tlug: SPAM - not just us...

[Jim Schweizer <schweiz@example.com>]

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tlug note from Jim Schweizer <schweiz@example.com>
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Hi all,

It seems a lot of people are getting just a little tee'd off by
the spammers...

Read on:

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Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 15:33:30 -0500
From: jthomas@example.com(Jim Thomas)
Subject: File 1-- Jacking in from the "Slam the Spam" Port
(CyberWire Disp)

 CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1997 // August 6 //

 Jacking in from the "Slam the Spam" Port:


 By Lewis Z. Koch
 Special correspondent
 CyberWire Dispatch

 CHICAGO--Fuck you!!!

 Do I have your attention? I know I have your attention.

 Granted, "Fuck you" is an unpleasant way of getting your
 attention, especially in reasonably polite society.  And if
 this kind of in-your-face,  attention-getting device were to
 occur several times a day, well, it might  not be surprising
 then if the greeting were judged as akin to "fighting
 words," words that the Supreme Court has long defined as
 excluded from First  Amendment protection.

 Fighting words have been conceptualized by the Court as words
 "likely to  provoke the average person to retaliation, and
 thereby cause a breach of the  peace," yet every day, people
 are receiving a "Fuck You" invasion of their
 computers, their peace breached by unwanted, undesired,
 distasteful E-mail a  form known universally as "spam."

 Today spammers say "Fuck you" via your computer five or ten
 times a day.  Next month, or next year, it may be fifty times a
 day.  This is just a sample of a sample dredged from a single
 day of my E-mail:
 "Forgive me for taking a moment of your time.  But here is the
 IDEAL  Christmas gift...ten traditional Christmas carols
 recorded in REAL, HARD  ROCK versions." (Note: this is August
 and I am Jewish.)

 Or this (regardless of ethnicity) "*Sexy *Erotic *Lewd and
 Desirable  LIVE NUDE DANCES -24 hours a day." (Lewd AND
 Desirable?)

 Yet, for the most part, recipients are unable to retaliate in
 force or in  kind, in such a way as the Court might well
 approve.  The "self-help" remedy  of reaching out to the
 spammers machines and turning off the outbound flow
 at the source falls afoul of most states', and countries'
 computer crime  laws.  Joe and Jane Citizen-User find
 themselves hapless, captive targets of this  daily assault
 because spammers use their cunning to invade your
 personal  computer yet all the while hiding their identity. 
 Where can we go for  redress?

 Wait!  What's that I hear?  From out of the West-it's the
 thundering  hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! There, over
 there on the horizon, a  masked man, sitting a top on a white
 stallion, crying out, "Hi Ho Silver!  Awwaaayyyy"
 Who is that masked man?

 It's the Lone Ranger, only this time he's called "Hacker X."

 The Lone Ranger, aka Hacker X,  posted today, for the second
 time in six  months, the password file for SpamMeister Sanford
 Wallace's Cyberpromo  server to various Usenet newsgroups
 including  alt.2600, alt.news and  news.misc.

 Hacker X previously posted the names, addresses and yes, phone
 numbers of  Wallace's clients.  Needless to say, Wallace was
 outraged.  He posted a  reward and called the FBI.

 Nothing much happened except that Wallace's clients received
 many, many  irate phone calls.

 Wallace, and spammeisters are as irrepressible as they are
 greedy.  Our "in"  boxes continue to be filled with trash, like
 the drunk who hurls his empty  whiskey bottle against our front
 porch steps, already littered with the  shards of empty whiskey
 bottles tossed away by passing drunks/spammiesters.
 Hacker X also deserves some plaudits from the gay community as
 his renegade   Usenet posting includes the evidence that Wallace
 offers  support for serious  hate mongering in housing the
 "godhatesfags.com" domain and lists the password and attendant
 IP information for that as well.

 Along with this treasure drove of mined data, Hacker X also
 published a  note/rant of his own:

 "As I assumed, Mr. Wallace has not learned his lesson from the
 last time I  talked to you, so I decided to go a bit father
 this time, post up more  information, from more systems, and a
 little bit of news on what that low-life degenerate, festering
 pile of goo is doing in front of his keyboard,  behind your
 backs, right under your noses...

