From: Ron Ritzman Subject: Things we don't know about spammers Date: 29 Apr 2000 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <8s7mgsog57m8ib50il41eoae56lklt45mf@4ax.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: MindSpring Enterprises X-Server-Date: 29 Apr 2000 17:45:20 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.email [originally posted to spam-l] On Thu, 27 Apr 2000 15:38:39 -0700, Julian Haight wrote: [paragraph dejulianized] >To deny that there are 'smart spammers' is just short-sighted. >Yes, it's funny to denigrate them as stupid and clueless >chickenboners, but ultimately unrealistic. There *is* money to >be made spamming, and *someone* is putting serious thought and >effort into it. We can easilly whack the stupid first-timers, >but I think we really need to concentrate more on the high-end, >not the least-common-denominator. I invented the concept of the "chickenboner" (actually "beer cans and chicken bones", I don't know who first shortened it to "chickenboner") back in 1997 during the golden age of spam when cartooney threats were very common. I did it to counter the image that some spammers were trying to project that they were CEOs of big companies who sat behind mahogany desks in corner offices writing their "legal business communications" and forwarding flames to "the legal department". I instead wanted people to picture some balding pot bellied redneck sitting in his trailer sending spam from a Packard Bell 486 which was sitting on the kitchen table and surrounded by "beer cans and chicken bones". However, I now have to agree with Julian. This is not a realistic image of our adversary and come to think of it, we know very little about spammers. Yes many of the spammers who are bought to our attention do seem to fit "my" stereotype and we love to laugh at the antics of the likes of Andrew Brunner and Ronnie Scelson but I now suspect that the "chickenboners" represent the sick and diseased members of the herd and therefore are the ones who become chew toys for us(tinu) Darwin is living large in the world of the spammer. The healthy members of the herd are a lot smarter and more clever then we give them credit for and we know very little about them. How do they find open relays? Who comes up with all these goofy obfuscation schemes? How do spamhausen like postmasterdirect, cavecreek, and covesoft and Wongs manage to stay connected for so long? We have been speculating about the spammer's MO for years but the truth is we really don't know. Every once in a while, someone like NUK comes long and gives us a small look into a large pink world but there is a helluva lot about that world that we know nothing about. We are almost as clueless as the "chickenboners" are. -- Ron Ritzman http://i.am/supertroll