Make love not spam

[amanoffewwords]

Not sure what to make of this one but...:

Lycos (that I now hate - see other thread) have come up with a screensaver that requests a page from a spammer's websites [but doesn't actually display it] - they reckon that if enough people download and use it it will clog up said sites (or use up their bandwidth allocation or cause a DOS).

More here (makelovenotspam.com/intl) (a bit slow to load but includes a "annoy a spammer now" button to send instant data to a spamming site -- good stress relief).

[Evo]

I like the way they claim that it isn't a denial of service attack, when it obviously is. :)

But it seems like a seriously dumb idea to me. Ignoring the way these things drift around the internet and how you're never going to keep up with the spammers anyway, you're giving them your IP address (or does Lycos proxy that? I doubt it). What's stopping them doing a reverse-DDoS back on you? They've probably got much more bandwidth than you have, and they can always throw in the latest Windows overflow for good measure.

(edit: thinking about it some more, isn't most spam these days from zombied broadband-connected PCs? How does Lycos think that DDoS-ing grandma is going to help, if they haven't noticed it slowing to a crawl under all that malware... :confused: )

If you really want to fight back, then there are some open source programs that fire off lots of spoof orders in response to spam. That's a useful way of fighting back, because it drowns out the occasional idiot who actually buys herbal V1@gr4 and keeps these b@st4rds in business...

Going off topic, the problem with all this blacklisting etc. is that it's going to make large chunks of the IP4 internet into a wasteland. The spammers have moved on, but the network will remain blacklisted for any future users. For example, I know people who dump all traffic from any APNIC-owned IP address. That's dumping everything from fifty-odd countries in the far east, thanks to a few Korean spammers. More recently, pipex got dumped by AOL for a few days for some unknown reason and Mrs. Evo couldn't email the folks back home in the USA. There's got to be a better way.

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks Evo, you've clarified the bit about "Not sure what to make of this one but..."...

[Evo]

Dunno if i'm right - i'm waiting for someone to tell me i'm being a numpty and it's really a good idea :)

[airship]

Lycos have come up with a screensaver (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4051553.stm) which aims to attack the pockets of the websites that spammers promote...

What do you reckon? Worth doing or what?

[amanoffewwords]

I'm sure Lycos would have evaluated this with their techies and legal beagles - if it goes pear-shaped it would make the Hoover free flights to the States a marketing mishap in comparison.

But seen that I didn't have a screensaver loaded and I'm bored of Seti....I installed it (oh, and I have a firewall with NATs and all so I *should be ok*)

[joe2812]

You mean this one (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153902) ?

[drauk]

A firewall and NAT network by no means protects you from a DoS attack.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Someone needs to do something about it soon though, the most of the Internet traffic right now is SPAM! :eek:

Richard

[SoftTop]

Now he tells me!! And I thought all those nice concerned people were my friends!:{

:E

ST

[E-Liam]

Hi,

http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/Sidesearch.html

This is Lycos' way of protecting people from adware etc. I wouldn't trust them personally, as far as I could throw their main server. I wonder if their own marketing affiliates are included in the blacklist. All bets are off.

Now, as a cynic, I'd say that by spamming all their competitors to a standstill would give them a lot of advantages in enlarging their own market share of adware related revenue.

Still that's just me. I don't trust any commercial firm that wants to help out pure generosity. :)

Cheers

Liam

[Binoculars]

Liam, that's something a lot of us have pondered over the years, especially in relation to freeware that is easily downloadable.

How does it fit with Spybot, Adaware, free anti-virus programs, even for that matter browsers like Mozilla? I've got all sorts of free software on my poota, and regular checks with Spybot tell me I am un-infected, as does my anti-virus program. What's in it for them?

[E-Liam]

Hi BinosHow does it fit with Spybot, Adaware, free anti-virus programs, even for that matter browsers like Mozilla? As with anything on the net, there's good and bad stuff. I've known about Lycos' Sidesearch for a long time. Experience really is all I can go on.. plus being a staff member at some of the biggest tech forums helps.. :D If I'm not sure, I'll know someone who is. I'm lucky though, in that I know a hell of a lot of the crap that mucks up people's machines, just from the name.

The first way of telling if something is iffy is just gut reaction. Any doubt about clicking the mouse just before you download is a good sign. If in any doubt, just hold back and check out what it is exactly you're installing. If you can't find any definite info out, I'm always happy to check up for anyone here, and I'll ask over at one of the staff rooms if I can't get the info.

A good check is to google the name of the program, then add either castle cops or techsupport forum or techguy to the string. Look at the post in that forum and see what they say. These forums invite people to become experts, so if it says in their profile that they're an expert, you know you're in good hands.

Again, it's experience ultimately, and very few will bugger your computer up entirely, although they can be a pain sometimes.

Anything specific you'd like checked out? Adaware, Spybot etc will keep you pretty clean, but as with any software it's only as good as the updates. That's why I always like to check HJT logs just to make sure. Very few people have 100% clean machines, it's just getting as close to 99% that's the key.

Hope that helps..

Cheers

Liam

[joe2812]

For those of you are getting really annoyed, apparently it's now illegal to send spam email?

Open to corrections on that though...

[SoftTop]

Looks like this Lycos thing is working TOO well. Have a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4061375.stm

Food for thought.

ST

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Mr Cluley urged users not to respond to anything in spam messages.

I think Mr. Cluley just does not get it. People have not been responding to spam messages and they still get more and more every day. Since the Authorities are not doing enough, they have had to find other means to combat the spam. :eek:

Take Care,

Richard

[SoftTop]

Lycos seem to have put their campaign on hold for the moment ....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4065751.stm

I have to admit, that I couldn't see how it would work over the longer term. It seemed glaringly obvious to me that the "attacked" sites would respond by spamming Lycos.

Still, I suppose it seemed a good idea at the time.

ST
[edited to sort spelling mistakes 031204]

[Evo]

The cynic in me says that it's just a bit of cheap publicity. It's been years since Lycos were a big name (if they ever really were) and they seem to have followed Altavista into obscurity since Google arrived. Now I bet plenty of people have heard of them...

[amanoffewwords]

They can do what they like to boost their PR but I would steer clear of them - I'm still waiting for them to authorise a domain transfer almost a month after initiating the process.

Though I did download the screensaver - [curiosity got the better of me :rolleyes: ]. It doesn't however place an entry in the add/remove programs so have zapped it manually.

[amanoffewwords]

It's been scrapped (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4073547.stm)

[Elwood Senese]

It gets better....

here (http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/thespamreport/0,39025001,39126402,00.htm)