 "Sanford Wallace uses the same password on every machine, and
 the same root  password as his regular password.  Guess he has
 no admin.  What a class  operation Not exactly rocket science. 
 His userid is wallace, with a  Password of "sTUv6x8r."  Guessed
 the root password yet?  Go knock yourself  out."

 The Wallace Factor
 ================

 After the first assault by Hacker X, Wallace reportedly offered
 a $15,000.00  reward - reportedly, that is, if you want to take
 his Spamship's word for it  that he would pay anyone $15,000.00
 for anything.  Wallace also said he alerted the FBI to the
 hack.  Now, the likelihood of an FBI task force doing some
 kind of federal step-and-fetch-it routine to help Wallace
 seems to be about zero, especially considering that there are
 some people in the Justice Department who don'tmuch particularly
 believe in spammers' rights to spam  and have the power to say
 "no" to the FBI.  Besides, the FBI had better be  chasing and
 locking down every subway-bombing terrorist before they start
 devoting energy to satisfying demands by wealthy, irate
 spammers.
 
 "Contrary to Wallace's claim, he didn't catch me," says Hacker
 X, "My thanks  go out to all of you who offered up your support
 in advance (defense fund and so on). It was greatly
 appreciated. If you want to show your support,
 send the funds to the NAACP college fund - they could put it to
 better use."

 To the hackers who trashed Wallace's Web site, Hacker X had
 this sage advice, "Those of you who decided to make changes to
 Mr. Wallace's web page - please, PLEASE clean up after
 yourselves.  If you can't clean up, you probably should just
 leave it, as you will be caught."

 Hacker X also offered a warning note to "the folks at Netcom.
 Mr. Wallace has a script that fingers  @example.com every 10
 minutes, and sifts for new users to add to a list.  Netcom is
 a complete waste of bandwidth and I can't stand them and their
 users for the most part, but some of them are actually
 cool, and deserve SOME sort of notification of what that
 sleezebag is doing  to them."  Spam is increasing not
 decreasing.  Spammer self-regulation?  In this  instance, it's
 more like self-abuse.  They're not only going to
 do it until  they need glasses, they're likely to do it even if
 they were to go blind.

 I am a First Amendment purist and believe that those rights
 even extend to advertising.  But the First Amendment also
 gives me the right to be left alone.  I choose to get E-mail
 and I receive over 250 a day from organizations and lists I
 have chosen to ask for E-mail. My choice.

 Spammers, on the other hand, are forcing their way into my
 computer, into my mind. Spam E-mail is a physical invasion, a
 physical intrusion. It is their "Fuck you" to me.  No choice. 
 No choice but to fight back, or at least support those who are
 fighting for me.  One group, CAUCE is fighting by  being
 uncompromising in their lobbying for a flat out ban on
 unsolicited  commercial mail.

 Spamford Wallace is an Internet outlaw who has violated the
 basic open tenets upon which the Net was built. If the citizens
 of Netville and the Net marshals can't stop the outlaw
 spammers - then it's time call for the Lone Ranger.

 Hi ho Silver, Aaaaaaawaaaay (with spam).
 ---------------------
 Lewis Z. Koch <lzkoch@example.com> is an investigative reporter and
 former NBC correspondent.

 [Note:. If you want one just one killer-complete story about
 unsolicited bulk e-mail, check out Barry D. Bowen's 6,200
 word, three sidebars plus extensive resources piece at the
 Sun-World site.



h

http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-08-1997/swol-08-junkemail.
html

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Sent by: Jim Schweizer <schweiz@example.com>
On: 19-Aug-97 at: 21:58:55 JST
http://www1.harenet.or.jp/~schweiz/
Captain Penny's Law:
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and
some of the people all of the time, but you Can't Fool Mom.
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Next TLUG meeting is Saturday October 11, 1997
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