geert lovink on Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:27:23 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> The Spam Jamboree |
Spam fighters to gather at MIT Spam, long the arch nemesis of e-mail users, has become so pervasive recently that a whole conference is being held to try to find better ways to fight it. Researchers, industry experts and spam filter hackers are descending on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Friday for what is being dubbed as the first-ever Spam Conference. http://www.computerworld.com.au/IDG2.NSF/a/000833E6?OpenDocument&n=e&c=ID -- Congress to take on spam, copyright When the 107th Congress ended its work last November, politicians discarded dozens of technology-related bills that had been briefly considered but were never enacted. Now that the 108th Congress has begun this week, some of those controversial proposals dealing with spam, copyright and Internet taxes will resurface--and some stand a better chance of becoming law. January 8, 2003, 4:00 AM PT http://cl.com.com/Click?q=16-T_rjI4c1y5Ry6WLVirleS3ooqsRR -- http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56829,00.html -- Nigerian E-Mail Scammers Reported On Run International authorities close in on 22 Nigerians accused of e-mail bank fraud. Gideon F. For-Mukwai, IDG News Service Monday, October 14, 2002 Nigerian criminals who have masterminded a series of fraudulent online schemes in several African countries are on the run in South Africa, according to local reports. In a recent development in the ongoing series of <A HREF="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105308,00.asp">Internet-base d crimes</A>, the fraudsters made off with millions of dollars swindled from foreign online investors using reputable South African banks. -- NewsScan Daily, 14 January 2002 ("Above The Fold") THE SPAM WARS There has been a 16-fold increase in the number of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages in the past two years (according to the spam-filtering company Brightmail), and little progress has been made in fighting it, although sporadic lawsuits have sometimes yielded (very) small (and often uncollectable) cash judgments against the spammers. The president of the anti-spam Junkbusters Corporation has compared such lawsuits to "mopping up an oil spill with a toothbrush." Yet some anti-spammers feel the effort is worthwhile, and Bennett Haselton, who recently won four judgments of $500 each in Washington state, plans to publish a how-to guide for the spam-perplexed, hoping that if ought people "get in the habit of taking legal action if they get spammed, then it's going to become so expensive that spammers have to get out of business." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 14 Jan 2002) http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/031444.htm -- Nigerian Scam Uses Fake SA Banking Websites Business Day (Johannesburg), October 1, 2002 Rob Rose The elite Scorpions crime fighting unit has arrested 22 Nigerians running an international scam in which they claim to represent SA banks listed on the JSE Securities Exchange SA. The racketeers operated seven websites, including fake SA Reserve Bank and Development Bank of Southern Africa websites. The websites contain SA cellphone numbers that are forwarded to telephone numbers in Nigeria, the US or UK. The Scorpions say gullible "investors" are duped into opening online accounts, which reflect opening balances of $20m. To be able to access this $20m, wouldbe investors are asked to pay thousands of dollars to register with SA-based "law firms". Many victims of the scam, most of whom are from outside SA, have already parted with millions of rands, says the unit . In the instance of the fake Reserve Bank website, victims are asked to pay $10000 to register, and an additional $40000 in tax and insurance. The Scorpions say 28 people were in advanced stages of negotiations on this site. One such victim was duped into paying over R2m. The Scorpions have since shut down the fake Reserve Bank (sarb.org.za) and DBSA (devbsa.org) sites, but the five others are still operational. The five are: Continental Bank of Africa (www.continentalbankofafrica.com); Full Trust Bank (www.fulltrust.com); Afritrust Bank (www.afritrustbank.com); Chartered Investment Trust Bank (www.citbonline.com), and Eagle Bank Limited (www.eaglebanklimited.com). The information on these websites has been lifted illegally from legitimate banks including African Bank and Société Générale. Scorpions spokesman Sipho Ngwema said that three raids were conducted in Johannesburg leading to the arrests of the 22 Nigerians. The ringleader, Samuel Williams, had already been jailed for 12 years on convictions of racketeering under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. -- Fraud That Will Not Die This Day (Lagos), EDITORIAL October 1, 2002 Nigerian fraudsters have launched a major offensive on companies and individuals in the UK, reports Conal Walsh Fraud squads across Britain are on alert amid fears that West African gangs are stepping up attempts to swindle banks, companies and government departments out of hundreds of millions of pounds. There is nothing new about fraud originating in West Africa. It has been going on for decades, and perhaps the most surprising aspect of it is that fraud squads in the West have been unable to stamp it out - and that people still fall for it. But it has intensified. Several businesses in Britain are understood to have gone to the wall this year after their banks were persuaded to transfer large sums out of their accounts by Nigerian hoaxers who obtained their details by stealing company mail. To assist the fraud, gang members and associates - many not from African backgrounds - are thought to have secured jobs in Royal Mail depots, banks, tax offices and the Department for Work and Pensions. This news comes as alarm grows over the email distribution of fraudulent 'begging letters' - often sent from Nigeria - which lure money from recipients with the promise of fabulous returns. Nigerian money-laundering is also set to return to the political agenda, with the country's government renewing its efforts to recover a fortune channelled through City of London banks after being stolen by Sani Abacha, the late military dictator. A senior detective said that police concern was now focusing on the theft of confidential company information. 'The gangs are systematically stealing company mail from rubbish bins, postrooms and Royal Mail sorting offices, and trying to get hold of tax and National Insurance paperwork,' the detective said. 'Their aim is to identify a company's account number, sort code, and signatures. They can then send a mandate to its bank manager, telling him to make a oe50,000 payment to a numbered offshore account - which, of course, belongs to the gang's leader, and which he immediately empties.' The scam has become known as the clearing house automated payment system, or 'Chaps', fraud. 'Most of the time, someone gets suspicious and the fraud doesn't work,' the detective added. 'But the approach of these Nigerian gangs is to try it on with hundreds, or even thousands, of potential victims. If only a few fall for it, the fraudsters make a packet. 