in reply to Spam revenge

Considering that's now a crime in many countries, I'd say you're asking for trouble in even talking about it. When it comes to UCE, the best way to prevent it is by filtration. If the messages aren't read, the incentive for sending them is reduced.

You might want to read about a recent project, such as Bayesian Filtering for Spam. These are constructive solutions to the problem, quite the opposite of what you're suggesting. Passive resistance is a lot better than waging a war that is likely to have a lot of so-called collateral damage.

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Re: Re: Spam revenge
by alexiskb (Acolyte) on Sep 03, 2002 at 12:36 UTC
    I stand corrected, i guess freedom of speech is what the net is all about... i will try to exercise more restraint next time i get a breast size enhancement email.
[reply]
      Don't get me wrong, it's not a simple case of freedom of speech, since in many US states, UCE is illegal, just like junk faxes. You have a right to legal remedy, such as this example of someone suing the spammer fax.com.

      If you just start randomly hacking things, or trying to deny service to someone's Web site just because they sent you UCE, you're going to inconvenience a lot more people than the marketer. The ISP might have many legitimate customers that could ne knocked out by your actions.

      If you don't read UCE, and especially, don't buy their products, the business incentive behind sending it diminishes. Spam filters and blacklists are starting to have a real monetary effect on spammers, and the more people band together to try and control this sotr of activity, the better off we'll all be.

      If everyone took matters in to their own hands, you can imagine the chaos.
[reply]
        If you just start [...] trying to deny service to someone's Web site just because they sent you UCE, you're going to inconvenience a lot more people than the marketer.

        Additionally, it might well be the case that the owner of the domain may not have realised their mail server is being used for spamming. Hence a quick note to the responsible person of this domain might wake them up and actually get them to secure their mailserver - which would show that they are indeed responsible...

        Sometimes intruders are clever enough that the admin of the victim mailserver doesn't see the intrusion. And if someone tells you his/her system has never been hacked, s/he is either downright lying, doesn't have much of a clue, or his/her system is no older than maybe a week. The secret is to build your security so that you can easily detect intrusions...

         

        Update: Aristotle is right, this is not the case here. Once I had come down this far, I based this post on the post above, not the top one. My bad...

        --cs

        There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. - George Carlin

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