| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| yummersetter |
Spam - outside of legal control?I get masses of spam, about 200-300 messages every 24 hours, all automatically dealt with, though I check through before 'pulling the flush handle'. But what I don't understand is how it can masquerade as a bone-fide domain (lots of dadawhatsits@natwest.com today) with intention to con and defraud without any legal sanction. Or popstar defamation or childporn or generally stomach churning propositions. What's the difference between setting up a false ATM in the high street and sending out an invitation to log-on to a scam website? Except I would have thought the online version would be easier to trace back to the perpetrator. Is it just a matter of international jurisdiction? Is there a lawless island somewhere that's making billions from pirate email address hosting, and if so, is it, gulp, - this goes against my normal 'liberal' thinking - time for world-wide legal control of online communication? |
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| vegplot |
It's part jurisdiction. Domains can be registered without any recourse to identity authentication. If they were treated in much the same way as issuing server certificates (SSL) then I suspect the problem would be some what lessoned. | ||
| JB |
It's also partly due to the fact that the displayed content of an email has nothing to do with the source of that email. They don't need to register widget.com to send email that appears to come from widget.com. | ||
| Barefoot Andrew |
What JB says. There is some techie explanation on this topic here.
A. |
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| vegplot |
I've just run a report and we've received, in the last 24 hours over 1 million emails and this is just one of our two gateway mail servers. This level is three times our normal traffic. Needless to say only a tiny fraction, 1.65%, got through the first layer of defence. | ||
| Shane |
1.65% of 1 million is still a considerable nuisance, I'd imagine | ||
| vegplot |
Mostly they were legitimate emails. SPAM rate is 98.35%. |
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| yummersetter |
checking the latest spam (unsubscribe from MSN if you don't want to receive offers to see Angelina Jolie naked) I came to this link http://certifiedbug.com/blog/2008/07/16/spam-posing-as-msn-featured-offers/ Hope this isn't also spam, of course!
Quite sensible but a quote - 'As for the email box, responsibility falls on the end user to filter spam and if it does get through, to delete without clicking on the links.' That's my point, why should it be solely up to the victims to protect themselves, with no legal sanction or responsibility for the perpetrators, especially when their activities would be arrestable offences on the street? They also give these links for reporting spam 'If you receive spam email that you believe is deceptive, you can forward it to: spam AT uce.gov. (replace A with @) http://www.ftc.gov/spam/' <hopefully these are trustworthy too, or am I getting paranoid? |
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| Shane |
<subscribes to MSN> 
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| yummersetter |
well, as you know, I'm immensely angered by spam (usually dealt with before the first coffee of the day, otherwise I'd smash the PC). So irritating that a promising system of communication has been compromised by filth and scumbags.
Anyway - today I had one pretending to have come from my own email address threatening the life of Barack Obama. I'd like to flag this up to some security organisation or whatever (if they don't already scan my emails). Also, this flaw where an email can pretend to come from yourself - is that the same for everyone receiving this email, that they get their own address inserted? I would be totally horrified if this goes to others with my name in the sender line - the sexual perversion stuff is creepy enough, but this is on another level. |
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| vegplot |
It could be either. Most likely to be the former and most local spam systems trust your own email address and thus renders spam filtering useless - the spammers know this. However, spoofing another email address is quite common as well. |
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| jema |
As research shows, you turn a profit if 1 in 12,000,000 spams gets a sale.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/10/storm_botnet_spam_economics/ Whilst there are morons that respond to spam out there, it will take either a big technical or legal breakthrough to stop it. |
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| RichardW |
I guess then we should legislate against morons (IE dont let them have PC's & internet access via any method. With no morons to respond they will stop doing it in the end? Richard |
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| Nick |
Of course, morons who respond to spam aren't all morons. They're people who do wish to buy Viagra online, or see nuddie pics of Jolie (HELLO SHANE), or get porn.
I'm afraid it's a fact of life, just like junk mail. Ignore it, and breathe. 
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| dpack |
i dont get much spam .caught a few bits of malware etc and killed them over the years
good security programmes can be had at no user cost , vigilance helps a lot ,as probably not having an interest in the normal baits of spammers also does put them in the always block list if you spot one if a message from a mate is obviously not from them tell em they have been invaded and need to tidy up ,killed a nasty trojan that auto called me from a pals nest of infection last year. use a variety of immunology and medicine rather than a single package run deep scans if anything seems wrong dodgy offers are tiresome but malware is a bad thing for everyone close unused ports and have fierce dogs patrolling
i did have to chuck a hard drive a long time ago but medical science for pooters has improve . imho there is no more reason to get spam or infections (often from spam)than there is to get scurvy .prevention is better than cure |
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| Shane |
Hello
Sorry, been quiet lately - in Holland for a week, in France for a week (went mushrooming), been overloaded at work ever since, blah blah blah. Scanned the forum this morning and you managed to catch my attention
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| Nick |
Yes, it took you around 12 hours to find a post on the internet that mentioned the keywords 'Shane', 'nuddie' and 'Jolie'.
You need to sharpen your radar. |
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| Shane |
Sorry sir - will do better next time 
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| yummersetter |
Just to say that virtually all of the spam is caught, but I have to run an eye down the list before it's trashed as a lot of my work is ordered by email and I can't afford to miss a job. I rarely open anything in the list, though I did in the case of the Obama horror when it came the second time and it was that same MSN rubbish as before. I'm sure its mainly evil teenagers and idiots but I find a lot of it degrading on many levels |