From: Vipul Ved Prakash <vipul@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 08:54:27 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Web Resource on Netspam
Message-ID: <319812D5.604D8509@pobox.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain

http://www.metareality.com/~nathan/visit.cgi/html.Spam

Title: Spam (Not the Hormel product)






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An honest
politician
is one who
takes your
bribe AND
votes as
you ask.




Spam (Not the Hormel product)

Anyone familiar with the usenet has seen it.  It's the vile stuff that
brain-dead get-rick-quick scheme promoters and professionsal advertisers
foist upon us all with increasing regularity.  There are (to date) two 
species of spam, differentiated by the mechanism by which they are 
delivered.  Each has its own defining charateristics, each has its own 
sub-species, but both have two things in common: they're made possible by 
the workings of the internet, and they're both examples of the same type 
of 'cost-shifting' that made junk faxes illegal.  Contrary to postal junk 
mail, where the sender bears the full cost of delivery, the spammer bears 
only a fraction of the cost of delivery; the remainder of the costs are 
borne by us, the recipients.  It's a waste of your bandwidth, your disk 
space, and your time.


email spam
Messages delivered by electronic mail to large numbers of recipients 
who did not ask for or otherwise solicit the messages.  It's the 
junk mail of the 21st century, only worse.

usenet spam
Messages delivered by usenet to large numbers of newsgroups whose 
chartered topics are unrelated to (and may even explicitly forbid) the 
topic of the message.



Not enough people seem to
realize that there are constructive ways to deal with it, and to reduce
the chance that you'll have to deal with it again in the future. 



  What to do

  What NOT to do



  The most effective is to write some 
  polite email to the administrator of the site from which the spam 
  originated.

  You'll soon learn that most system administrators are very unhappy 
  about users who spam the net.  It's 
  always gratifying when they write back to tell you that the offending 
  account has been terminated.

  Start reading <a 
  href="usenet://news.admin.net-abuse.misc">news.admin.net-abuse.misc 
  to learn more about how to deal with spammers.

  If there's a 1-800 number, call it to express your displeasure.  
  It might please you to note that 1-800 numbers typically cost them a 
  small amount of money with each call.  How much do you pay for your disk 
  space and bandwidth with each unsolicited bit of email?  It's only fair, 
  right?

  Grab your telephone, or even pay them a visit in person.  You 
  generally have to have access to a unix command line to find the phone 
  numbers and addresses, unless you're dealing with the same <a 
  href="http://www.metareality.com/~nathan/visit.cgi/spam/html.Offenders">spammers that have been 
  bothering me.  Why stick to email?  If they're in your area, tell 
  them face-to-face that you object to their tactics.



  Don't post a follow-up message in the same newsgroup.  Do you 
  really think that the spammer is going to re-visit thousands of 
  newsgroups to see what people had to say?

  The same goes for mailing lists.  If you get spammed via a mailing 
  list, never reply to the list.  Your words will just get 
  re-broadcast to everyone else on the list, thus doubling the nuisance 
  created by the spammer.





Fun stuff that doesn't get results, but might be good for a laugh


RecyclingIf they enjoy sending spam, then it only makes sense that
they wouldn't mind getting their own, right?  Just for kicks, forward each
new spam to the spammers who have pestered you in the past.  While I can't
vouch for its effectiveness, it does reek of
poetic justice, and it makes me feel a little better. 
It usually makes people laugh out loud when I explain it, too. <img src =
"http://www.metareality.com/~nathan/images/SMILE.GIF">

A Pre-emptive Anti-Spam TacticWhy wait to get spammed, when you
can see them coming in <a
href="news:news.admin.net-abuse.misc">news.admin.net-abuse.misc?  <a
href="http://www.metareality.com/~nathan/visit.cgi/spam/html.p.Pre-empt">Let the spammers know in advance that they
will be charged (insert dollar amount here) if they send you any junk
mail.  



Additional references


Spam and Anonymous Remailing Services

Damien Lucifer (<a 
href="mailto:ncognito@gate.net">ncognito@gate.net) operates an
anonymous remailing service.  He's put together a page covering spam and
remailers, including how to get a remailer to stop spamming you, and 
it is my pleasure to host this page for him. 

mail bombing
For advanced spam-fighters only.  Can concerted emailbombing be 
employed as a legitimate spam-fighting tactic?  Pros, cons, and related 
issues.

