Techno-geeks, I need your help! Can we fight spam with spam?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

Someone keeps spamming me. They have obviously programmed some sort of bot to use a random sentence and a random name to send me lots of offers per day for fake
Rolex watches. I can't set a filter against them cause they keep generating false subject lines and e-mail addresses.

So, my question is this. Is there any way to write a program to respond to them in a similar fashion? I mean, a million people get a program that sends spammers millions and millions of "hits" every night, hopefully crashing their servers? I would happily leave my computer online all night, every night to accomplish this and I'm sure millions of others would too.

Fight fire with fire?
Bud

[MADem]

1. Geez, don't you have any filtering?

Even Yahoo has bulk mail folders, and you can just hit DELETE!

I have three email accounts, and I rarely get any spam. It all goes to a bulk or junk folder, and then melts!!!

[hermetic]

2. Count me in

If you get a good answer to that, let me know. I'll play

[mtnester]

3. I am too busy to help as I am visiting illegal websites, because my IP

has been logged by the FBI, CIA and Nikki and Paris Hilton. Oh, and I also have a new email address...just click on the the link attached to see what it is.


:evilgrin:

[ConservativeDemocrat]

4. To answer your question: no

One of the problems with spam is that the "Reply-To" field isn't checked by anything. You can put anything you want in it. One technique spammers use, called a "joe job", is where they send millions of annoying messages with your return address in the Reply To field.

Do not try to send spam back unless you are an expert in SMTP tracking, and even then it's usually not worth it.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[flyingfysh]

5. If you use Eudora

Spamnix is an effective anti-spam plugin for Eudora that gets smarter as it goes along. Changing subject lines and email addresses doesn't fool it.

[flyingfysh]

6. don't send spam to "where it came from"

for 2 reasons:
1) you can't believe the addresses in spam
2) the spam may have been sent by a hijacked machine whose owner does not realize his machine is spamming.

[Junkdrawer]

8. ...and a reply was what they were phishing for to begin with...

it confirms to the spammer that the email address is live.

[Ravy]

7. One reason why I think they should charge for emails.

A penny each. Credited back if someone opens the email.

[sabbat hunter]

9. no

because they fake where it even came from. spam is very hard to track down. use a good spam filter

how can you spam the spammers if you dont know where it came from

[OffWithTheirHeads]

10. Dunnow. That's why I am asking

I know NOT to reply to them, but what if I replied to them say like a million times per hour. These Troglodytes are trying to sell something. If it was impossible to reply, they'd have no reason to exist, ergo, they have a "reply to" address. I'm just sayin. how about a few million of us "reply to" them a few million times apiece?

[sabbat hunter]

12. but the

reply to address is faked. most of spam you need to click on a link of somekind and if you try to reply you either end up getting more spam or get a rejected message saying the address doesnt exist.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

13. Then how do they make their money?

I keep getting stock tips, offers for watches, etc. If you can't reply, how do they gain?

[Ian David]

15. They make their money when you go to the links in the email

Most of those guys don't need-- or want-- you to be able to email them back.

Instead, they use "bulletproof hosting" services in China, aka "Spam Havens" that won't delete their websites when you report them for spamming.

People like Sanford Wallace and others being sued by AOL and Yahoo! under The Can Spam Act are so difficult to get rid of because their sites are hosted on those Chinese Spam Havens operated by companies like China Telecom.

On edit: Not just China. Also Korea, Russia, Checloslovakia and others.

And China Telecom and others operating Spam Havens have lucrative contracts with the likes of AOL and Yahoo!

So, the spammers are being sued and prosecuted while the companies hosting them are being rewarded with multi-billion dollar contracts.

This isn't so much different from the way we have Halliburton technicians helping Iran develop nuclear weapons while we threaten to attack Iran for developing nuclear weapons.

More like sending aid to Pakistan while we know they're harboring and hiding Bin Laden from us, actually.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

16. Jeez! What a fucked up world.

[Ian David]

11. Go to www.SpamCop.net

[OffWithTheirHeads]

14. done, thank you!

n/t

[PowerToThePeople]

17. Here's mine...