam

I'm fed up with all these mug offers to adjust my private parts and buy chemicals without prescription.
Is there any way of hitting back at these buggers?

 

I'm already using Mail washer. Best thing ever to come out of NZ.

What I would like is to actually spam the spammers, or dob them in to their ISP or SOMETHING.

 

I found this somewhere,can;t remember where but it seems to be worth a try

I will relate here a brief example of how the average person can fight spammers.

This does not involve legal actions.
It does not involve laws.
It doesn't cost anything.
And it doesn't deal with the spammers.
While this may not work for all spam, it will work on a lot of it.
All it will take is time and patience.

As a real example, I recently received a mail with the subject:

RE: hardware problems

As a computer tech and beta tester, I send out messages like this often and sometimes don't receive answers immediately or directly.
There was no attachment.
Although I didn't recognize the sender, I took the chance to open it.

Before doing so however, I activated my AV scanner, and instructed ZoneAlarm to lock the internet, thus preventing anything from being downloaded.

The email opened with HTML embedding.
The text of which was:

Surfing Porn at Work?

Your Job is AT RISK!

It's a Known Fact: Over SEVENTY PERCENT of all companies admit they
"monitor and review their workers' communications and activities on the job."

CLEANSWEEPER IS THE PRIVACY PROTECTION YOU MUST HAVE!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
(http://www.cleansweeper.net/?a=00003&c=5)

Unlist me
(http://www.cleansweeper.net/remove.php)

The header of the email contained:
From: "Meagan Valdez" <mvaldez_fb@e-apollo.lv>
To: *********
Date: 10/01/2003 02:08 PM
Subject: Re: hardware problems

The email didn't contain anything dangerous, but it also did not contain anything to do with hardware problems.
This make it a bait and switch ad. Illegal in most states.
But we are not chasing legal actions.
The message arrived at my mail box, but not from my mail server.
It was not requested, thus making it legitimate illegal spam.
But we are not going to describe the means needed to reverse the SMTP lookup as most people can't.

Replying to the e-mail produced a returned message that the box was bad.
In short, this means this is a falsified address.
So, we now have illegal spam, with an unknown sender.
How do we stop it?

Don't try. Its too much of a hassle for most people.
Instead, go for the wallet.

That is, go after the people who either are, or hired the spammer.

Most spam has a specific goal, to deliver a message no matter the means, that carries an ad for a company or product.
Go after that company instead.

In this case, both links in the ad direct you to www.cleansweeper.net

Go to cleanspeeper.net and look for a contact.
In this case, no phone is given, but an e-mail address is available.
It is often best to send messages directly to sales, as tech and complaints will often ignore messages.

Inform them that they have been involved in illegal activities. Send a copy of the spam.
Tell them they are being investigated and report for
their involvement of such abuse.

Do not request to be removed.
They already are using illegal spamming and didn't get your permission, so what makes anyone believe they would actually remove you from their lists.

Next, contact the Better Business Bureau.
Each state has one. http://www.bbb.org/
Report this company.
While this is fairly useless, it is free.
It does offer one advantage;
this list of abusive companies are gathered by certain "shady" groups, and those abusive
companies are then them self placed onto spamming lists, giving them a taste of their own medicine.

For your part it is legal, and should be left at that.

Now, striking back.
Using only free and legal means, here's what to do.
Find a WhoIs service. They are all over the internet.
Run a whois on cleansweeper.net, do not include www.

In this case, it appears that cleansweeper.net uses NS3 from Register.com

Register.com has an 800 number you can call, but what they will tell you, is to forward the spam to
abuse@register.com

They will review the spam, and if they think it qualifies, will shut down the services.

This means no one can visit the companies website nor send them e-mail (if register.com is hosting it.)

Next, see if you can track down the SMTP server that really send the spam.

In this case, the email seems to come from
mvaldez_fb@e-apollo.lv

e-apollo.lv is the SMTP server.

Use google.com and enter e-apollo.lv into the search.
(Sometimes you can actually go to the server, but if not, search.)

The search revealed the site to be http://www.e-apollo.lv/

Now, go to the site and see if they have a contact.

Again, send them the information and a copy of the spam.
Request that they block ALL further email from cleansweep.net

That's all.

In short, you have just shut down the web based company.

While cleansweeper.net is currently under review, I have successfully shut down many such backers of illegal spam this way.

 

Howie,
Got to be worth a go, and it'll be something to do on insomniac nights. Thanks.

 

Glad to help, I get spam about spam blockers go figure?