'The same principle applies to begging letters, which are sent to thousands of people at a time. It's the sheer staggering scale of the operation that makes it successful.' The detective added: 'In their dealings with banks, these criminals are invariably well-mannered, well-dressed, well-spoken. There are very large and entirely respectable West African communities living in Britain, and the criminals trade off their good names.' Another strength is that the gangs are willing to do business with anyone. 'They've conducted all kinds of frauds in partnership with Albanians, Turks, Kurds and, of course, English criminals.' At their core, however, the frauds tend to be controlled by West Africans. The gangs are often based on family or tribal ties, and use local dialects, which make them impossible for authorities to penetrate. The detective adds: 'The Nigerian gang structure is hard to understand, partly because it's not really a gang at all, more a loose affiliation of freelance criminals, who dip in and out of different scams as and when it suits them. Even so, we're keeping our eye on a few "businessmen" living very comfortably with mansions in Abuja. If they ever set foot in the UK again, they'll be arrested.' Sharp business practices are widely tolerated in Nigeria, which regularly tops Transparency International's table of corrupt countries. The effectiveness of Nigerian gangs has even led some UK investigators to believe they may be 'state-sponsored' - a charge vehemently denied by Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's democratically-elected president. Obasanjo came to power in 1999 vowing to tackle corruption and to retrieve a fortune stolen from state coffers by President Abacha's family and cronies during his brutal five-year rule. Mohammed Abacha, the late dictator's eldest son and allegedly a principal profiteer, has spent most of the four years since his father's death in a high-security prison near Lagos, facing charges of murder, theft and money-laundering. Other associates have proved more elusive - as has the stolen money, which was channelled through bank accounts and front companies abroad. Less than half of the 'Abacha loot', estimated at $4.2bn (oe2.7bn), has been traced, and less still has actually been returned to Nigeria. Most of the identified funds have remained frozen in bank accounts in London, Jersey, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, while the Abacha family's lawyers fight their case in local courts. Recently Nigeria reached a controversial out-of-court settlement which would have allowed the family to keep $100 million of the allegedly looted money in exchange for handing $1bn back to the government. But it was reported last week that the Abachas had pulled out of the deal, leaving the government with no choice but to go back to the courts. It plans to apply for court orders freezing funds in a number of new jurisdictions, including the United States, and to seek to confiscate about $1.25bn already frozen in mainland Europe. In Britain, the High Court last year ordered 19 banks to freeze accounts linked to Abacha. However, Nigeria obtained this injunction only after serious delays, and it is thought that in the meantime the London accounts had mostly been emptied by their owners. Obasanjo has criticised the UK for failing to respond earlier to Nigerian requests to seize the allegedly looted money. The UK's apparent reluctance to interfere with its banks has even drawn criticism from the unlikely quarter of Switzerland. -- From: "Steve Cisler" <cisler@pobox.com> Here's a Nigerian newspaper account of a conference on Nigerian economic frauds, not just 419 scams. Pretty grim... http://allafrica.com/stories/200210150189.html -- http://slate.msn.com/?id=3D2072851 How an idea spread and grew on the Internet. The Nigerian Nightmare Who's sending you all those scam e-mails? By Brendan I. Koerner Posted Tuesday, October 22, 2002 Perhaps you heard from Daniel A. Oluwa over the past few days. He's a member of Nigeria's Federal Audit Committee. He dropped you an e-mail, labeled "Strictly Confidential," stating that he's discovered a frozen account containing $42.5 million. Mr. Oluwa wants to snag the loot, but, for unfathomable reasons, he needs a foreign-based partner to act as an intermediary. Interested? Merely send along your "bank name, address, account number, swift code, ABA number (if any), beneficiary of account, telephone and fax numbers of bank." Thirty percent of the booty shall eventually be yours. If you didn't receive Oluwa's electronic plea, maybe you were instead pitched by Dr. Chukwubu Eze, who's looking for a partner to help him spirit away $33.62 million in illicit oil money. Or Steve Okon, the purported son of a murdered Zimbabwean diplomat. He's got the skinny on about $10 million stashed away in an Amsterdam vault. Or any number of women named Mariam who claim to be the widows of either the late Nigerian strongman Sani Abacha or the deceased Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. They need help tapping into some Swiss bank accounts. As you no doubt guessed, none of these supplicants were on the up-and-up. But you might be surprised to learn that they are, in fact, Nigerian. Odds are they're all Lagos-based con artists looking for American dupes greedy enough and dumb enough to spend thousands in pursuit of nonexistent fortunes. -- From: <petraschulz@freenet.ch> To: <Webmaster@freenet.ch> Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 2:42 PM Subject: Warum? Hallo, leider hast Du auf meine letzte Mail ja nicht geantwortet. Jetzt weiss ich nicht, ob sie bei Dir angekommen ist. Ich moechte Dich wirklich gerne naeher kennenlernen und mich mit Dir treffen! Wir haben ja wohl doch so einiges gemeinsam :-) Ich habe eine Webseite eingerichtet auf, der Du mehr von mir erfahren kannst. Bilder findest Du dort natuerlich auch. Damit Du, wenn ich Dir gefalle, mit mir in Kontaktkt tretten kannst, gibt es dort auch einen Livechatt mit Cam zu mir nach Hause. Wir koennen uns dann sofort live unterhalten und uns naeher kennenlernen. Du brauchst, um auf meine Seite zu kommen, eine spezielle Software, die Du hier runterladen kannst: http://www.netmails.com/members/treffen2020/sofortkontakter.exe Einfach runterladen, starten und schon bist Du bei mir. Deine Petra -- COOLMATION LIMITED Unit 7,Mill Stream Trading Estate, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 3SD,United Kingdom. Tel/Fax 44 207 6917571 email: alegg42@yahoo.co.uk Dear Sir, I humbly wish to seek your assistance in a matter that is very important and also of mutual benefit. I am Mr. Andrew Legg, a business consultant and a close confidant to one of UK's most powerful families. One of our high network clients wishes to move out Of this country the sum of US$30million.She wishes to invest the aforementioned Sum in viable businesses overseas. For obvious reasons, my client does not wish to place this fund with established financial institution in the family's name for security reasons. It is her Desire that the deal be handled as quietly as possible without possibility of any leakage to the public or British Government. She has therefore instructed And empowered me to look for a reliable foreigner who can arrange and receive this money in his/her account overseas and assist to invest the fund properly for the family. If you agree to act as a fund manager to my client and her family, we shall release the said sum to you if you meet the necessary requirements. Your Commission