# Spammer karma..it's a bitch. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 8, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209 "2003-04-08T01:20:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/1 "2003-04-08T01:20:56Z")
From the [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42993-2003Apr6.html)… > [@](#): > > Every day, dozens of spam e-mails land in computer in-boxes advertising instant wealth, quick weight loss and cheap pornography. > > Francis Uy, a self-described computer geek from Ellicott City, decided to fight back by employing a tactic increasingly used by a small cadre of e-mail users fed up with spam: Outing spammers by posting their addresses and phone numbers on the Internet, enabling network operators to block their e-mail or to sue One of the spammers he outed, George Allen Moore, Jr, whined about it and sued. Website [here](http://www.barbieslapp.com/others/fatburn.htm). I certainly don’t approve of the other folks who may have used the public information provided by Mr. Uy to illegally threaten Moore. OTOH, perhaps Moore now knows that one reaps what one sows. FTR…the presiding judge had the good sense to [rule](http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=59892&cid=5681109) against the spambag. Perhaps Mr Moore can share his misery with [Alan Ralsky](http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend6_20021206.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/2 "2003-04-08T02:24:44Z")
Ah, sweet, sweet revenge. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/3 "2003-04-08T05:33:45Z")
Bwahaha! Beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/4 "2003-04-08T09:42:48Z")
Isn’t there a bolt of lightning laying around somewhere with Moore’s name on it? Is someone else other than myself hoping that he “_starts_ his car?” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/5 "2003-04-08T10:20:36Z")
Sounds like a great idea, but spammers go to considerable pains to conceal their identities, often spoofing the FROM headers in their messages. so it looks exactly as if a different person sent it. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/6 "2003-04-08T10:26:57Z")
Where on the internet would they be posted? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/7 "2003-04-08T10:28:41Z")
Mangetout, when I add a spammer’s name to my block list, I think that list contains the actual email address of the sendee. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/8 "2003-04-08T12:07:40Z")
I don’t believe that to be the case, **Zoe** ; my anti-spam software sends back a “message delivery failed” report, in the hope that this will eventually get the address removed from the list, but over half of these return messages cannot themselves be delivered, often because the host name cannot be resolved or something - the ‘from’ address in a spam message is often not even a member of valid domain. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/9 "2003-04-08T15:16:30Z")
I receive SPAM in my government e-mail inbox. Usually I just purge it. BUT, I’ve lately been receiving unsolicited serious porn e-mails (incest, pedophelia, etc). They have been handed over to our attorneys office. I’m not the only one, last I heard the attorney’s office has _over_ 500 e-mails in this vein and they are pursuing prosecution of the spammers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/10 "2003-04-08T15:22:43Z")
Agreed. I’ve even received spam email with my own damn email address forged in the “From” and/or “Reply-to” header. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/11 "2003-04-08T15:40:20Z")
To determine where spam originates from…you have to decipher the [headers](http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers/headers.html). The only way to **block** spam is to block by known “spammish” ip addresses that are listed on blacklists. This blocking is down the the ISP level. Otherwise, you’re stuck with “filtering” on the client side with something like a [bayesian filter](http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html) . In the case of the OP, Mr. Uy used Whois and other tools to find out about person(s) who were hosting web sites or domains. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/12 "2003-04-08T15:40:57Z")
In theory though, the headers should contain some other routing information that _could_ be used to retrace it, but all the spammer has to do is send using his own SMTP engine and a free (relatively) anonymous internet account (which he never intends to use again). ---
**Author:** ![Jdeforrest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@Jdeforrest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jdeforrest)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/13 "2003-04-08T16:42:50Z")
What I want to know if does PA have a similar law? I could be making a mint off of spammers. ---
**Author:** ![Wabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/14 "2003-04-08T23:28:42Z")
Thanks for those links **beagledave** –very informative. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@The\_Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tim)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammer-karma-its-a-bitch/167209/15 "2003-04-08T23:36:26Z")
An additional anti-spam tactic some e-mail clients has is to bounce back a fake message indicating that the e-mail address isn’t real. This stops a fair deal of normal spam as dead addresses aren’t worth sending to.