Spammer Hangout's Membership Roster Left Exposed 691
MikeCapone writes "According to an article at Wired News, spammers feel the need to be part of a community too. The Bulk Club is one such community. A message on the site states that it offers, for a $20 monthly fee, a variety of how-to articles, spamming software, a members' message board area, and 300,000 FRESH e-mails/week. Unsurprisingly, the 'Law & Ethics' section is 'Members Only.' The good part is that, because of a glitch, the membership list of this charming organization was left exposed on the website."
hosting sites (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh ho ho! (Score:3, Interesting)
Think about how many different ways this benefits email users around the world... We now have a portal into the world of these deviants (I love that word). Give me one address, just one address... They don't know what SPAM really is yet... Let alone the true meaning of
Seriously, I'm sure that atleast a few million people are going to have less spam tomorrow after this
Thank you Dr. Slashdot!
"Responsible" business practices (Score:5, Interesting)
In an e-mail interview, Auman said that the club was dedicated to promoting "responsible" business practices and that it offers information about misleading tactics used by some spammers simply to show why they are improper.
Now, I hate spam and spammers with a passion, but I must admit that the subject lines and stuff I've been getting recently are a lot more appropriate. At least the spam I get, they aren't trying to hide it anymore with stuff like "Re: Your bank account" or "Re: Tech support" and it's about debt management or a second mortgage or my wang. Too bad that their "responsible business practices" include articles about spoofing (probably about spoofing emails and forging headers) and harvesting emails ("opt-in" my ass).
But anyways... down to the real reason I posted. Did anybody manage to get any info about addresses, telephone numbers, etc? I have a baseball bat and some free time in the mornings before work... and late nights are free too! DId I mention I live in Florida, just like this guy:
Among the Bulk Club's list of 159 "active members" was Damon Decrescenzo, one of the operators of Rockin Time Holdings, a Florida junk e-mailer sued by Microsoft in June and by Amazon this month.
I have responsible business practices too! I am responsible for alot of death and destruction...
How generous... (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, I'm glad that they are so fair minded and humanitarian as to only be here for me. In that case, please STOP BEING PART OF THE PROBLEM.
It's only the second day of the month and my spam filter reports I've already received 75 spams wasting half a megabyte of my ISP's bandwidth. For anyone interested, my ISP has a great spam filtering service; I hardly ever actually get any spams falling through to my in box. You can check it out at this URL: https://www.mailarmory.com/
Re:If SPAM is so bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
A company like Symantec can easily say 'my gosh, I can't believe it. we'll talk to our vendor right away.' vendor says 'we had no idea out sub contractor was a spam supporter - we've terminated our relationship with them' and no one has dirty hands.
My spam solution (Score:4, Interesting)
To enforce industry responsability do a national "must include" list.
Liccens spammers AND every spammer must be on the must include list AND spam to everyone on the must include list.
Here is where the fun begins.
Also on the must include list are spam scounts that track the latest spam to update spam filters.
But it get's better.
Also added to the list is fedral observers who check up to be sure all spam is being sent to the must spam list.
As a member of the must spam list you can opt out IF the spammer honnors the opt out system. Of course opt out to be required.
Fedral agents will randomly test opt outs, randomly test the list.
and the e-mail address given for the "must spam" list must be actively read by the spammer. A fedral agent will occasionally contact the spammer at the address to be sure the spammer is still reading his e-mail if not he must pay a hefty fine and repeated offenses msy cost him his liccesn.
This should inspire spammers to police themselfs quite well and do something about the worst spam tactics.
Re:The disturbing thing is... (Score:5, Interesting)
War fought in this way on these grounds is justified, yet I may still feel a little guilty when I look at their (servers') smoking remains.
I hate people like this all the more because they give me only two choices: lose, or denigrate myself and win.
I hope this explains a little better why people here hate spammers SO MUCH.
(unless I've been trolled
delete button a few times? (Score:4, Interesting)
Spamming is theft, plain and simple.
Make money at home with your computer...sue spammers. [sexaffair.us]
Terms of contract (Score:5, Interesting)
The Bulk Club does not promote any portion of this site via bulk email period. It is against our hosting providers terms of service to do so and we will not tolerate anyone who abuses these rules on our web site
How Ironic.
Re:The disturbing thing is... (Score:5, Interesting)
These people aren't political dissidents. They're criminals, and they're perpetrating crimes against ME! Furthermore, the data is a list of the members of a willful collusion. The very fact that they're on this list defines that they are actively, and deliberately trying to commit crimes against me and others.
It's not a level playing field. I'd have sympathy for AA members, even if some of them had caused harm by drunk driving. I have no sympathy for people who gather to discuss and plan how best to commit crimes. I would have no sympathy for an online thieves guild (real thieves, not for games), or a collection of pedophiles who are trying to legitimise their actions.
How much do you pay per month for your internet access? ~30% of that is because of spammers. If you're paying $30/month, then every year you have had $120 stolen from your person by these people.
Do we provide safe harbor to unrepentant criminals? Not in my house, and not on my internet!
Before you go off all half cocked (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously - to help eliminate the innocent bystander from the spammer who needs to be whacked , start by sending an e-mail.
