Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse

Subject: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Sep 06 - 12:08 PM

To the person in the Mudcat who has decided to stalk me with abusive emails using the Borked.net anonymous remailler:


Remailer abuse causes harm to the remailer system. As this site says:

There are people who need this service. Please don't spoil it for them by abusing the service. Use it responsibly and only when needed.


I have contacted the owners of Borked.net and alerted them to your abuse of their service. I'm sure they do not want people like you to harm the good that their service can to for people who really need it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Sep 06 - 12:49 PM

Sorry to hear about it, CarolC.

I have just been through an identity-theft matter. My advice is, if someone hostile has your e-mail address, change it. It is worth the trouble to get this person(s) out of your life.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Sep 06 - 01:27 PM

Can't do it, leenia. It's my business email address. But thanks for your commiseration. Sorry to hear about your identity theft issues.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 07 Sep 06 - 05:33 PM

I have never seen any Usenet posting from borked.net or any other anonymizer that wasn't purely destructive shit.

Don't bother contacting the admins, they will ignore you. Call the police and get the bastards shut down. The Internet does not need services solely designed to protect bullies and bigots.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Sep 06 - 05:57 PM

Do you think that would be a local jurisdiction, Jack Campin, or a federal one?

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 08 Sep 06 - 07:04 AM

The police are going to get faster and better results if the complainant and the offender are in the same area. Are you in Colorado?

Borked Privacy Group
1625 Mid Valley Dr #1
Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
US
970-846-3417

Whether the feds would want to get involved depends on the offence (interstate mail fraud comes to mind as one they might find interesting, but I don't know US criminal law that well). You'd have to start with your local force anyway.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 10:57 AM

When a request for an artist appeared in another thread I thought I might see a response on that thread from CarolC. But it dawns on me that I haven't seen her around here much at all this fall. Not that we've gotten along so well in recent months, mostly squabbling, but I wonder if she's okay? Most of her posts ended in mid-July, with a few regarding this re-mailer problem popping up in early September.

Just thump the side of the 'cat to let us know you're okay, if you see this. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 01:32 PM

I think I have seen posts from Jack since then, though.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 01:53 PM

Carol was the one with the problem, not me. I don't know her and don't know what the problem was about.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 07:39 PM

Different Jack, Jack.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 04:41 PM

Heh. Just now saw your post, SRS.

First of all, thanks, Jack Campin. That's good to know.


Second, SRS, I stopped posting back then because I received a real and credible threat from an anonymous poster here in the Mudcat, and the thread where that happened and also the thread another concerned member started in the help forum about it got deleted. When I saw that the thread in the help forum got deleted, I got spooked and stopped posting.

I posted with a consistent guest tag (not CarolC) a few times the other day, and I got outed by Joe Offer. And the business the person making the threat said he/she intended to destroy hadn't gotten any gigs since the threat was made, so I guess I don't really have anything to lose by going public about it.

I tend to think that the person who sent the anonymous email is the same one who made the threat.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 04:44 PM

BTW, thanks for asking. :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Peace
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 04:53 PM

How can a person send an anonymous e-mail?

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 04:58 PM

Google borked.net, Peace.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Peace
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 04:59 PM

Sorry. I take it now from the thread title that Bork is some sort of place that scrambles e-mail addresses such as the fuckin' spam I get that wants to know if I need pills, bigger tits, fried foods, etc. The kind to which I reply with polite phrases from my youth and the reply comes back saying 'server cannot be located' or something like that. Those places should be shut down.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 05:43 PM

Peace -

There are several "services" that you can send emails through. You send it to the service and they forward it to the recipient without revealing your email address, so that you remain anonymous.

borked.net is possibly the best known of these.

As a personal observation, I see no evident legitimate reasons for a service of this kind; but those who provide the service claim that there are some.

Several of them have cooperated to some extent in revealing sender identities in response to investigations by legitimate law enforcement agencies, especially where identity theft, threats, or abuse are apparent. They generally have the capability of providing the necessary information; but can only provide it to "appropriate authorities" when it's requested "in proper form," since they risk suits and/or prosecution for "failure of privilege of personal information."

The problem is with getting a legal authority to assign a sufficient priority to an individual complaint to actually get an investigation launched, as such investigations can be astonishingly expensive and difficult to prosecute to any useful end result.

In areas where I've seen complaints proceed, it's seldom that a complaint to local police appears, although a very few local cop shops do have "internet offense" specialists. A County Attorney's office is more likely to have the resources, and if there's no response there most State Attorneys General have at least some "lip service" internet crime offices that might be helpful.