About Junk 
Email
Some of the hows and whys of junk email, and tactics you can use to 
help rid yourself of it.

A press release from MCI
...with information about their 
anti-spam policies.  See also their <a 
href="http://www.mci.com/aboutmci/news/nfr/spam.shtml">online policy 
statement.  Note that MCI's seriousness about these statements has 
been severely questioned in light of their (mis)handling of the 
Moneyworld/CHAG spammer.  30 days between announcing that the situation 
is being dealt with and finally cutting off a spammer with 
message-per-week spamming speed?  This is pretty disgusting in light of 
the good press MCI got when they announced their spam policies.  It's 
starting to look more like a PR stunt than a policy statement.  I 
can only take comfort knowing that at least their sysadmins are aware of 
(and frustrated with) the situation.

I must disclaim that civil legal issues may be involved in the
MCI/Moneyworld dispute, so there may be things going on that the public
isn't aware of.  Still, for MCI not to have covered its corporate ass does
not speak well of MCI's sincerity or the competence of MCI's lawyers.  

Outlaw 
Junk EMail Now!
Write your legislators, ask them to expand the 

TCPA to include junk email!  Note that as the law is currently 
written, it is 

unlikely to be applicable to email.

Fighting Junk 
Email"
More information about junk email and related issues.  Includes 
pointers to mechanical tactics for dealing with junk email.

Spam FAQ
Everything you never wanted to know about net spamming.

Get that 
spammer!Webified TCP/IP tools to aid in the fight against spam.

<a 
href="http://techweb.cmp.com/net/issues/036issue/036law.htm">Litigation 
to the rescue?
Use of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 U.S.C. sec 227) 
to nail junk emails.  The case described was settled out of court, but 
the ideas is intriguing.  This commentary, written by a lawyer, does not 
seem optistic about applying the TCPA directly to junk email, but 
doesn't rule out the possibility, either.

Litigation to the 
rescue!
$500 fines for junk mail via the courts.  Sounds like promising 
tactic for dealing with intra-USA spammings.  <a 
href="http://www.metareality.com/~nathan/visit.cgi/spam/html.FaxLaw">Some commentary on this law was posted to 
usenet a while back.

<a 
href="http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm">The U.S. 
Postal Service on Chain Letters
Contrary to what the make.money.fast crowd would have you believe, 
these scams are illegal.  See the aforelinked page for details, 
and and consider talking to the appropriate <a 
href="http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/locators/find-is.html">postal 
inspector as well.

<a 
href="http://www.bbb.org/council/complaints/consumerform.html">The Better 
Business Bureau
These folks will be happy to be notified of 'improper selling 
practices' via the aforelinked form.

Anti-Spam lists
This is a relatively new phenomenon.  People are starting to offer 
the 'service' of collecting lists of addresses of folks who do not want 
to get spam.  

I think this is a bad idea, since it attempts to legitimize 
junk email, by implying that if an email address is not on the list, it's 
prefectly OK to send junk email.  The other problem with this idea is 
that there are going to be several of them, and no junkmailer is going to 
filter their list using each "service."  Thus, it will be up to the 
recipients to track down all of the "services."

Currently there are at least three running.  One is at 
http://dm1.com/Epreference/epref.html, one is at 
http://www.kenjen.com/nospam,
and I don't have an URL for the last - it was sent to me via unsolicited 
email, naturally.

Terms of Service and Acceptable usage policies
Most Internet service providers require that their customers agree to 
a set of terms of service (TOS) or an acceptable usage policy (AUP).  A 
random sampling: <a 
href="http://www.mindspring.com/aboutms/policy.html">Mindspring's 
policy, Primenet's 
AUP, MCI's
spamming policy, and the terms and conditions for my own ISP, <a 
href="http://webfaq.halcyon.com/faq/nwn/nwntac.txt">Northwest Nexus 
(a.k.a. halcyon.com).

I should note that while Northwest Nexus doesn't describe spamming in 
their terms of service, they have booted more than one spammer in the 
past.  It surprises me greatly that they aren't explicit about this in 
their published terms and conditions.