shall be down payment of 10% of the total sum, and an annual 10% of the after tax returns on investment for the first five years. Thereafter, the Terms shall be varied. If you are capable and willing to participate in this Transaction, reach me by this email address (alegg@postmaster.co.uk or coolmation@yahoo.co.uk) or by the above Fax number. Best Regards, Mr. Andrew Legg -- http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/ -- Haiku'da Been a Spam Filter By Michelle Delio 2:00 a.m. Aug. 20, 2002 PDT Refined poetry and ruthless legal prosecution have been brought together in the latest effort to stop spam. A hidden scrap of copyrighted poetry embedded in e-mails will be used to guarantee that any message containing the verse is spam free. And if spammers dare to hijack the haiku, they will be aggressively sued for copyright infringement. The service is being offered by "Habeas," a new spam-filtering service headed by anti-spam activist and attorney Anne P. Mitchell. Habeas doesn't stop spam by blocking suspicious e-mail. It prevents it by aggressively monitoring who is using the service to send mail, and then allowing people to set up e-mail program filters specifying that all messages containing the Habeas haiku should be delivered -- no matter how "spammy" the contents might appear to the average e-mail filter. E-mail filters are lists that block or redirect the delivery of e-mail that comes from known spammers, or messages that contain words and phrases typically found in spam. But legitimate e-mail may also contain references to the sorts of health, sexual, financial and legal issues that often appear in standard spam. Due to increasingly aggressive filtering, publishers of subscription e-mail newsletters complain that they are being forced to self-censor their publications, carefully omitting phrases or sometimes even deliberately misspelling words that might trigger a spam filter. Writers, reporters and editors say that some e-mailed stories and news releases never arrive at their destinations due to spam filtering. And a number of people from Asian countries -- increasingly the subjects of wide-scale spam blocks -- have all but given up on sending messages to their friends and colleagues in the United States and Europe. And still the spam keeps coming. "Existing law offers little protection from spammers, who continue to find new ways to beat even the most sophisticated filtering technologies," Mitchell, former legal affairs director for Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS), said. "Technology alone can't stop spam. But existing copyright and trademark law used in conjunction with Habeas' system allows us to sue and shut down spammers while protecting senders of legitimate mail." Mitchell says if a spammer uses the Habeas haiku along with other trademarked text in an e-mail, Habeas can and will seek penalties of $1 million and more for copyright and trademark violation. It will also help shut down offenders' businesses through legal injunctions and -- in the worst cases -- refer them for criminal prosecution. Dun and Bradstreet have agreed to serve as Habeas' collection agency, Mitchell said. And several major commercial spam filtering services, such as "Spam Assassin" and "Mail-Filters.com" intend to add Habeas to their spam-filtering arsenal. Habeas also intends to provide lists of unrepentant spammers to maintainers of the "blacklists," which many systems administrators use to block all e-mail from known spammers. Some publishers of small, subscription-based newsletters say they welcomed the new filtering system since it's becoming increasingly difficult to deliver their product past spam filters. The struggle has forced many to self-censor the information they provide to their subscribers. "What is absolutely as annoying as hell, from the ethical e-mail publisher's perspective, is the idea that you may have to edit your word choices and phrasing or a percentage of your subscribers won't see what you deliver to them because the mail will simply not reach them, or will go into a 'Suspected Spam' folder that they may not ever open," Steve Outing, senior editor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said. Ironically, Outing's recent column for Editor and Publisher on why he hates spam filters was trapped by a spam filter and not delivered to his editor. "I purposely loaded the column with some words that filters tend not to like to make a point about not wanting to be censored by software," Outing said. "I e-mailed it to my editor at E&P, but it got blocked by the spam filter installed on his company's server." "This was particularly annoying, because the filter was set to just trash what it identified as spam; my editor had no way of knowing I'd sent him anything, and I didn't get a bounce-back message saying I'd been blocked." He eventually had to e-mail the column to his editor's home e-mail address. "The root of the problem, of course, is spam," Outing said. "Spammers not only annoy the majority of Internet users and suck up ISP bandwidth, they also cost ethical e-mail publishers money. The ultimate solution is to outlaw spam. I doubt there can be such a thing as a perfect spam filter." Habeas' success will depend on how aggressively the company pursues violators, and how many people opt to use the service and notify the company of any spam they may receive that was "sanctioned" by Habeas. Individuals can freely use Habeas filtering with their existing e-mail programs. The service is also free for Internet service providers. Businesses will be charged $200 a year for use of Habeas' services. Commercial e-mailers who meet Habeas' strict definition of non-spam will be billed a penny per sent message for the warranting service, capped at $3,000 per month. The fee may seem steep for small-scale publishers and marketers, but some said it would be worth it to guarantee their product would actually arrive in subscribers' in-boxes. -- March 16, 2042 Spam Stalks, Attacks Steve Case (FutureFeedForward) NEW YORK--AOLTW Chairman Emeritus Steve Case was rushed to a private New York hospital late Thursday following a reported assault by unsolicited commercial email. "We do not want to go into details at this time," explains AOLTW Chief Security Officer Pamela Spoon. "But we can confirm that Mr. Case, for a number of months, has been stalked and harassed by a significant amount of spam, including messages soliciting mortgage business and offering to enlarge his penis." Spam, irritating but typically harmless commercial messages distributed arbitrarily to the public at large, has been known to seriously, and sometimes fatally, injure hosts when sent in large quantities to networked organs and prostheses. "It's a serious, and clearly documented problem," notes William Chappamattox, Vice Director of the CalTech Center for Electrohygenics. "I know of at least 23 cases in which spam has caused measurable damage to wireless livers and kidneys. The real shame is that most of the injuries could have been prevented through correct firewall configuration." Speaking at his company's annual meeting, Case last year revealed to shareholders that he had received a number of life-sustaining transplants, including a wireless liver, pancreas, and colon. "I feel 100%," announced the spry, khaki-panted Case. "My doctors can monitor my blood sugar and fine-tune my insulin