Don't Spam The Russian Deputy Communications Minister
from the spamming-back-the-spammers dept
Found over at Slashdot is this great story of how the Russian Deputy Communications Minister decided to get back at some spammers. They had originally sent him 40 identical spams, advertising English language lessons. He tried to politely opt out, but found (what did you expect?) that he just got more spam than before from them (and others) - and now it was addressed to him personally. So, he teamed up with an anti-spam group and set up a system to call the spammers non-stop while repeating a recorded message with his voice telling them to stop their "illegal" activities (though, he admits, spamming isn't actually illegal). The spammers, for their part, say they figured out a way to block the phone calls, and have sent out new spam saying their phone systems are down, but people should contact them via ICQ. I wonder if the Deputy Communications Minister has an ICQ account.
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Actually, kudos to the guys, their tireless efforts to get around the client-side filters helped me to test different heuristics and tools in order to figure out their efficiency. By the way, the Moscow phone number is 105-5186, just in case you ever wondered. The web site used to be at www.americancenter.ru, but seems to be mysteriously gone.
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all I can say is Yeeehaaa!
If you have to rely on ICQ to conduct business...well you're pretty mickey mouse at this point..
All I can say is I hope someone informs the minister on the use of various ICQnukers out there and they knock these idiots right off the net.
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