To: Direct Marketing Vendor
From: Important Sounding Title
cc: legal@fakedomain.com
Dear Sir,
I need you to help me kick off my marketing campaign by sending my message out to 31 million targeted clients. I will pay you 150,000 USD for this service. If you are interested, then please send your company name, a contact name, phone number and address so that I can have a contract drawn up. We will also need to have the name of your bank, and the address of the branch that you use for our contract as well. Please no account numbers, we only need to get the bank name and branch!
Sincerely,
bigcheese@fakedomain.com
Important Sounding Title Goes here
Wait for reply - post reply to slashdot/usenet/etc
include all e-mail headers and or phone
conversations
Constantly remind people that
A. No one will protect your from these spammers
B. No one will help you pay for the damages they cause.
C. No one will give you back the time that SPAM has wasted in your life.
Show up at the eventual fire with a can of gasoline.
Now go off half cocked, see if I care!
Re:Naughty! (Score:4, Interesting)
I am just suggesting that by their methods to get in my inbox, they are not allowing me to make any progress against spam by "taking the high moral ground"/"taking it in the cornhole"
Re:Send them some mail (Score:5, Interesting)
I was thinking a better approach would be to slip their email addresses into comments on a webpage. With the way my websites are set up, a change to one file would get the list sent out with each page on that site...it'd be trivial to include a block like this:
<!-- Spambots, chew on this:
...
foo@bar.com
joe@spammer.com
-->
Addresses in mailto links are obfuscated so that the spambots won't get them...these, of course, would be left alone.
Now...does anyone have the list of spammers extracted from this site? I found real names in an archive linked through the Wired article, but no email addresses. :-|
Re:Great quote: (Score:3, Interesting)
"From ebulkemail@yahoo.com Sat Jul 08 22:45:07 2000
Received: from [208.198.227.115] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id MHotMailBB315BF2000FD82197D9D0C6E3730D930; Sat Jul 08 22:43:18 2000
From: "Drew Auman"
To:
Subject: Hi
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 01:37:09
Hello!
349 MILLION people online are awaiting your offer ! Check This Out !
Have you seen the new bulk email software? You DO NOT NEED anyone elses mail
server!!! This software becomes its own mail server to send out thousands of emails per
hour without using your ISPs resources and it sets up everything for you! Use our Atomic
Harvestor to get thousands of emails extracted from the internet with a click of a button.
Targeted emails !
People have become rich in a short period of time with bulk email and you can as well.
Even if you dont own a business, I have heard of those offering recipes through bulk email
and getting a phenomenal response.
If you would like to learn about the different software packages that are offered, you have
to check out http://www.ejennys.com
This is absolutely AMAZING!
Best Regards,
Drew Auman
sales@ejennys.com
PS: TO BE REMOVED from this list, please respond with the word REMOVE in the subject
line of your email to us! Thank You !
"
Maybe it was not a glitch? (Score:3, Interesting)
2) wait for membership to build trust
3) "Accidentally" post membership on slashdot.
4) submit private e-mail addresses to other spammers.
5) repeat. no rest for the wicked.
but seriously, do you think that maybe these spammers are really sort of victims of a multi-level marketing scam themselves. "here for 300$ you can buy this software and a list of names that will get you started in the exciting field of spamming.
PLUS
you will own these lists and software with the rights to resell it to others. You cant lose just like the thousands before you!!".
and on and on it goes each chump-would-be-spam-king desperately recruiting ten more, making a few bucks, and down the pyraimd we go. the ones at the bottom lose but by them we have an avalanche of spam. Every assumes theres money in it since why else would they keep doing it....
Re:Send them some mail (Score:3, Interesting)
yeah... that's it.
7.62??? Why not .50 caliber (Score:2, Interesting)
In Vietnam, Marines used to zero out their
Re:Whois Search (Score:2, Interesting)
BTW the school was trying to get the number changed.
Speaking of Spam (Score:4, Interesting)
Please sir, I want some more.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Might it not be good to add in a referrer as well (--referrer=) (I'll let people think of good ones.)
Or use the login page (http://www.thebulkclub.com/members/login.asp) with some nice login parameters (I'm not sure what they might be here as I can't quickly see the page source).
Re:Please sir, I want some more.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Send them some mail (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Oh ho ho! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Spam Nazis (Score:1, Interesting)
I have a cunning plan... (Score:2, Interesting)
"Please Note
The Bulk Club does not promote any portion of this site via bulk email period. It is against our hosting providers terms of service to do so and we will not tolerate anyone who abuses these rules on our web site."
So what we need to do is bulk mail a promotion for their site, that way their hosting providers will throw them.
Only one teeny weeny little problem with this plan, the bulk mail part... I just can't make myself do it, it goes against every moral fibre in my body!
Anyone wanna have some fun? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Mailinator (Score:5, Interesting)
Why slashdot and nuke the site? (Score:2, Interesting)
Am I the only one who's first thought was not "Great, let's blow them off the air!"? My first thought was "Hmmm... I could join the organization and see what tools they use, see where the addresses are coming from, etc., etc. Know thine enemy.
My second thought was "Um, wait, the hordes of rabid slashdotters will be wreaking major havoc on the list o exposed addresses. I don't want my address on that list - my ISP would nuke me in a heartbeat with the major-league smack-down that's coming."
Anybody else here want to be a volunteer from the audience?