levels from any thin client anywhere in the world. I'm feeling better than I have in years." Though unconfirmed by AOLTW spokespeople, sources inside Case's medical team indicate that he recently underwent experimental installation of a Pore-to-Pore Dermal Network designed to increase information exchange among regions of the dermis and to firm and tone his skin. "Steve's not a vain guy," explains the inside source. "This wasn't a vanity thing. It's just that boyishness was his trademark look. He didn't want people to think he was losing it." "I don't personally know of any reported injuries resulting from spam sent to one of these pore-to-pore networks," notes CalTech's Chappamattox. "But I do know from experience that security is not always the highest priority in the first generation of some of these organs. Scripted pop-ups and pop-unders could conceivably wreak havoc with [Case's] new skin." Though declining to comment on questions concerning the role of Case's reported dermal installation in the spam assault, AOLTW spokespeople did indicate that the company "is taking appropriate legal action to enjoin continued harassment of Chairman Case." In papers filed this week in New York Federal District Court against "John Doe(s) and twelve other unidentified senders of unsolicited commercial email" an AOLTW legal team seeks "temporary and permanent orders enjoining Defendants from sending, relaying, or transmitting electronic messages to any IP address associated with Plaintiff or any of his organs or prostheses," and further requests "compensatory damages for past, continuous, and ongoing trespass to his organs and person." Details concerning Case's current medical condition are few, limited to a family spokesman's indication that the situation is "grave" and that he is in "bad shape but good spirits." This futurefeedforward story was sent to you as a subscriber to futurefeedforward. For a history of the future, see our timeline at http://futurefeedforward.com/timeline.php For an archive of our stories, see http://futurefeedforward.com/archive.php If you would like to be removed from this list, see http://futurefeedforward.com/unsubscribe.php -- Nigeria Hoax Spawns Copycats By Joanna Glasner 2:00 a.m. June 18, 2002 PDT For most recipients of e-mail, the Nigerian spam scam is a familiar sight. It comes, often quite regularly, from an alleged former dignitary of the Nigerian government. The typical storyline is that the sender has stashed away a huge wad of cash, but needs a foreign bank account through which to funnel it. If the recipient of the letter would kindly provide their own account number, they can be assured a huge reward. The scam -- which usually results in some sucker getting their bank account cleaned out -- has been around since before the dawn of the Internet. But if recent tallies of spam complaints are any indication, perpetrators of the well-known fraud are changing their tactics. Fraud experts say the scam is too famous to work in its original form. "As we've pushed awareness, they come up with new ways to attract victims," said John Kane, research manager at the National White Collar Crime Center. In the past few months, Kane has seen versions of the Nigerian scam that feature authors ranging from deposed African leaders to Afghan refugees to an alleged U.S. commando. Perhaps the most common variant on the Nigerian scam is a look-a-like letter purporting to be from a deposed leader of another African nation. One widely circulated letter allegedly comes from a son of former Congo dictator Mobutu Sese-Seko, who seeks help transferring money that's secretly locked in a chest. Another comes from the daughter of a deceased Angolan rebel leader who seeks to prevent the government from seizing the $8.5 million her father left behind. The Sept. 11 attacks and U.S. military action in Afghanistan have also inspired a new breed of scams, Kane said. One such letter claims to come from a U.S. Special Forces commando who purports to have found $36 million in drug money while conducting a covert search-and-destroy mission against the Taliban. The "commando" says he has stashed the cash in luggage, but wants to keep it in someone else's bank account "for safekeeping." Another offer comes from a man who claims he was delivering a large sum of cash to the World Trade Center on the day it collapsed. Although he escaped from the building, his colleagues believe that he is dead. He kept the cash, kept a low profile and is in great need of a bank account to quietly deposit the money. Given the surge in copycat scams, anti-fraud groups are advising people to do more than scan e-mail for suspect keywords like "Nigeria." "There are certain characteristics that these all have in common," said Kane. Con artists nearly always convey a sense of urgency, emphasize that millions of dollars are at stake and urge strict confidentiality. The obvious way to avoid falling victim, of course, is simply to never give a bank account number to total strangers met over the Internet. Suspicious as it sounds, the Nigerian hoax has worked remarkably well for more than a decade. Originated as a postal scam, the fraud took on new life with the popularization of e-mail. The U.S. Secret Service estimates that the fraud costs victims hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide each year. Although senders pretend from a variety of African nations, investigations have revealed that most of scams originate in Nigeria, said a representative of the 419 Coalition, an anti-fraud group. According to the U.S. State Department, the letters first surfaced in the mid-1980s around the time of the collapse of world oil prices, which is Nigeria's main foreign exchange earner. Some Nigerians turned to crime in order to survive. In recent years, law enforcement agencies from several countries, including the United States, Britain, Nigeria and South Africa, have stepped up efforts to crack down on the bank scam, otherwise known as advanced-fee fraud or 4-1-9 fraud, for the section of the Nigerian penal code that covers the crime. The latest arrest, announced in May, resulted from a joint investigation by the South African Police Service and Scotland Yard. Police collared two Nigerian men in Roodepoort, South Africa, who are believed to be behind one of the larger 4-1-9 operations. Meanwhile, anti-fraud agencies such as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center continue to see a brisk volume of advanced-fee fraud complaints. Fraudsters are responding by getting more creative. One of the odder examples, provided by Holly Anderson of the National Fraud Information Center (NFIC), involved a scam artist who lurked on dating websites, including sites for lesbian singles. The poster pretended to be the daughter of a slain Sierra Leone gold mine executive seeking long-term relationship with a special someone. It would be so easy, she wrote, if some helpful person would just provide a bank account number. http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,53115,00.html -- THINGS YOU'D LOVE TO SAY... 1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of #%#%. 2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce. 3. How about never? Is never good for you? 4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. 