Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.usenet From: buchanan@cybernex.net (Lysander Spooner) Subject: COMPUSERVE under Full Active UDP Message-ID: Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 04:21:28 GMT [Posted to: news.admin.net-abuse.usenet Emailed to: abuse@compuserve.com,news@newsgate.compuserve.com, news@mhaal.inhouse.compuserve.com,otg@csi.compuserve.com, thaney@web.compuserve.com,JSnyder@TECHDEV.CompuServe.com, teemuk@csi.compuserve.com,aboyer@web.compuserve.com, swilson@TECHDEV.CompuServe.com,ashibler@csi.compuserve.com, HJK@csi.compuserve.com] Effective immediately there is a Usenet Death Penalty (UDP) imposed on all Compuserve-originated traffic to Usenet. Every article posted to a Compuserve news-server, or posted from a Compuserve account, will be canceled. This will apply to the entire Usenet hierarchy, with the exception of news.admin.net-abuse.* This is not a step we take lightly. We have made every possible attempt to inform Compuserve about their growing problem, and have repeatedly offered to assist them in dealing with it. Their unresponsiveness has been utterly awe-inspiring, and unprecedented in my experience as a spam-fighter. For months, email reports and complaints from dozens of people were ignored. Today I spent a few hours playing "voicemail-tag" (my dime) before I could even find someone who was able to turn the matter over to the proper personnel. When one of them contacted me, I was informed that they are "examining measures" and that "there should be more information coming in the next 10-14 days." We are well past the point where an announcement of an upcoming announcement will suffice. It is much too little, much too late. There are two aspects to the Usenet abuse originating at Compuserve. First, a _significant_ amount of spam is being posted directly to Compuserve new-servers by some of the most persistant and destructive Usenet Spammers (including the DNT.net "Tom Bridges" organization, Netzilla/Sexzilla and the infamous Woodside Literary Agency, among many others.) An even more serious problem is the growing number of spammers who use Compuserve dial-up accounts to hijack vulnerable news-servers all over the world to inject their spam. This is arguably a matter of illegal theft-of-services, in addition to being flagrant net-abuse. In this category we have Kevin "Sexjunky" Freeman and Michael "Cyber-World" Lunnin, both of whom are currently posting porn-spam to the sexual-abuse recovery newsgroups, in addition to the hundreds of other groups they assault. While this UDP will only affect Usenet, it's worth noting that Compuserve is presently the third highest source of email spam. More and more spammers (email and Usenet) are moving to Compuserve, because they know they can spam with impunity. This UDP will remain in effect until Compuserve gets their problems under control, and shows a willingness to become a better "net-neighbor". -- Rick "Lysander Spooner" Buchanan ---------------------------------------------------------------