A spamhandling robot
This is very "under construction," but worth mentioning anyhow.  I'm 
putting together some perl code to automate 
the spam-handling process.  




Common flavors of net.spam


 The MAKE.MONEY.FAST scheme 

A direct descendant of the chain letters of old, this is the pyramid scam 
of the information age...  A quick look at the mathematics behind the 
idea will expose the scam.


 Phone-sex cretins 


They post a couple of lines of text-mode heavy breathing, and usually a 
1-800 number that you're invited to call.  Call the 1-800 number.  
Really.  It costs them money every time you do!  They make their money 
via the 1-900 number that they ask you to call next.  So just call the 
1-800 number again.  And again.  And again.








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Don't just browse here, say something!
Speak your mind in this space here:

<input type=submit 
	value="Press here to have your words added to the page.">



 The true beauty of Usenet is the way it allows free communication.
You can be rich/poor/ugly/
 religious/atheist or a member of any
race/religion or be young/old... That's the wonder - everyone can talk to
one another and share ideas.
 Then spam comes along. It fills up
newsgroups with so much noise that no one reads it any more. That

wondrous method of communication has been lost. That's why I hate spam. 



 You just don't get it, do you?

 No, deleting one piece of email doesn't take much.  Then again,
neither does appealing to a system administrator to have the
spammer shut down.  Two or three bits of junk a day really is something 
I can live with, but I don't want to.  So why should I?  

Two or three bits of trash by the roadside won't mean the end of
the world.  Tossing empty cans out the window costs less than having your
trash hauled away - what a great opportunity to save money!  If litter
were acceptable, a public beach would be no place to spend an afternoon. 

 Postal mail costs the sender with each mailing.  This keeps junk
postal mail to tolerable levels. EMail costs the sender maybe
$20/month, period.  Are you so fucking stupid that you don't
realize what a cesspool the net would be if this were allowed to grow
unchecked? 

-NW


 People complain about spam and mass E-mailers.  But my question is:

what's the big deal?  Does it REALLY take THAT much PRECIOUS time out

of your day to click and delete a piece of E-mail? I think that the

people complaining about others taking advantage of an excellent

business opportunity ought to just relax a bit.  And just HOW does it 

COST you to deal with SPAM?  With ISP's dropping access prices and

providing unlimited access to the internet, how could it possibly

COST someone to get an E-mail message?  I think you people really need

to just kick back and relax already.  Geeze, if it wasn't SPAM what

else would you find to complain about?




 Spam isn't about content, spam is about quantity and cost shifting.  

TV spam would be the same ad on every channel at the same time.

Print spam would be junk mail sent postage due or charge-on-delivery.

With the ads on TV and in newspapers, the advertisers pay the expenses 
associated with publishing their ads.  With net spam, the recipients pay the 
expenses associated with carrying the ads.  That is the key difference.  

The costs of ads in traditional media help to support the very media that
deliver the ads.  With net.spam, there are no costs, and the ads just
serve to sap the medium.  All you need is a free trial account (AOL,
interramp, or earthlink, etc are famous for this), and you can broadcast a
huge amount of spam before anyone notices.  Or, you can pay for an account
with MCI, and broadcast huge amounts of spam for 30 days after the
sysadmins realize what's going on. 

-NW 


 Net-based spam is not the only form of spam. There is spam in print

and spam in TV advertising. Wouldn't you say every Calvin Klein ad

on TV, magazines or billboards is spam? How about Budweiser,

Lite beer, and McDonalds commercials.



If you see any type of advertising that offends your senses, you

should feel free to boycott the products, ask your friends to

boycott the products, etc. If the company has an 800 number or

web site, let them know that you find their advertising offensive.




 I am really, really, REALLY tired of being solicited to buy things 

whenever I log on to my computer. I mean, I pay for the phone line, 

the software, the hardware, the accounts and my time is worth money 

as well. I get a LOT of e-mail and a SIZEABLE portion of it is junk 

e-mail. When I read news, about 10% of it is junk e-mail; more if it

is a small newsgroup. I want to know what uninformed idiot is selling

my address, or where these people are GETTING it. I have never bought

anything over the computer. I have bounced unsolicited junk back to

the people who send it. (I love how righteously indignant these people

are: they send you mail and expect you to buy something from them and

when you fail to perform as expected with joy and gratitude...if you 

should, in fact, protest them wasting your time and resources...they

get downright rude and abusive. The presumptuousness of it just really

annoys me.) The capper is that I did some artwork for the anti-Canter-

and-Siegel "Green Card Lawyers" tees Joel Furr was offering a while ago.