Internet Crimes can also be reported, in the US, to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) which has the Federal regulatory burden for interstate communications in general, although I haven't looked for some time to see what "complaint input points" are on their website.

Using an interstate communication system for the purpose of transmitting a threat or to attempt abuse of a person is a crime that can be prosecuted by the FCC. In "international crimes" there is some cooperation between countries, and a couple of convictions, crossing national boundaries, have occured for simple theft of a few bucks worth of music downloads.

The actual making of a threat, or the accomplishing of abuse is a crime that probably falls within the jurisdiction of the FBI to investigate, and is within the jurisdiction of the Office of the US Attorney General to prosecute. Both have "internet crimes" offices, but getting an individual instance investigated may be difficult, since they're generally pretty busy with mass/serial offenders.

Usually it's necessary to show evidence that more than a local (within a single state) abuse is actually involved, but in some cases the fact that an "interstate capable medium" is used may be sufficient to invoke Federal assistance.

1. Complain to local police, since other authorities may request evidence of this complaint as a condition for considering your complaint to "higher authority" and/or for taking action.

2. Complain to County/Parish Attorney, since the County Attorney is much more likely to have someone assigned to work such complaints.

3. Complain to the US District Attorney for your jurisdiction, because the DA is most likely to be able to forward to agencies you'll need assistance from to get an interstate investigation launched.

4. Check for a website where you can file an FCC complaint appropriate to this kind of offense.

5. Check back with each of the above after a reasonable time for advice on what recourses are available to get something to happen.

6. DOCUMENT WITH DATES, TIMES, AND PLACES all communications that may be evidence of what's being done or that show actions you take in response and results of the abuse you claim has occured.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 09:00 PM

The email I received had this in the 'from' line:


From:        Borked Pseudo Mailed [[e-mail]]


I'd never heard of borked.net either. I tried to reply but my reply was sent back. So I googled borked.net and found out about anonymous remailers.


Thanks for the info, John in Kansas. That looks very helpful.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 09:05 PM

John

some ISPs (remembering I'm in Australia) just completely block anon remailers - classing them as merely spam - since that's mostly what comes thru there.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 11:56 PM

With almost all ISPs, you can - theoretically - block email from an individual sender, server, or domain; but getting all the crud blocked without blocking other things you want to get can be difficult.

As a horrible example, Hotmail lets you make a block list, but only if you go in to the website as an html user. I get my email as POP3 from them using Outlook Express, and they ignore settings you make in OE. They are supposed to allow email from anyone in your address book, but they ignore my on-machine address book, and I refuse to give it to them on their web server, so that function is a total null.

Even if you block everything from an entire domain, the borkers have multiple ones they can use.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 01:24 AM

John in Kansas, you seem to know a lot about government agencies and law enforcement. Do you think there's any chance that if I went to the FBI they would want to put me on a list or something because of my political views? They are bound to find out about them because they will have to read some of what I've written here for any kind of investigation.

If that would be a legitimate concern on my part, do you know if there is any way I can get some kind of advocacy, like from the ALCU or something prior to contacting law enforcement? Seems like the right to free speech ought not to have any kind of negative impact on the right to receive the services for which I pay with my tax dollars, but I know it sometimes can.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 04:00 AM

Carol C -

Direct contact with the FBI is unlikely to produce any results for you in a case of this kind, according to my understanding of how, and on what subjects, they are likely to act. Note that all I can offer is opinion based on what I see in the news.

If, and when, your local District Attorney, State Attorney General, or even local police make a request for FBI assistance, something might be taken up, but a complaint directly from you most likely will get filed and ignored, or will get filed with a bunch of other similar ones "for later."

The FBI should have no interest in your political views, unless you've advocated some form of violent action that I've not seen in posts I've read here. They might make a file on you for associating with "known subversives," but that's a risk you take just by being here(?).

Especially with the current administration, I don't think you can really feel safe about them knowing anything about you, but in some cases it's necessary to take a risk. When it's appropriate for them to be brought in, the risk is probably reasonable.

It's also quite likely that they already have both of us "on file" for things we've said here; and thus far they haven't called me in ...

(but of course, leave the porch light on so the neighbors can be witnesses when they haul you off. ;*) )

Another marginal help source could be a local news media "consumer advocate." While your specific case probably isn't really a consumer issue, safe use of the internet IS. The media advocate can't really do anything directly for you, but having "the media" asking the cop shop about your kind of situation can sometimes be an effective "needle" to prompt a little more interest. You shouldn't be at risk of having your name all over the media, although there might be some leakage of info if they decide to pursue a story.

