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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
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SiSL
Average Member
Turkey
671 Posts |
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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
 Posted - 26 September 2005 : 18:15:32
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Okay. . .how about a writing a small program that will generate thousands of emails. I'll post a few pages of them, you post a few pages of them, and a few hundred other reads posts a few pages and a few other forums pick it up and post a few pages of them.
What web master wouldn't want to participate?
I suspect that smart fella' like MarcelG or Davio or Shaggy or Rui or a dozen other coders here could do write a small random email generator like that.
Everybody hates spam. I bet almost every web master in the country would host a page of dummy email addresses.
Tie them spammers in a knot. . . . . .there's gotta' be a way.
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"5-in-1 Snitz Common Expansion Pack" - five popular mods packaged for easy install
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20600 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2005 : 18:34:09
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Me, for one, since someones mail server will suffer, don't forget, these so called randomly generated email addresses may actually exist somewhere, it is not the spammers you will be tying in a knot it will be the mail network which gets clogged up.
Best way to deal with spam is get a good filter and ignore it. |
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TestMagic
Senior Member
USA
1568 Posts |
Posted - 26 September 2005 : 22:56:08
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| Also, a lot of spammers also regularly send out empty messages to email addresses to see if they bounce; this technique would get rid of a lot of those dummy email addresses. |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2005 : 04:12:08
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DON'T DO IT!!!
If you're trying to deter vandals, don't trash your own front yard - please don't add to the cocophony of bad email out there...those of us with mail servers already subsidising spammers sending me junk mail....>breathes deeply<
spammers usually (as it the current trend) send from made-up addresses to just about any address they can steal by any means (the worst ones are where your mate has forwarded on an email you sent with a funny picture...and as it forwards, it picks up valid email addresses grrrrrrrrrr, but there are many ways they generate lists, this wouldn't help, and may make things worse
Try using spambayes (free) for excellent, adaptive spam filtering. Try using mailinator (or it's variants) as throwaway email addresses. Oh, and if you can find the postal address of any of these spammers, try signing them up for all the catalogues etc you can find, I sincerely hope it ruins their day ;-) |
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2005 : 06:29:03
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I'm with Huw and Pdrg on this and I resent the implication (as, I'm sure, do Marcel, Davio & Rui) that I would lend my efforts to such a "tit-for-tat" response to spammers. It's just another way of giving them the attention they so desperately crave by going to these lengths to try and deter them - if they now they've caught our attention, it will only encourage them to continue spamming us. Best spam deterrent is a good filter backed up with the smarts to tell the difference between real e-mail and junk before opening it.
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 Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2005 : 09:45:51
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Okay. Sounds like a bad idea.
I have enough respect for you guys to know that you know what you're talking about.
Just thought I'd float the idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
(Shaggy: no implication intended. The post only reads that you among others seem to have the technical wherewithal to accomplish it. Not that anyone is inclined to do it.)
Thanks for the input everyone.
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Shaggy
Support Moderator
Ireland
6780 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2005 : 09:47:36
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Apologies if I misread you there, so, to me it read as though you were suggesting our names to lead such an effort here.
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Search is your friend
“I was having a mildly paranoid day, mostly due to the
fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had
taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” |
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MarcelG
Retired Support Moderator
Netherlands
2625 Posts |
Posted - 27 September 2005 : 10:10:32
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Spammers don't care if their e-mails bounce, as they will NEVER use a working 'from' address.
When I first registered oxle.com, I got thousands and thousands of e-mails bouncing in to my @oxle.com mailbox. Some spammers had found oxle.com to be unregistered, and decided to send out mails from that domain. A couple of weeks after the registration it stopped.
The only method to ban spamming is to bring the companies that are advertised in the spam to court.
Some time ago, I wrote an article on how to stop spam, and I still think the proposed approach will work. As long as everyone does it.
And taking spammers to court has already proven to work ; See the Howard Carmack story, and the Jeremy Jaynes and Jessica DeGroot trials.
If you cannot beat them ; take them to court! |
portfolio - linkshrinker - oxle - twitter |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 28 September 2005 : 08:03:33
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quote:
Some spammers had found oxle.com to be unregistered, and decided to send out mails from that domain.
Then they were extremely well-mannered spammers...I get the exact same from some long-established domains I own!
Panhandler - I honestly see what you were thinking, and believe me, we all feel your pain. You're right, healthy discussion is all good, but having been at the wrong end of spam for about 15 years now (gosh, sounds like a long time - feels doubly so!), and having gone through similar arguments back then, then gone on to read and understand the RFC's for SMTP etc, it's just a fundamental 'weakness' in SMTP, a protocol designed for nice friendly communities to communicate and abused by greedy people (grrrrrr)
fyi - http://mailinator.com/mailinator/map.html is fascinating - a real-time (well near enough) map of spam emails being sent...makes me shudder  |
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Panhandler
Average Member
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 28 September 2005 : 09:12:07
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Spam isn't free. Spammers aren't doing it for nothing.
Somebody pays. If the payee knows that 75 percent of spam is fake addresses. . .then who would pay?
Theoretically, spam should wither and die. . .
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"5-in-1 Snitz Common Expansion Pack" - five popular mods packaged for easy install
". . .on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. . ."
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 28 September 2005 : 09:40:32
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| I'm not so sure about that.... a large number of the emails sent to don't exsist (as the list is generated by a program) or have been abandoned (due to the owner fleeing spam). Spam won't wither and die until it costs more to spam than it does to use some other method of lazy advertizing. |
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