The ultimate clue that I am not interested in spam of any sort, but how

could they know? It's just amusing. Let it be known that I am not a

test market, nor will I buy any of your crap, be it face cream, thigh

cream, green cards, stock options, modems, books, herbs, or the golden

goose itself. Not interested. I don't know you, I have no reason to trust

you, and you are spamming MY mailbox and expecting ME to reward this with

money. No, thank you. I've been online for more than 5 years, and I 

really long for the "good old days" before the Net was "cool".



There ya go. My tuppence. Now...where do I go to put my name on the

"Don't Send This Person Crap Mail" list? (Laugh)






 SPAM is only going to go away if we make sure companies learn that SPAMming doesn't get costumers to buy thier products and it does more to stop potential costumers from buying thier products.


 I've heard a couple of different conflicting stories about the origins of the use of the word spam in this context.  




The most popular version suggests that is was inspired by the
Monty Python skit in which virtually every item on some restaurant's menu
includes spam in some form or other.  The waiter's recitation of the menu
becomes unintelligible except for '...and spam, spam with..., spam salad,
...with spam, spam mixed with..." and so on.  It really picks up when the
Vikings start chanting "spam-spam spam, spam, spam-spam spam, spam...." ad
nauseum.  This is what the net would be like if this stuff was allowed to 
continue unchecked.  If that's not a horrifying thought, maybe you should 
see the skit in question.

My personal belief is that geeks (who make up much of the 'net
community (myself included), much of Monty Python's audience, and probably
most of Monty Python's cast) just tend to use the word spam when more
appropriate words don't come to mind readily.  For no particularly good
reason, it really stuck this time.


-NW


 Due to popular demand, I've expanded the first couple of paragraphs to 
better explain what spam is and why it's such a pain in the ass.  

Personally, I'm getting two to five unsolicited email messages every week.  This is up from approximately zero unsolicited messages per week a few years ago when I first started using the Internet and Usenet.  It's a trend that has been steadily increa





sing, especially for the last year or two.  It's a trend that really really worries me.  It's a trend that is, worst of all, wasting my time!

-NW


 I an working on a Usenet news server designed to filter spam from

a news feed and quietly drop it.  Announcements in due course (next

few months) but if anyone wants to help with other platforms and

live feed debugging please 
mail me.


 Wow! Thanks for the help. I'll certainly become an anti-spam activist

and use your information to good effect.


 I don't get it! What is SPAM?


 Pardon my ignorance but what does "SPAM"ming mean?

"SICK PEOPLE AGAINST MAIL"???


 For the Spammers that have a web page I visit it with a macro every time that

I leave my system idle while connected for more then 5 min. This way at least

I'm sucking down their site and causing their site to slow down so those that 

are interest get bored waiting for an over taxed server to show them just what

They get for "ONLY $9.99 A MONTH!!!!" and leave with out buying. 

The only reason they have the site is to make money. No Money, No Site, No Spam.




 Very nice -- I like the idea of dialing the 800 number in the ad.  One

might wish to be sure to mention (if there's a message taker or, even

better, a human at the other end) that you saw their ad in (insert

newsgroup here) -- and no, you're not interested in buying anything,

you just wanted to see what they had.



Unfortunately, every time you call the 800 number, chances are you're

also adding your own phone number to a database that will result in

your receiving "junk phone calls" on a variety of useless subjects.



Solution?  Make the calls from a pay phone, ideally one that doesn't

accept incoming calls.




 Isn't spam remarkably like the countless hours of television (including but not limited to advertisements) that most of us watched in our childhoods?  And to think, whoever controls the information going to the youth of the nation controls the future






 of the nation.  Greedy, stupid corporations played a central role in molding us and shaping our opinions, attitudes, and perspectives.  Something to think about, perhaps... 








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