

Major Source of Online Scams and Spams Knocked Offline - jws
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/11/major_source_of_online_scams_a.html

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jws
You can see the dropoff in my corporate spam reception at
<http://jim.studt.net/spamdrop.png> . At about 3pm central standard time about
40% of my spam stopped arriving (red line and zinc chromate green line). Not
bad for a single action.

(The vertical axis is "messages per hour". My filters are lined up as
bogofilter,dcc,spamassassin,clamav. A positive for spam stops evaluation of
the later, more expensive filters. Likewise, most viruses are caught in the
spam filters and never get to clamav. The robots line is automated status
reports from remotely deployed code.)

~~~
Shamiq
Unfortunately, actions like these do not knock off spam for long. iirc, the
last time a major spammer was knocked offline, the result was a sharp drop for
a day, then a return to pre-action levels.

We're better off making spam a less profitable venture, and thereby letting
the market reduce the number of people turning to spam as a source of income.

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MaysonL
A great graph showing the dropoff:

<http://www.spamcop.net/spamgraph.shtml?spamweek>

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josefresco
Why does 'child pron' make it's way into every spammer/Internet bust story?
I'm not saying it wasn't a part of this case, but it always seems tacked on to
garner that extra emotional reaction from the public.

~~~
jonknee
Because it's illegal worldwide and is one of the few activities that can
guarantee quick action from the authorities.

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tlrobinson
Wow, I wouldn't have expected a US-based company could get away with this for
any lengthy period.

And Hurricane Electric was one of their ISPs? They're very reputable, from
what I've heard.

