Is it wrong to want spammers to die?

Headfirst

13 years ago

As long as bulkers continue to have buyers there will be spam.

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Michael Oksa 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Headfirst

As long as bulkers continue to have buyers there will be spam.

So, the answer is "yes, it's okay to feel that way"?

~M~
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Diana Lane

13 years ago

Spammers don't exactly make me feel too kindly either, but I have much more murderous feelings towards those who create viruses with the sole aim of disabling other people's computers (any people will do) or websites.

I like to think that the people who do these things will one day need an emergency service to prevent them coming to some lethal consequence or other, but the service will be temporarily down and unable to respond until it's too late due to viral attack. Naturally, innocent people will not be requiring the emergency services during this brief period of downtime - it should only take a couple of minutes. And a shotgun.

I don't think my thoughts or yours make us bad people, just human.

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Michael Oksa

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

Spammers don't exactly make me feel too kindly either, but I have much more murderous feelings towards those who create viruses with the sole aim of disabling other people's computers (any people will do) or websites.

I like to think that the people who do these things will one day need an emergency service to prevent them coming to some lethal consequence or other, but the service will be temporarily down and unable to respond until it's too late due to viral attack. Naturally, innocent people will not be requiring the emergency services during this brief period of downtime - it should only take a couple of minutes. And a shotgun.

I don't think my thoughts or yours make us bad people, just human.

Good points, Diana.

The sad part is that some of those viruses are used to highjack other's computers for the sending of spam.

All the best,
Michael

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Ken 13 years ago

Bad thoughts do not make you a Bad person.
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Tashi Mortier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

Spammers don't exactly make me feel too kindly either, but I have much more murderous feelings towards those who create viruses with the sole aim of disabling other people's computers (any people will do) or websites.

I like to think that the people who do these things will one day need an emergency service to prevent them coming to some lethal consequence or other, but the service will be temporarily down and unable to respond until it's too late due to viral attack. Naturally, innocent people will not be requiring the emergency services during this brief period of downtime - it should only take a couple of minutes. And a shotgun.

I don't think my thoughts or yours make us bad people, just human.

I don't feel any anger towards those spammers or virus creators. That's a waste of energy.

I feel sorry for my grandparents however. I would LOVE to introduce them to computers. But in times where even I have to look two or three times to make sure something isn't going to harm my computer I just don't think that is a good idea. You know I want their computer to work and it would make me sad if they couldn't use it anymore. I don't have the time to drive there and fix it all the time.

They are preying on the computer newbies which essentially makes something like a "drivers license" for computers necessary. But thanks to Zero-Day Exploits even experts aren't save.

Well back to topic: As I said don't waste your energy on thoughts that contain anger. I take spam as a problem to solve, not as something that angers me beyond measures.

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Patrician

13 years ago

Hi Tashi - you are right - hate is wrong. For me after I vent I am usually over it.

HOWEVER, you may not realize it but spammers have half crippled the internet marketing/email marketing industry. This is no joke.

Did you know 40% of business emails are never delivered because of the spam filters and the mess and traffic that has been created by spammers?

In my case I can't just relegate things to a spam folder - there are actually orders that need to be processed that are all mixed up - so I have to open each one to see if it is valid --- and I do use Gmail which does help a lot, but why should we be forced to deal with this?

This is what TROLLS DO - they DISRUPT. They are doing a good job of DISRUPTING BUSINESS and this is one reason that spamming is ILLEGAL.

It would be the same premise if you had a store and some creeps came along and barricaded your front door so that your customers couldn't get in.

Originally Posted by Tashi Mortier

I don't feel any anger towards those spammers or virus creators. That's a waste of energy.

Well back to topic: As I said don't waste your energy on thoughts that contain anger. I take spam as a problem to solve, not as something that angers me beyond measures.

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Tashi Mortier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Patrician

In my case I can't just relegate things to a spam folder - there are actually orders that need to be processed that are all mixed up - so I have to open each one to see if it is valid --- and I do use Gmail which does help a lot, but why should we be forced to deal with this?

Hmm...

