Note: this page is out of date. The general advice is still valid, but any names and addresses contained herein are likely no longer correct. No idea when it will be brought into the 21st century -- ef
If you are reading this page, chances are that you're already aware of the growing spam problem on the internet and are sick of it.
You are not helpless. Here are just some of the things you can do to help get rid of the spam in usenet and in your mailbox.
The most important thing to realize is that waiting for someone else to fix the problem for you won't help. It takes many people working together to stop spam.
If one person complains to a provider about spam, they're considered a crank, and ignored. If two people complain about spam, they're considered a couple of cranks, and ignored. If several people complain about spam, they're considered a cabal, and ignored.
But if a lot of people complain about spam, something may get done. We all need your support.
Here are a few simple things you can do to stop spam:
In short, the Washington law forbids sending spam using forged headers to or from a system in Washington state. Under the law, you are entitled to sue for $500. Other state laws are not as effective but may be useful.
How to Sue (copied from netnews):
First, make sure the spam violates the law.
Check out: http://www.wa.gov/wwweb/AGO/junkemail/ a link to the entire law (as passed) is linked from this site (it's the AG site)
Make sure your e-mail address is registered in the Washington State database (this is NOT a requirement - nice to have for more ammunition in your case)
Go to the district court in your county and fill out a small claims action. If they question it because the business is out of state, say they are doing business in the state when they send you the e-mail. Filing cost is $25. or less -- depends on which county you are in and if they have arbitration service. They can and will help you -- the court clerk will answer your questions. They also have handouts on small claims court - you can also get information at: http://198.187.0.226/courts/scc/home.htm
You can look up specific laws (Revised Code of Washington) at: http://www.mrsc.org/rcw.htm
The RCW for serving papers is at: RCW 12.40.040
For an idea of which sites are prime candidates for shunning, visit the Spam Statistics page. For more information on how to alias a rogue site, visit Abuse.net's news blocking info page.
Radparker.com has an excellent list of sites that should be banned from Sendmail access. See The "LOSER" Filtering System.
See the How-To's list for more information.
Ask Your System Administrators to Filter Your Newsgroups
Some excellent filtering software is now available which blocks most of
the incoming spam on your netnews feed. Ask your netnews admins to
install one. For a list of such filters, see the
how-to list.
Ask Your System Administrators to Use the Maps Real-Time Blacklist
The MAPS
(Mail Abuse Protection System) project
is a site that keeps an up-to-date list of known email spam domains
and relays. Your site can subscribe to MAPS and block incoming email spam
as it happens.
If you receive email spam from a persistant spammer, you can
nominate that site for the RBL. See web pages
http://maps.vix.com/rbl/reporting.html
and
http://maps.vix.com/rbl/candidacy.html
Ask Your System Administrators to Use the Dial-Up-List
Similar to the , the
MAPS Dial-Up-List
is a database
of dial-up systems used by customers of large ISPs to connect to
their providers. Systems on the Dial-Up-List are not necessarily
rogue systems, or guilty of spam in any way whatsoever.
However, Dial-Up-Systems are frequently abused by spammers. To combat this, no system should ever allow a port 25 connection from any system on the Dial-Up-List. These systems all have their own email providers, and should be using them to relay mail.
Note that only email connections from these sites should
be refused. Other connections are perfectly legitimate.
Discuss the subject on your local newsgroups
Many sites have internal newsgroups for discussion of various issues
related to the net. Bring up these subjects, try to get a consensus
among your fellow users. Try to get your fellow users to agitate
for a relief from spam. The more voices that get involved, the
better. Direct them to this web page.
Make sure your own site is not a spam-haven
Your own site may be a problem site and you don't even realize
it. Visit the
list of sites being monitored and look for
your own site there. If you find it, look at its page and see if it's
been a problem lately.
In particular, if your ISP is in this list (last updated, April 1998):
then your site is part of the problem.If you find that your own site is a problem site, there are lots of things you can do. First, make sure that your fellow users realize that there's a problem. Many voices are more effective than just one. Agitate in your internal newsgroups and to your system administrators. Ask them to adopt and enforce anti-spam policies.
If your ISP won't change its policies, consider leaving. Remember that your ISP is quite likely shunned at other locations. Your email and netnews may not be getting through, and you won't even know it. Also, your ISP won't be allowed to join Usenet 2 unless it cleans up its act.
Also, your site might be providing a usenet feed to a problem site. If this is the case, ask your providers to cut that problem site off.
Remember: ISPs listen to their customers. If you're a customer of an
ISP with a spam problem, you can do a lot to bring about change.
Complaining properly is a bit of work. You need to find out where
the spam came from in order to know where to complain.
Don't complain by hitting "reply" or otherwise sending
your complaint to the person named in the spam's "From:" line. This is
almost always a forgery and will result in a bounce at best, or your
complaint being sent to an innocent person at worst.
