Re: [tlug] Email address munging in the TLUG archives

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On Tue, 5 Dec 2006, Godwin Stewart wrote:

> What did UUNet do to get rid of the criminal activity on their network?
> It took them several years to react....

Right. How long would it have taken them to react had everybody doing
the investigation and putting pressure on them instead worked on
obscuring e-mail addresses on websites instead?

> Have you seen the top-10 ROKSO spammer roll-call?
> 2 American, 4 Russian, 2 Ukrainian, 1 Israeli and 1 Hong-Kong outfit.
> 2 out of the world's 10 worst spammers are American-based outfits.

I'm fairly familiar with that list, yeah. But that rather misses my
point, Which was:

> > If you stop the guys that are paying the Russian to send spam, the
> > Russian will stop spamming. He's there only for the money; nothing
> > else.

You go on to say:

> While spammers may well send out spam for "etikul bidnissez", they
> most certainly spam on their own accounts as well. You don't think
> that a spammer touting cheap drugs and fake diplomas actually *has*
> any produce to sell, do you?

It doesn't matter. Chase the money. The people sending Russian spammers
sending mail on their own account are not going to the post office,
getting rouble money orders, and mailing them to Russia. If they had
to do that, they probably wouldn't be making the "purchase." All of
that money (at least all of that sent by Americans) is starting out
going through American financial institutions. Cripple that flow, and
spammming will become less economical.

cjs
--
Curt Sampson            <cjs@example.com>             +81 90 7737 2974
  The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
  by those who have not got it.    --George Bernard Shaw