5. I am really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship me. 6. I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter. 7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message... 8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant. 9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying. 10. Ahhh...I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again... 11. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid. 13. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a damn. 14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth. 15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you. 16. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view. 17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist. 18. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental. 19. What am I? Flypaper for freaks!? 20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant. 21. It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off. 22. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial. 23. And your crybaby, whiny-assed opinion would be...? 24. Do I look like a people person? 25. This is not an office. It is Hell with fluorescent lighting. 26. I started out with nothing & still have most of it left. 27. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer. 28. If I throw a stick, will you leave? 29. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed. 30. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed. 31. I'm trying to imagine you with a personality. 32. A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door. 33. Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1? 34. Too many freaks, not enough circuses. 35. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it? 36. Chaos, panic, & disorder -- my work here is done. 37. How do I set a laser printer to stun? -- Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 17:37:13 +0900 From: kim chulmin <wbxrose@shinbiro.com> Subject: help me You're not going to believe what's happening to me now. someone is doing an experiment on me. I mean an experiment on a living creature. it's kind of hard to explain this situation. Base: liquid thing interacting with human body in itself. 1. they raise some koreans(about 20) and put liquid thing into their body. 2. Using satellite, they located korean's liquid thing around me and also put liquid thing into my body, also liquid thing in my body is interacting with that korean's liquid thing. can you believe this? please, trust me !!! (served in US Army as SWAT team). maybe next time i can explain more details about this situation. I am sending a help mail to many people, but i think that my uni. of Hanyang uni. in seoul of south korea is most important. please, help me to bring attention of Hanyang uni. to me. (name: Kim chulmin, student# : 91007940, department : industrial engineering) I wrote down this situation in korean. http://kr.geocities.com/wbxrose -- http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/25446.html -- ONLINE MOUSETRAPPING His current whereabouts unknown, Pennsylvania man John Zuccarini has been ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay $1.9 million in compensation to victims of a Web scam in which set up sites using misspelled names of popular Web destinations to trap accidental visitors and divert them to porn and gambling sites. Zuccarini is said to make almost $1 million a year by charging advertisers who use his services. (AP/USA Today 24 May 2002) http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2002/05/24/mousetrapping-ftc.htm -- From: "Don Cameron" <donc@mudgeeab.com.au> To: <broadband-wireless@vancouvercommunity.net>; <communityinformatics@vancouvercommunity.net> Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 9:27 AM Subject: [CI] The impact of spam of broadband and CI Welcome to list broadband-wireless@vancouvercommunity.netHi all, A short time ago I posted on the potential of spam and other forms of computer attack to impact on CI initiatives. That a focus on broadband alone failed to acknowledge or manage the increased threat to global communications offered through creating wider pipes with no thought to the subsequent use or management of these pipes. Surprisingly (or not) my earlier posts have in themselves perhaps highlighted and raised the issue to a new level. By way of explanation: Like many people involved in systems administration I maintain a number of E-Mail accounts. This is so I can track correspondence forwarded or otherwise used on a particular forum. My posts to CI and Broadband are sent from an account not otherwise widely used - in this fashion I can (with a degree of accuracy) monitor return postings or any other factors pertinent to messages sent under a particular account. Since posting my comments to the broadband list (over the past week), the account used has been subjected to a dramatic increase in spam attacks and server polls seeking account confirmation (does the account exist for the purpose of spam or relay?) - these requests have all originated from Asia and Africa. The spammers are (trying to) get smart. Commonly the spammers are US-based, using a Chinese ISP and relaying through an African mail-server. I will not draw any assumptions about just how these spammers acquired this particular E-Mail address other than to suggest that not everyone on these lists seems to have the interests of the respective forums at heart... (or the archives are public?) - Presumably my defences are being tested to see how 'real' the issues are... so just how big an impact does this all have on CI and broadband? The spam header pasted below is from a message received today, and was relayed (or forged as being relayed) through the African host: "Health Systems Trust - Working for today's Health System, South Africa's Future". This is a domain dedicated to helping South Africa's Aids sufferers and promoting the use of Telemedicine (you can check them out at: http://www.hst.org.za/) - Obviously this host is the type of service targeted by broadband initiatives and an organisation we would all willingly support... However in all likelihood they are about to be shut-down from much of the world despite the altruistic nature of their work. Very few ISP's go to the trouble of checking the nature of domains used to send spam... there is simply too much, and too little time to visit every web-site. Rather the domains are simply 'black-holed' and forgotten (It was more good luck than good management that I actually found-out who owned this server.... fortunately the return address contained the word 'aids' which flagged a trigger in my systems... however very few other admins will catch this... more likely the domain will be blocked along with thousands of others). In my case I have not, nor will I block http access to the Domain, however all originating E-mail is now blocked... I think this was largely the intention of the spammer... to prove how 'evil' the sys-admins of this world are, that we deliberately block such well-intended domains... or to ensure their spam is sent by using a domain such as this... when in truth they (the spammers) are the ones illegally using a third-party server and seeking to gain benefit from the plight of the world's aid sufferers (I have no words for the integrity of these people). Yet the reality remains... this Domain will be blocked by a large percentage of global sys-admins unless something is done to stop the practice - in this case the problem is with US laws (or the lack thereof) about Spam - the third-party African relay is very much an innocent party (as are any sys-admins who unknowingly block this domain). Received: from spooler by ......... 