Maybe you can change your ordering process? I think I would try to get my clients to use a special mail address or maybe a web form that sends mails from a certain address that you can put on a whitelist.

I haven't thought about that... For me the spam filter works very well...

I heard that some providers have something like a "text profiler" in their spam filter so the spam filter learns which spam mails are "ham" and which good mails are spam. Maybe you could use something like this....

But I guess just a single order lost isn't acceptable in your case.

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HeySal

13 years ago

Not at all, Michael. These guys are a waste of oxygen and it would be a good cleansing to have them gone.

The small time newbie spam because of stupidity doesn't bother me as much as these bulk, millions at a time spam throwers. I'm tired of seeing my email headings being used to spew their crap. I've gone after a few of them, but of course, they are always somewhere that you can't get to them.

What I'd like to see is countries all get tough on these criminals and put a stop to them. It could be done. Some countries prosecute mass spammers. As far as them being responsible for viruses to spit out their crap, it would be extremely befitting to have them gone. I'd like to see anyone who uses the net to steal, spam, spread viruses, or just plain scam people gone. They are giving the governments excuses to try to steal people's rights and gain control of the Net.

Yeah - just be mercifiul, Michael. One right between the eyes will do it.

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seasoned

13 years ago

Heysal,

The GREATEST thing is that would help the population problem!

Steve

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Patrician

13 years ago

I still like the one about hanging thieves by their fingernails until they fall out (the nails). (spammers are stealing time, making business problematic).

Another favorite is burning their fingers so they can't type (apply for graffiti/gang tags as well).

Yesterday we received about 20 applications from trolls all with different gmail addresses and invalid information.

If I had high blood pressure I would probably be dead right now.

The 21st one had in special instructions 'I will kill you' - I sent that to abuse@gmail.com - subject: harassment and making terrorist threaTs via the internet.

'Hypothetically' they will shut down his account - and he will just get another one.

I used to spend a lot of time reporting people to their ESP but now I just label them 'trolls' and file them - it is the ones that keep doing it over and over that I report - unless there is filthy language or threats.

I have one guy in Thailand who has sent an invalid application at least a couple a month for well over a year now. He is using a proxy so I can't ban his IP - Our Gmail won't block it because it comes from our form site not directly from eMail.

I already had one of his email accounts shut down so now he has one in Thailand with no abuse address. He is not a Bot because I used to say mean things to him and he always replied.

Now I never reply hoping he will assume I don't see his crap because I have him blocked - if it were only possible.

I love thinking of him boiling in oil...

I don't think this is normal and know that hatred is the devil just as the source is. I hate them anyway because I am human and never hate the devil more than in this situation where I am helpless.

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Dennis Gaskill

13 years ago

Given the subject of this thread, it might please you to know a 23-year-old Russian man charged with operating one of the world's largest spam e-mail generators was ordered held without bond Friday at a hearing at federal court in Milwaukee. One big one stopped, many more to go.

Russian man ordered held in massive Internet spam case - JSOnline

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John Durham

13 years ago

No , I think we should fight for their freedom to spam personally... a person can never have too much freedom

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Patrician

13 years ago

It's a good day. I have identified the country of the IP addresses that spammed us two days ago. Each one is different - very clever trolls that bounce their modems to change the IP -

But the nose knows...

I have blocked the entire country of Cypress so they are just out of luck. Sorry for all the innocent Cypreians or whatever they are called that you have one obnoxious troll or plural trolls and this action has been necessary to preserve what little sanity I have left.

Great free tool - you can do email search for IP or IP for location.

http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation

Originally Posted by Patrician

Yesterday we received about 20 applications from trolls all with different gmail addresses and invalid information.

If I had high blood pressure I would probably be dead right now.

The 21st one had in special instructions 'I will kill you' - I sent that to abuse@gmail.com - subject: harassment and making terrorist threaTs via the internet.

'Hypothetically' they will shut down his account - and he will just get another one.

I used to spend a lot of time reporting people to their ESP but now I just label them 'trolls' and file them - it is the ones that keep doing it over and over that I report - unless there is filthy language or threats.

