[Milsurplus] e-mail address harvesters of QTH.net

[J. Forster]

My ISP has installed new spam filters that apparently blacklist from the SpamCop
data base. They are not foolish filters like Earthlink uses, but apparently VERY
smart.

I used to get 20 or more spams a day from the jerks in Korea (Shinbiro, Kornet,
and Hanaro) and some others. After the filters were installed there has not been
a single one. Relatively few bad apples do most of the spamming. I'd guess there
are less than 1000 big time spammers worldwide.

FWIW, I don't think that Google searches either the QTH or the Yahoo Group
archives, so posting on those lists is fairly safe. The Military Vehicles list
IS searched, BTW. It's a favorite for Nigerian (419) scammers.  Also, Google
does not search Yahoo Group web sites beyond the home page, if the access
functions are set to 'members only'.

Part of the problem has been caused by ISPs and their business models. They have
been only too happy to sell access to anyone to fill up their capacity. Now the
spam is filling that capacity, and they will be faced with greater expenses to
add new capacity. I expect that spam will decrease some, because it's cheaper
for ISPs to clamp down on big spammers than to add more network capacity.

IMO, a useful thing to do is to report spammers via SpamCop  (www.spamcop.net)
The service is free, although they do solicit money, and you can send reports in
'mole' mode. As I said above, spamcop maintains a data base of spamming ISPs and
so there is an incentive for ISPs to take a complaint from them seriously.

Another way to torment SW pirates who spam, is to forward the spams to the SW
vendors. Macromedia nd Microsoft are particularly aggressive in my experience.

-John



David Stinson wrote:

> Kenneth G. Gordon wrote:
> > Also, it turns out that 85 % of all e-mail traffic on the net is spam now.
>
> There can be only one reason that is so: Spam sells; it works.
> I read once that there were enough obsessive/compulsives
> on the net to assure that all viruses are propagated
> and that all Spam sells enough to make it profitable.
> I wonder how true that is....