27 May 02 21:53:53 +1000 X-Envelope-To: <.........> Return-path: <infosearchshoes@163.com> Received: from (my ISP) 27 May 02 21:52:58 +1000 Received: from sm5.163.com ([202.108.44.212]) by (my ISP) for <me>; Mon, 27 May 2002 22:19:06 +1000 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sm5.163.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 059311C7E5200; Mon, 27 May 2002 20:17:59 +0800 (CST) Received: from 163.com (unknown [218.66.209.140]) by 192.168.1.212 (Coremail) with SMTP id PQIAAPAj8jxv/v//.1 for <arch-af-aids@hst.org.za>; Mon, 27 May 2002 20:17:59 +0800 (CST) Message-ID: <4120025127121832674@163.com> X-EM-Version: 5, 0, 0, 11 X-EM-Registration: #S1dI500R1AX60C0Rb100 X-Priority: 1 Reply-To: r-start@163.com From: "www.searchshoes.com" <infosearchshoes@163.com> Subject: sell fashion shoes for man U.Price: USD 1.3 /PR FOB XM Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 20:18:32 +0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_01BC2B74.89D1CCC0" X-RAVMilter-Version: 8.3.3(snapshot 20020312) (my ISP) (Yes... it's all nothing more than an attempt to sell cheap shoes... what an abuse of our systems, and assault on the plight of the world's aid sufferers) Rgds, Don -- The Worst Internet Hoaxes Gotcha! E-mail hoaxes are out to get you. Here are the ten most cunning ruses to watch out for. Scott Spanbauer Communicating by e-mail seems safe and clean compared to the real world--no bad breath, no cauliflower ear, and no anthrax. But e-mail doesn't escape the clutches of con artists. Just because an e-mail message looks legitimate and plays upon our deeply felt hopes and fears doesn't mean it's true. Here's our top ten list of some of the most devious hoaxes and outright scams in Internet history. Don't be surprised to see some of them appear (and mutate into new forms) again and again. And don't get taken in. 10. Let the Good Times Roll Even the threat of a computer virus is enough to throw many PC users into a tizzy. And virus warning hoaxes are nearly as bad as the real thing. Frightened recipients frantically forward the bogus advisory to everyone they know. One of the first phony bulletins warned recipients not to read or download any files with the name Good Times. Naturally, the message spread like a virus, bogging down mail servers. Do you have a virus alert but you're not sure if it's genuine? Visit Vmyths.com. 9. Help a Sick Child Who wouldn't want to save a little girl dying of cancer? Or help a little boy with epilepsy? The various incarnations of this hoax go on and on. Most of them involve forwarding the e-mail message to others. In return, the American Cancer Society, a hospital, or another medical organization will donate anywhere from a few cents to a dollar to the non-existent child. See HoaxBusters for chapter and verse. 8. Bill Gates Reaches Out to You Impossible as it may seem, Bill Gates is contacting you, personally. And not only that, the billionaire wants to give you money! "My name is Bill Gates. Here at Microsoft we have just compiled an e-mail tracing program..." Naturally, there will be some forwarding of e-mail involved. Starting to see a pattern? Variations on this theme appear to come from Walt Disney Jr. (who never existed), The Gap, Victoria's Secret, and AOL. To get the skinny, hop to HoaxBusters. 7. Dial 809 for Trouble This started as a real e-mail scam, but somebody managed to turn the whole thing into a hoax, too. A few years back, an e-mail message requesting payment of an "outstanding account" demanded that recipients call a number in the 809 area code (a Caribbean prefix) to clear things up. Lots of people dialed the number only to incur $25-per-minute phone charges. ScamBusters exposed the original threat, but some joker started circulating an altered version of the ScamBusters report that adds to the confusion. According to ScamBusters, there were other area codes used in the scam: 242 (Bahamas), 284 (British Virgin Islands), and 787 (Puerto Rico). Does that mean you should never dial numbers in the 809 area code or these other zones? Of course not. Head to HoaxBusters for the dirt. 6. Money Nonsense in Nigeria You receive an urgent, confidential message from a Nigerian government official who wants to deposit millions of dollars in your bank account. The official is contacting you in order to bypass some local bureaucratic snafu. All he needs is your name and bank account number. Should you respond, or delete the message? You might find it peculiar, but lots of people have been conned out of their savings in this dangerous and ongoing con game, known as the Advance Fee Fraud, 419 Fraud, or Nigerian Scam. According to the 419 Coalition Web site, the con has pulled in more than $5 billion and is one of the largest industries in Nigeria. For details, check out ScamBusters or the posting by the United States Treasury Department. 5. Save Big Bird Everybody knows that PBS needs your support to keep delivering its programming. So when you receive a professionally written plea quoting Nina Totenberg and warning that the system is in danger, it comes as no surprise. You don't even have to send money, just--you guessed it--forward the message. This kind of hoax is bound to stick around for a while. So for future reference, remember that there is no such thing as an e-mail petition. Hop to About.com for more details. 4. The $250 Cookie Recipe This is a true story, really. It must be--I read about it in an e-mail message. You've probably stumbled upon this message, too. But in case you haven't heard, the story goes like this: Someone ate a cookie for dessert at a restaurant in a Neiman Marcus store. The customer asked for the recipe, and was charged $250 for it (not "$2.50," as expected). Though this urban legend dates back more than 50 years, according to the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, it's gained a new life thanks to the wonders of e-mail. Whatever you do, don't bother forwarding it. 3. Deodorant Endangers Your Health? We tend to believe reasonable first-person accounts, especially if they report the advice of doctors or other experts and prey on our fears. A convincing-sounding message forwarded from a woman who attended a health seminar warned that deodorant can cause breast cancer. There's no truth to the story, says the American Cancer Society. But post the message to your favorite mailing list and just watch the panic ensue. You can stop worrying about shampoo and toothpaste, too. 2. Last Photo From the World Trade Center Deck? Even the tragic events of September 11th have spawned hoaxes. Did you see the photo posted on the Web of a tourist posing on the World Trade Center observation deck a split second before an airliner crashed into it? Visit the Urban Legends Reference Pages for the photo and the reasons why it never happened. 