make LOVE not SPAM

Has anyone else heard about this new program to stop spammers? I guess it like keeps getting data from the site (like refreshing) and slows them down. from what I can tell everyone should download it. it won’t bother you computer use because it only works when your screen save is on. does anyone else know anything about this?

http://makelovenotspam.com/intl/

 

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Only 18 views and no replies thus far... what are you waiting for? uncle Spam wants you! I ask everyone to help join the fight against spam, just download the program and kill their bandwidth! tell your friends, together we can vanquish the evil spam companies once and for all!

Maybe that will motivate people.

 

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4061375.stm

 

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i use Incredimail for my email. they have a facility where you can delete the spam and bounce it to the sender. this sends a message to the sender that the target (your computer) couldn't be found. The spammer's program then avoids sending you any more mail and eventually ALL the spam stops. This worked for me and now I may get 1 spam message a month at most. Incredimail is free.

 

Firstly sending messages back saying your address is invalid usually doesn't stop spammers.

It's totally down to how they have programmed the program that they use to send mail, if it's not programmed to handle mail coming back (and usually they point the from address from elsewhere other than themselves) you'll find that your just adding to the unwanted e-mail that circles the internet for days at a time.

With the DDoS attack method, it is right that legally it's a dodgy ground, however it's totally dependent on the servers that are DoS'd. Afterall I don't see a spammer coming out of the woodwork to own up to their server just to be slapped with a fine from multiple countries & companies for spamming their networks.

However with the DoS method the main concern are the innocents in between, this is why I attempted to send an e-mail to the creators to ask them if they use their own DNS for Spammer addresses rather than pointing at Spammers actual DNS address.

The reason here is that "Requests" are enough to DoS a website, this was proven recently with the SCO.com attacks. Namely the domain name is asked for from a DNS server to be resolved to an IP, if enough requests occur to that DNS server the likelihood is that the DNS server that resolves with be DoS'd and not the actual website of the target.

The only way around this is to resolve the domain name on your own system or through your own DNS server, this means your system deals with the requests that points to where the machine is and then the machine is directly targetted via their IP.

It would be more sense though if anyone running mail servers uses "Blacklists" like http://www.spamhaus.org/ as this will identify which systems are being used for spamming and what addresses, all those systems that use blacklists will then be free of people attempting to use their relays.

You can add addresses and systems to those sort of blacklists by reporting them at: http://www.spamcop.net/

 

Anti-spam plan overwhelms sites

A plan to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers seems to be getting out of control.
Earlier this week Lycos Europe released a screensaver that bombards spam websites with data to try to increase the cost of running such sites.

But analysis shows that, in some cases, spam websites are being completely overwhelmed by the traffic being directed their way.

The Lycos plan has also come under fire for encouraging vigilantism.

Attack pattern

Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the avalanche of junk mail messages coming their way.

Participants were encouraged to download the Lycos screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data traffic to websites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages.

Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites.

The screensaver has reportedly been downloaded more than 90,000 times since it was launched.

But monitoring firm Netcraft has analysed response times for three of the sites the screensaver targets and has found that the campaign is being too successful.


Some sites are being knocked out by the anti-spam campaign
Two of the sites being bombarded by data have been completely knocked offline. One other site has been responding to requests only intermittently as it struggles to cope with the traffic the screensaver is pointing its way.

The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them.

Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure advised against using the screensaver in case of legal problems.

Currently laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw DDoS attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences.

Lycos Europe has yet to comment on this latest development in its anti-spam campaign.

Criticism

However, the company has denied reports that the "Make love not spam" website was hacked earlier this week.

Some users of the site claimed to have got back a message that said: "Yes, attacking spammers is wrong. You know this, you shouldn't be doing it. Your IP address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action."


The law has yet to catch up with some aspects of net life
Lycos said the supposed defacement of the site was a hoax. It added that its campaign must be having an effect if spammers were adopting such tactics.

It said that the strong interest following reports on news sites such as Slashdot had made the anti-spam site slow to respond.

The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web.

Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism.

"If you do manage to swamp the spammers then you set yourself up for more attacks in return," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos.

"Having this screensaver in a large company could slow down your internet connection," he said. "And what is to stop a mistake happening and the wrong number going on the list?"

Mr Cluley urged users not to respond to anything in spam messages.

 

What is wrong with vigilante justice? Isn’t it better than no justice at all? I have never signed up for anything wit my gmail account and yet I still get some junk mail that I cannot unsubscribe to. I am sick and tired of it, DOWN WITH SPAM!

 

You could take that form of arguement further, for instance Where is the justice in dealing with software companies that cop out through EULA agreements if their programming is left exploitable?

So you could actually suggest that SPAM is actually being used in a Vigilante way to cause software companies to rethink/plan to deal with such exploitation, otherwise we would all be fobbed off with products that don't reach certain standards.

Admittedly I've wanted to potentially hit back at spammers through the method of DoSing their server (Along with the "Positive Virus" that actually attempts to search and destroy virual infections and patch systems. However the problem with this is that large corporates will patch things themselves when they are waiting for a software company to release a patch for an OS and usually their self patches are incompatible with that of the OS updates, so it can cause more problems fixing a system in this clandestine way.)

It's a pity you didn't live in Washington State Cato, because they have a form for people that live their to fill out against spammers and then an e-mail is despatched on behalf of the District Attorneys office warning that repeat Spams are Illegal and continuation will involve prosecution by the State for that person.

 

Seems like the Make Love not Spam website is down, perhaps they are in trouble for their DoS attacks.

 

I think that this is a bad thing - overall.

Quite a few companies rely on internet marketing fairly heavily, thrid-parties attract people looking for home loans etc, and direct them to their own lead capture services, (companies then buy the leads) and then try to turn the lead into a customer.

The methods used by the people that supply the leads are many and various, e-mail, banners, pop-ups/unders etc are just some of the legitimate methods that are used.

If these people become targets of the attacks because they use legitimate internet advertising methods, then this harms the business of major corporations that rely on the income from these places.

Spam exists for a reason.

 

what? you are crazy!11oneoneone. yeah some spam is fine, if you can block/unsubscribe to it. I have been getting the same (exact) spam email 3 times a day for the last two weeks and I cannot unsubscribe to them. how is that fair?

they should make it mandatory for unsubscribe links to work, and if they don’t they should get pinged till their server is crashed. bottom line.

its a shame that we can justify killing innocent people in Iraq but we cant justify knocking down innocent servers.

p.s. somebody should hack makelovenotspam so we can continue fighting the good fight. =]