Skilled spammers

[Michael Chaney]

On Sat, Sep 07, 2002 at 11:35:17AM +0100, Bruno Melloni wrote:
> I use the default RBLs (free) that come with MailScanner and SpamAssassin.  I am an individual
> and cannot afford to pay for RBL access.  Anyway, I have managed to stop them through creative
> blacklisting, my question was about improving the two base tools - they are quite good as they are
> (stop 95% of my spam) and would be nice to make them even better so that people won't need to
> relay on yet more components.

Something that cannot be stressed enough is that we all need to call
(note: CALL) the ISP's that are providing service to these large spam
organizations and let them know it's not appreciated.  A couple of
talking points:

1. The spammer is blacklisted, meaning the ISP *should* know that
they're a spammer given that the rest of the world knows
2. Is spamming illegal in your state?
3. Would you let me spam?  They why do you allow them to?

I usually call the ISP, either the NOC or the sales department.  If it's
the NOC, I ask them to shut down a known spammer.  If I call the sales
department, I start out with "I'd like to get a [DSL line or whatever]
so I can send spam."  They balk at that, giving me the chance to segue
into "well, you don't seem to have trouble letting [whoever] send spam".
That gets someone's attention.

If they get bothered enough, the spammer will have to move at some
point.

Use ARIN to get the NOC's number.

Michael
--
Michael Darrin Chaney
mdchaney at michaelchaney.com
http://www.michaelchaney.com/