1. Next Time, Just Say "I Don't Know" If you've been suckered by an e-mail hoax, you're in good company. During the 2000 elections, a gullible television reporter asked debating Senate candidates Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio about pending legislation to establish a 5-cent tax on e-mail messages. Both stated their opposition to it--live on the air. Never mind that no such bill ever existed--the reporter had just read one of those urgent e-mails. Go to HoaxBusters for the full report. -- January 25 2002 http://latimes.com/business/la-012502goldscm.story Taking a Flier on a Scam PROLIFERATING PONZI SCHEMES ON THE INTERNET TEMPT GAMBLERS WHO THINK THEY CAN GET OUT IN TIME. MOST DON'T. By MICHAEL A. HILTZIK and CHARLES PILLER Times Staff Writers With three years' experience putting money into get-rich-quick programs online, Jack Reitzel believes he has learned all the rules. One rule is not to believe anything the promoters say. If they promise a 300% return on investors' money in two weeks, it's more than likely the site will disappear before the deadline arrives. If they claim their response is slow because they've had emergency surgery or technical problems or a dispute with their bankers, it's time to worry. And above all, one should understand that the longer one plays, the better the chance of losing. "There have been dozens [of programs] where I've lost $10, $20, $50," he said. "In some, I've lost $500." One program purportedly investing in racehorses, into which he was enticed by a recommendation from a friend of a friend, cost him $5,000. "It will take me a long time to get my head above water," said Reitzel, a 56-year-old computer engineer. "I definitely don't call this investing. It's gambling." Tell that to the roughly 1,000 people who lost a combined $1 million in "Invest Better 2001," a scheme run by 17-year-old Cole Bartiromo of Mission Viejo. Like Reitzel, many of them appear to have been serial players, jumping from program to program on the Web. Unlike true victims, many often know what they are getting into: online variations of the Ponzi, pyramid and get-rich-quick come-ons that have lured credulous citizens for decades. Relying on tips passed among users of online bulletin boards, they are gambling that they can get their initial investment out fast, then reap as much profit as possible before the wild promises collapse. This strategy involves risk. For one thing, without insider complicity it is almost impossible to be sure where one is located in the pyramid. "All these sites say 'get in on the ground floor now' no matter when it is in the life of the pyramid," said Jim Kohm, an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission. Most participants lose everything they invest, he said. Moreover, many state laws define any participation in pyramid scams--even that by apparent victims--as engaging in an illegal activity, said Steve Larsen, manager of the Washington state attorney general's Cyber Consumer Resource Center. That subjects investors to similar criminal and civil penalties as promoters. Those penalties vary widely by jurisdiction and the scale of the crime. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the sponsors of scams that net more than a million dollars and involve a large number of victims can face big fines and up to 20 years in prison. In most cases, the perpetrators also are expected to repay victims. Although the Internet has proved a boon to shysters, it has also helped prosecutors catch them in the act, said John Reed Stark, chief of Internet enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission. "The electronic footprints that they have left on the Internet [offer] a resplendent evidentiary trail," he said. Authorities say Bartiromo's Invest Better Web site, which was shut down this month by the SEC, bore several common characteristics of online investment scams. These include the promise of outlandish investment returns, backed by a marginally plausible investment idea seized upon by eager investors. Bartiromo promised his customers returns of up to 2,500% "risk free," purportedly as a result of placing "safe bets" on sports contests. Other suspect Web sites hint that they are associated with investments in gold, foreign bank securities or investment opportunities not otherwise open to small investors. The vagueness of the actual investment goal, perversely, often enhances its appeal to customers. "The nonsense of believing in pyramid schemes goes back to childhood days of telling ghost stories in tents," said Mike Caro, a games and gambling expert associated with Hollywood Park. Today there is a new element: the Internet's ability to facilitate the spread of these schemes. Mass e-mailings, or "spam," circulate word of new programs to thousands of potential marks at a click. "Once your name gets into the mill, it's like junk mail," Reitzel said. Promoters use public message boards, easily accessible via services such as Yahoo, to reach huge audiences of computer users. They often disguise themselves as delighted investors eager to pass on word of a sure-fire program. Anonymous Web-hosting services enable investment promoters to shield their identities and locations from investors and law enforcement officials. "It's never been easier for con men to reach so many victims so easily," said David Marchant, a Miami-based publisher of newsletters exposing offshore investment scams. "The Internet has accelerated the life span of your average Ponzi scheme, which used to be spread by word of mouth. With the Internet, they don't have to do the traditional things like infiltrating church groups anymore." Ponzi schemes are named after Charles K. Ponzi, a 1920s-era swindler who purportedly invested his clients' money in postal coupons but secretly paid investors from the money he collected from later investors. The Web hosts thousands of programs that promise to earn customers returns of 150% to 200% a month by investing in offshore trading and other international opportunities. Pyramid schemes operate much the same way--paying investors from the proceeds contributed by others--but the relationship is often more overt, with investors at each "level" knowingly entitled to a share of later contributions, as in a chain letter. "In Ponzi schemes, it's extremely common for people at the beginning to get high returns," Marchant said. "You put $2,000 in and get $4,000 back. The problem is that human nature is to put that $4,000 back in; then, when they get $8,000 back, they mortgage the house and lose everything. At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of money ends up in the hands of crooks." Those few who make money often do so by making a quick change from sucker to fraudster. "People knowingly become shills or spokesmen for the schemes in online chat rooms or [via] e-mail to protect their investment," said James H. Vaules, chief executive of the National Fraud Center, a subsidiary of database giant LexisNexis. "There are a lot of people who begin as victims and end up as co-conspirators," said Vaules, a former FBI executive specializing in white-collar crime. Prosecution of online fraud is hampered by the difficulty of showing clear criminal intent. "You have to prove that inside a guy's brain he knew this was a fraud," said Timothy Healy, chief of the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. "The challenge on any type of fraudulent scheme is to prove that he intended fraud." Nevertheless, as con men have known for centuries, the pool of willing marks is almost bottomless. Complaints Represent Only Tip of the Iceberg "There are some people who really believe they can make money doing nothing," said Michelle Haggerty, a Thousand Oaks operator of an online