You could even write an appropriate item to "Dear Abby," etc., although the "influence" to be gained with the real authorities would likely be minimal - but she might suggest a decent support group.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:02 AM

Above and in addition to what you said JiK, here in Oz, some ISPs just autoblock SOME crap - it's a 'customer service' - also the Federal Govt here want certain kinds of spam, especially kiddie stop filtered automatically anyway - and some ISPs do try to do that. Some even take notice of and use those 'black lists.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 07:34 AM

You get spam about fried foods, Peace??? You serious?

Or is that a slang term we don't understand down-under?

MC

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 12:44 PM

Thanks, JiK!


You play the box, SqueezeMe?

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 01:19 PM

CarolC -

LinInKansas does have a nice little squeeze box - English concertina style, but "play the box" is sort of a euphemism we use for what she does with it.

I have a $20 garage sale Hohner "Accordeon" that I did some structural refurbishing on but still need to do a lot of work on the keys, so it doesn't get much use. My harmonicas make about the same deadly noise and are a lot easier to carry.

My main instrument now is mandolin. "She" says I only play it 'cause I enjoy the pain. Maybe I need to practice a little more, so I don't have so much to complain about. (Or I could practice a lot more so everyone else has less to complain about.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 11:32 PM

Ah, so you have a Dodgy Mandolin, then John?

:-)

"Now listen while I play,
My dodgy mandolin.... "

(Apologies to Paul Leka!)

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 12:53 PM

The harmonica is the larval stage of the accordion.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Tootler
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 01:10 PM

Where does that leave the concertina then?

There is some truth in what you say as the fact that I have always tatted around with harmonicas is partially why I took up anglo concertina recently.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 01:12 PM

The concertina is the nymph stage.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: danensis
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 01:49 PM

I would expect the "from" address in a message from an anonymous remailer would have some sort of serial number in it, so the remailer knew where to send any reply. Or does it assume that if it has sent a message to you, any response will be to the original sender? I can't see how that would work as two people could mail the same person, and the remailer would not know how to distinguish between them.

I suspect rather that the message is from somewhere completely different and they have just forged the source address,

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 02:14 PM

You can't reply to those kind of messages. I tried, and it was sent back by the borked.net mailer daemon.

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 03:17 PM

A hundred years ago, perhaps, you could find similar services for snail mail. You mail the letter to the "agent." The agent opens the envelope and finds the message you want forwarded, along with an envelope addressed to the recipient or a separate slip of paper with the adress to which you want it sent, or just a sealed envelope addressed to somewhere with no return address. The agent puts the message in the separate envelope that you sent if necessary, or creates a new envelope using the address you included if that's the chosen method, and drops whichever "final" envelope results into a mailbox. The postmark shows the letter coming from where the re-mailing was done, and if the agent destroys any other bits and pieces he received, there is no way to trace it back to the original sender - except by getting the re-mailer/agent to reveal the information.

(Much US mail isn't "postmarked" in recent years, it's just "cancelled" and doesn't show an origination anyway.)

The awareness of this system is what makes some of the Nigerian Scam letters remotely plausible if you happen to be a total idiot.

There are various laws, treaties, and regulations that require anyone operating a business web site, and especially those doing stuff of this ilk, to maintain logs of message transactions, so in cases where the rules are observed it remains possible for legal authorities to demand the logs and to identify the original sender.

There are, unfortunately, a few places where the rules are not observed (i.e. where criminal governments¹ exist) and a forwarding service sited in such a place could, in fact, provide a "secure anonymity."

¹ A personal opinion with which some "diplomats" would argue.

My understanding is that Borked has been forced to reveal logs in at least a few cases, but even when the logs are obtained it may be necessary to reconstruct an association between disparate bits of log data from multiple logs to extract the needed information, so it may take some bit of "interest," and some skills, on the part of the authorities to actually determine the identity of the sender of a specific message. The amount of "analysis" needed is often fairly trivial, so it takes only a little bit of "interest;" but the difficulty can be substantial under some conditions exploited by professional criminals.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: Bert
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 04:11 PM

Isn't there any utility that will block messages that can't be replied to?

Subject: RE: Tech: Borked.net Anonymous Remailler Abuse
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 05:00 PM

In my case, yes. I have blocked borked.net for this email account. But stalking is stalking, and I feel that it's best to bring that sort of thing out in the open when it happens. Hence this thread.