[SpamCop-List] Re: Reality check - spam, phishes, 419's, pumps & dumps

[Blammo]

On 18 Jun 2005 George Langford, Sc.D. entered spamcop and left 
news:mailman.36.1119100256.169.spamcop-list at news.spamcop.net:

> Maybe I'm missing something here, but I get the impression
> that a lot of time is being expended on "innocent" bulk mail.
> 

You make a very good point. I feel there are two basic types of spam 
fighters; those who go after "law breakers", and those who go after 
"abusers".
Personally I am not a law enforcer, so I don't waste much time tracking 
down the pills, phishers and 419ers. I don't like what they're doing, and I 
don't like their mail. It pretty much ends there. I refer to this as 
"garbage spam".
The other type I refer to as "free appliance" spam or ROKSO. You think 
garbage spam is bad, if you ever get on a appliance spammer's list, you'll 
be very sorry you did. I hate these guys with a passion, if I ever meet one 
he'd better hope I don't have a gun on me.
Compairing these two is like compairing the bum on the street to the slick 
dressed swindler. The bum may trick a few into buying stolen goods, but the 
swindler will trick many with his smooth talk, or if that fails sell you 
out to someone else.
There are grey areas in between too, where one uses the other to add info 
to their "hit lists", through hacking, phishing or pharming. Casino spam 
seems to fall right in the middle, and I believe feeds both sides.
If these guys are market driven, then we should be attacking the market. 
For example there used to be more strict policies on domain names, but that 
was shot to hell and now most registrars couldn't care less about spam and 
are more than happy to take money from anyone.
You see the warning "there might be a virus in that" quite often, possibly, 
some day, people will figure out the From can be forged. But how often do 
you see "there might be a scam in that" or "why do they want your info and 
what are they going to do with it".

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| Ric