self-publishing service who was inundated with e-mails after her testimonial for ZoneHunt Matrix, a pyramid program, appeared on the ZoneHunt Web site. "I got e-mails from people saying they've put their grocery money into this, and that's scary," she said, adding that she tried to warn some people that the system would yield results only if allowed to run for years. ZoneHunt works by inserting customers into a series of "matrices" of 84 investors each; every investor is theoretically paid a portion of the contribution of the 83 who follow. The matrices range from "beginner level," in which everyone contributes $5 to earn $150, up to "platinum level," in which participants each contribute $29,997 for a theoretical gain of nearly $480,000. Once his or her matrix is filled, the investor can move up to the next level and, again theoretically, reap proportionately greater gains. The ZoneHunt Web site portrays this as a virtual perpetual motion machine of increasing wealth ("Look at it this way: If you joined at the $5 level and it took you one year to complete Silver, you've earned $15,952--all for $5"). Not surprisingly, however, the process is much more difficult. Out of 11,000 customers, according to Amber Jalink, the program's Canadian organizer, fewer than 50 are invested in the Silver level, including several who started there. If the number of new customers slows or the site shuts down, unrealized profit would disappear. "If it stops, someone would be left putting money in and not getting anything out," Jalink acknowledged. Investment schemes are so widespread on the Web that law enforcement authorities know the thousands of complaints they receive each year represent the barest tip of the iceberg. Traditional swindles such as pyramid schemes made up 6% of the Internet complaints received by the FBI for the 12 months ended in May, and only 1% of 204,000 consumer-fraud complaints to the FTC in 2001. (Most complaints are filed over Internet auctions, identity theft or credit card fraud.) The average victim of an Internet pyramid scheme lost $339, according to the FBI. Those figures vastly understate the extent of the problem, law enforcement officials say. For one thing, naive investors often fail to report even blatant rip-offs. "People have confidence that they will strike it rich [the next] time. They don't often see themselves as victims of fraud," said Betsy Broder, an attorney with the FTC's consumer fraud division. "Although we know with mathematical certainty that about 90% of people who participate in a pyramid scheme will lose money." And repeat losers are common, experts say. "The vast majority of people involved in these things are those who grab for the brass ring continually, who believe the pitch over and over again and lose money every time," not unlike compulsive gamblers, Kohm said. "People are feeling more comfortable with the Internet," said the FBI's Healy. "With more commerce comes more fraud." And, he might add, more enablers. "The scam industry is so big that there's a well-defined infrastructure," said Jay D. Adkisson, an Irvine financial consultant who operates Quatloos.com, a clearinghouse for information about financial swindles. "There's a long list of facilitators." These include online shills who post messages in Internet discussion groups playing up their own sites and denigrating others as frauds. "We've seen the phenomenon of scam artists creating 'due diligence' sites," which purport to distinguish honest sites from frauds as a public service or for a membership fee, Adkisson said. "That speaks volumes about how high-yield investment programs [generally get-rich-quick schemes offering implausible monthly or annual returns] have become an industry and a very significant problem to retirees and low-income people." Perhaps most important, the Internet has provided easy ways to move money from investors' pockets to promoters'. Many online scams advise their customers to open accounts at online money-transfer services such as PayPal or E-Gold. These services were founded principally to facilitate e-commerce payments by acting as financial intermediaries between buyers and merchants. But they also can facilitate the funding of scams without requiring cash to be sent through the mail. Scam Promoters May Use Offshore Services Some online payment services say they are sensitive about being misused this way. Among them is PayPal, an electronic financial transmission service often used by online financial promoters to receive contributions and, where applicable, distribute proceeds. "Our user agreement clearly states that PayPal cannot be used for any illegal purpose or activity," Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for the Palo Alto-based company, said in an e-mail to The Times. Other services say the uses to which their systems are put are none of their business. "It's vexingly difficult to determine the legality of what someone does," said Douglas Jackson, chairman of E-Gold Ltd., an intermediary for e-commerce transactions. "We don't ask." Although E-Gold describes itself as an offshore market for the buying and selling of gold, backed by precious-metal reserves the company maintains overseas, in practice the system allows users to transfer money among themselves almost as though they are writing checks. Promoters of online scams may find the system even more inviting because it is legally headquartered in the Caribbean island of Nevis, a notorious offshore financial haven. Jackson said this is because Nevis has "a strong tradition of respect for contract law" and added, "I have not observed that it's liable to abuse." He acknowledged that E-Gold regards itself and its user accounts as "not subject to U.S. regulatory agencies" and said any subpoenas it might receive from an onshore law enforcement agency might need to be "brought before Nevis courts" to determine their legal jurisdiction. One of the largest Internet-based pyramids prosecuted by the FTC involved a company called Fortuna Alliance. The firm promised investors profit of at least $5,000 a month on an investment of as little as $250. Thousands of investors in 60 countries were drawn in. The FTC filed a complaint against Fortuna in 1996, but it took years to recover funds, in part because the company stashed millions of dollars in offshore accounts in Antigua, in the West Indies. -- From: <jvtravel7l76h21024@lycos.com> To: "INTERNET" <nwalther@xs4all.nl> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 5:00 AM Subject: Are you looking for Quality Email Lists? (33520) We are Email Professionals! Are you looking for email address lists? We create your lists fresh as per your order and your targeted market. If you are looking for addresses per your geographic location we create those for you as well. We have been in this business for the past 6 years and we have the knowledge and software to create right on targeted email address lists for you. Targeted Email address lists can be of any topic that you would like. We do not give you someone else's list, even if your criteria matches theirs. 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If you are looking for leads, mortgage, insurance or debt, we gather those fresh daily. Please inquire about that service. Our phone number is 212-656-1080 We look forward to hearing from you. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net