email adddress harvester (N.A.C.)

[Mike Arman]

At 10:58 AM 4/10/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>
>I'm sorry Mike, did you just say "If I *start* getting spam"? You don't
>currently receive any spam?

Well, yes, in fact I *do* currently get a LOT of spam, and quite frankly, I
am sick and damned tired of it.


I am not interested in chain letters, "free" vacations, refinancing my
mortgage, buying overpriced copier supplies, looking at kiddie porn, or
increasing my breast size.


As a result, I go directly to www.samspade.org and do a "whois" on EVERY
item of spam that arrives. Sounds like a PITA, and sometimes it is, but in
the total absence of any meaningful anti-spam laws, it appears to be the
only way to defend my desktop from the unending onslaught of garbage.

Sure, I could just hit the delete key, and that is what they want - to be
able to bother EVERYONE with no consequences at all.

That's why they use forged return-to addresses, relaying from Korea and
China, and every other subterfuge they can figure out to avoid being
bounced. Except if they are selling something (and they ALL ARE), there HAS
to be some way to get back in touch with them to buy it, and that is how I
find out who and where they are.

Since I have been doing this, about 25% of the time, I'll get an e-mail
from the ISP saying "We have closed so-and-so's email account for violation
of our TOS agreement", and about 10% of the time, it will be his website
that they close down.

If spamming was "OK", why then do ISPs almost invariably close down
spamming sites? Why do spammers use obfuscated URLs, forged e-mail headers,
etc. etc,?  - because it is NOT OK, and the spammers KNOW IT!!!

Rule #1 - do not EVER buy ANYTHING from spammers.

Rule #2 - do not EVER respond directly to spammers - that just tells them
your e-mail address is a good one, and you will soon see LOTS more trash.

Rule #3 - hunt down and complain about EVERY item of spam that shows up in
your mailbox. If enough people do it, eventually the word will get out that
spamming is simply not a viable business model, and they will go find some
other way to annoy people.



 How do you rate? Is Mr. Jim Casey going to
>digitally sign the ones you will get as a result of this web page?


He may, and he will regret it if he does.


>
>What good, exactly, does a firstname-lastname and logged IP address do for
>Mr. Jim Casey anyway? That is not quite the same as a valid email address.

True, but unless this site is simply there to make people smile (which is a
nice thought in itself), the information must be of SOME use to him or the
site would be gone by now.


>Add the state and year of birth...and it seems like that's not quite enough
>to get into identity theft either. One would hope. Am I missing something?


I don't know, but the less information you give out about yourself, the
better off you are.

For example, using ONLY your name and age, I could run these through a
database which is <supposed> to only be available to lawyers (my wife is a
lawyer, so I get access to the database website), and you would be
ASTONISHED DISMAYED APPALLED at what comes back to me in a matter of five
minutes or so. The cost is $12 - and let me tell you, with what is
available there, any dirtball with half a brain could do an identity theft
in his sleep. Name, aliases, past ten years addresses, car registrations,
social security number(!), who you are and were married to, what property
you own now and have sold in the past, criminal records, public records,
what cars you own/owned, boat registrations, who you do business with (!),
lawsuits you may have been involved with, who your neighbors are, what
their phone numbers and addresses are, and also your phone numbers, by the
way, where you worked, you name it, it is ALL THERE and completely legal to
get!!!!!

I ran myself, just to see how hot this item is, and I was f*cking STUNNED
by the details about MY LIFE that are EASILY available if someone knows
where and how to look for them.

And your name and age are enough to get into this . . . "privacy" is a
total joke, and what I got is available to a *casual* inquirer - God knows
what I could get if I were serious about this.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman


>
>Henry Harper
>http://www.henry-harper.com  hah at alumni.rice.edu
>1991 200 quattro, 116k
>1988 GTI 16v, 226k, new summer shoes mounted and ready
>
>On Wednesday, April 10, 2002 4:01 AM, Mike Arman
>[SMTP:armanmik at n-jcenter.com] wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://www.policeguide.com/cgi-bin/criminal-search
>> >
>> >It's been there since at least 1997.  It won't get shut down until we
>get
>> some really
>> >effective anti-spam legislation.
>> >