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John Durham

13 years ago

What if we could make them pay a dollar for every person they spammed. That would be good... "Uh pardon....could you spam me please"?

I would start an unguarded forum just for spammers. A spam trap. In fact I'd make a career out of setting spam traps.

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Sumit Menon

13 years ago

Hey, if you're gonna be spamming anyway, at least have the courtesy of learning copywriting.

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All Night Cafe

13 years ago

I think you hit the spammer on the head...

Kill them all. Now that we are in Dec., I'm getting
on average 60 spam emails daily.

I do have to delete them which takes precious time.

I say burn them to he;ll and back.

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Tashi Mortier

13 years ago

Originally Posted by All Night Cafe

I think you hit the spammer on the head...

Kill them all. Now that we are in Dec., I'm getting
on average 60 spam emails daily.

I do have to delete them which takes precious time.

I say burn them to he;ll and back.

You should use an e-mail provider with a spam filter. I hardly ever actually receive any spam e-mail. I just let them reside inside the spam folder that I only check when I am missing an important e-mail.

The spam filters are finally somewhat useful. ( I use gmail ).

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pethanks

13 years ago

Yes, it is wrong. You do not have the right to do that. Only God.

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Jokyv

13 years ago

Not at all, i hate them too !! Someone needs to find a way to get rid of them ! (i am not talking about mass killing)

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myeanne

13 years ago

Don't be too harsh mate.

I think those spammers are also doing their job to spam. well, patience is always a virtue.

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Paul Barrs

13 years ago

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Ride_the_lightning Banned 13 years ago

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- igorGriffiths 13 years ago
  
  Not at all, the whole spammer thing is such a drain on everyone's resources.
  
  My blogs are not that popular, been redesigning and faffing about for ages and yet I have over 500 spam messages each week.
  
  I try and go through them as there are some good messages caught amongst the dross.
  
  Tricky balance to strike, letting governments police the Internet effectively to catch the spammers means we all lose a little bit of our freedom
  
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WD Mino

13 years ago

HEHE well Michael you know the answer to that already but frustration is certainly understandable.

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garyv

13 years ago

I'll bet you'd be surprised at how many IM "Gurus" got their startup money that way. A few of them are very well known and highly esteemed around here.

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Paul Myers

13 years ago

Gary,

I'll bet you'd be surprised at how many IM "Gurus" got their startup money that way. A few of them are very well known and highly esteemed around here.

Yep. A whopping great chunk of the ones who've been around 10 years or more got their start spamming. Not all, by any stretch, but a lot.

Back then, it wasn't nearly as big an issue. Those of us who predicted the end result weren't believed, because those guys couldn't see themselves ever sending millions of spams per day. And, believe it or not, a lot of the products were legit.

I still hated it, but at least there was something you could do about it to slow them down or stop them. I lost count in '98 or so of the number of spammer accounts I got shut down. Including some belonging to people I now consider friends.

It's a whole different world...

Paul

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garyv

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Gary,Yep. A whopping great chunk of the ones who've been around 10 years or more got their start spamming. Not all, by any stretch, but a lot.

Back then, it wasn't nearly as big an issue. Those of us who predicted the end result weren't believed, because those guys couldn't see themselves ever sending millions of spams per day. And, believe it or not, a lot of the products were legit.

I still hated it, but at least there was something you could do about it to slow them down or stop them. I lost count in '98 or so of the number of spammer accounts I got shut down. Including some belonging to people I now consider friends.

It's a whole different world...

Paul

That's true it's on a much larger scale now. I must admit that I did some things back in the day that would be considered spam (or at least unethical) now, but back then it was just creative marketing. (or so we told ourselves)

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Patrician

13 years ago

We do have a web form - application/sales page. This is where the miscreants submit their junk and it is then forwarded to our email address where I process the orders....

No way to whitelist unknown prospects who will submit application to become customers/members. I can only blacklist IP addresses which doesn't work that well since they can use proxies or bounce their modems to create new IPs.

Since it is forwarded to us from the form site, Gmail filters do not work for their email address since the submissions come from the formsite.

More trolls than ever right now - as well as more regular spam that is in the spam folder correctly. They are on a binge...