Re: Spam

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

For the information of those who replied to the spam purporting to come from New
Zealand (with or without hostility): Please stop. They seem to be innocent in
this matter. Below is an excerpt from a message from the postmaster of the site.
I am retransmitting it over this net in an attempt to stem the tide of mail
heading their way. It names a name, but I have edited it out because of the
admission that it hasn't been proven. I've left in the mention of ixc, for the
simple reason that they have so far made no effort to co-operate in this, and I
think that fact should be noted. The characterization of them as not caring
about trouble caused by one of their subscribers is, of course, the personal
opinion of the originator of the message. It is, however, an impression that is
well within their control to dispel. I hope they do.

----------excerpted message---------------

Please note that there has never been a user patricia -dot- loring -at- es -dot- co -dot- nz (and
there never will be). Any mail sent to that address will bounce.

I believe that the message originated from a user of ixc.ixc.net. The
postmster there has been queried regarding this matter but as yet I have
recieved no reply.
- From a helpful user :
>This person is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (Address also edited) according to his whois.
>Good luck proving it, though, or
>extracting any money out of him.  He's been at this for years, screwing
>over site after site. You won't get any response from ixc.net, incidentally
>-- they will give an account to anyone, for free, and don't really care
>about the consequences. Same for freenet.fsu.edu, one of his other haunts.

I would like to find this person and make them pay for the all the mail
we've recieved about this (after 2 days - 16 megabytes and still climbing).
In New Zealand we have to pay for every byte of traffic on our system (both
incoming and outgoing).

Thanks for taking the time to send your message but please be assured that
it wasn't posted from our system or by one of our users.

-------------------end excerpt------------------------

Like he says, they pay for their net traffic, so anything more sent to them
simply punishes the innocent.

How does this happen? Because SMTP, brain-damaged protocol that it is, doesn't
carry any means of verifying that you are sending from where you claim to be
sending from. Since the "Netscape bug" Cringely erroneously reported on in
InfoWorld (it's not Netscape's fault, but SMTP's) I can only suppose this kind
of forging of E-Mail will increase. The only good side is that perhaps it'll
inspire the powers that be to clean up SMTP (at least at the Post Office level).
But somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, let the Kiwis off the hook for this one, OK?


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.