Here is a list of the worst offenders. Your spammer is probably
in this list:
Remember: phone calls are more effective than email.
There are various tools and HOWTOs that can help you track the source
of spam. For some basic information and tutorials (it's not as hard
as it sounds), see the HOWTO list.
There are also some excellent online tools to help you. See the
Get That Spammer!
web page at Monash.edu and the
Sam Spade, Spam Hunter
web page at Blighty.com.
There are more links that may help you at the
links page.
Somewhere in the body of every advertisement is a way to get in touch
with the advertiser. Give them a call and explain to them why
spam is unwelcome and alienating. Explain that the only ones who make
money advertising by spam are the spammers -- the only thing the
advertising client gets for their money is a lot of bad will. Be
polite, but be firm.
Many advertisers include a toll-free number in their ad. A
list of such phone numbers
is archived on the net.
Spammers often exploit insecure news and email gateways in order to
broadcast their spam. This serves to "launder" the headers to make
tracking more difficult, and to evade software blocks.
Please close -- or ask your system administrators to close -- all open
email and news gateways. More information is available in
the HOWTO list.
Note that you will be doing yourself a big favor by closing your email
gateways. Spammers have been known to knock a site completely off the
net through excessive relaying. See this news article for more:
"SPA can't
resist sending spam"
Wpoison is a cgi script designed by Ron Guilmette which generates a
random page of random email addresses and links. Email address
harvesters operated by spammers find the random web page and add the
bogus email addresses to their address database, making it less useful.
In addition, wpoison generates a number of links that just point back
to itself, causing the harvester robot to become mired in the web page.
For more information about wpoison, see the
wpoison home page and
Wired magazine's
coverage
of it.
The opinions expressed on this page are solely those of Ed Falk and do
not necessarily represent those of any other organization, (although I
hope they do). I wish to thank Rahul.net for hosting this web page.
Complain, complain, complain
If spam annoys you, complain about it to the spammer's provider.
Many providers won't stop a spammer until they receive a lot of
complaints from a lot of people. Don't just assume that
someone else will take care of the problem. Sometimes you
have to be part of the solution.
Tom Gartman is the largest porn-spammer on the
internet. He specializes in selling rape videos, including in
the sexual abuse recovery newsgroups.
Netzilla was once the largest porn-spammer on the
internet.
Note: Netzilla mutates their headers at a high rate to avoid
spam-detection software. Visit the Netzilla info
page for up-to-date header information.
Note: UUNet ignores all email complaints unless you follow up by
phone, using the ticket number automatically given by return email.
Escort Guide is a major porn spammer based in
Florida.
Also: 6503 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton, FL 33496.
Phone: 800-659-0550, 561-347-8330.
Email:
hostmaster@ESCORTGUIDE.COM,
clas@ix.netcom.com
Note: UUNet ignores all email complaints unless you
follow up by phone, using the ticket number automatically
given by return email.
Netcom is an internet service provider with many
innocent users and a few dedicated spammers who seem to account
for the bulk of Netcom's bandwidth. Netcom has a pro-spam policy
for its high-bandwidth and web customers.
Worldnet is an internet service provider with many
innocent users and a few dedicated spammers who seem to account
for a great deal of spam. Worldnet has a good anti-spam policy
but are slow to enforce it and do nothing to proactively prevent
spam.
Prodigy is another internet service provider with
many innocent users and a few dedicated spammers. Prodigy has
a good anti-spam policy but can be extremely slow and/or lazy about
enforcing it.
Compuserve is another internet service provider with
many innocent users and a few dedicated spammers.
A large amount of spam comes from Compuserve's
subsidiaries SpryNet and Interserve.
Earthlink is a major service provider with an extremely
lax attitude about spam. They will act if enough pressure is
applied.
Persistant email spammer based at AOL.
Exception: spam from
Earthlink will often contain uu.net in parentheses in the
Received: lines because Earthlink rents dial-ups from UUNet.
Complain to both Earthlink and UUNet about such spams.
Earthlink will now expell and fine email spammers.
WorldNet is a major service provider with a strong
anti-spam policy but weak enforcement and no preventative measures
at all.
Linkus is a major email spammer. Netcom attempted to disconnect
them and they obtained a restraining order. It took Netcom months
to get Linkus disconnected.
Cyberpromo is the most notorious email spammer on
the internet. See the
Cyberpromo FAQ
for more information.
Call advertisers and complain
Advertisers often aren't aware that they're spamming. Often someone
with something to sell will pay for advertising, not realizing that
that the advertising agency uses email spam. Even Rutgers university
fell into this trap in November 1997 when they advertised a seminar
through Quantcom.
Close your open gateways
Install Wpoison on Your Web Pages.
This page maintained by
Ed Falk