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23 May 11 - 02:40 PM (#3159274) Subject: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: JohnInKansas Credit card companies could stop spam now, but will they? By Paul Wagenseil SecurityNews 5/23/2011 For more than a decade, computer software makers and security experts have tried to stop spam, and failed — it's now 90 percent of all email traffic A team of 15 researchers based at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Berkeley, used prepaid Visa cards to buy thousands of dollars' worth of goods advertised online by spammers. "Spam-based advertising is a business," they argue in their paper. "While it has engendered both widespread antipathy and a multi-billion-dollar anti-spam industry, it continues to exist because it fuels a profitable enterprise." They traced the payments through a complicated web of affiliate programs and back-end processors, only to find dramatic consolidation at the deepest levels. Only a dozen or so organizations were running the online stores selling the goods, and only 13 banks were handling the money. In fact, 95 percent of the transactions were handled by just three banks: Azerigazbank in Azerbaijan, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank in St. Kitts and Nevis (which has been linked to online scams ) and the Latvian branch of DnB NORD, a Danish subsidiary of a Norwegian bank. The researchers suggested that these banks could be pressured into refusing to process transactions from spammers, but doubted whether it would work. The online stores could find new banks, and "it is not even clear that the sale of such goods is illegal in the countries in which such banks are located." Far more effective would be pressuring the major credit card associations to halt processing of spam-related sales, which could be easily identified and put on a "financial blacklist." "We can provide credit card companies with lists of known spammers or known spam back ends -- those are the systems they actually use to move the money around," Hypponen told the BBC. "With that information, credit card companies, like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, they can simply shut down the operations and stop money flowing from their cards to those merchants." The University of California researchers note that although telling credit card companies how to run their businesses might present "political challenges," there is already a precedent. Five years ago, the U.S. Congress forced the credit card associations to stop processing payments from U.S. residents to online gambling companies, effectively shutting down the industry in this country. Requests for comment from MasterCard, Visa and American Express were not immediately returned. John |
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23 May 11 - 03:13 PM (#3159297) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Q (Frank Staplin) Would be nice, but- Is spam illegal? If not, then the card companies could open to legal action. |
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23 May 11 - 03:34 PM (#3159307) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Bonnie Shaljean > 90% of all email traffic Really? Is that a hard statistic? Unbelievable if so. > telling credit card companies how to run their businesses might present "political challenges" What are governments for, if not to do stuff like that? (Answers on a postcard please...) Supposed to be protecting us, yada yada yada |
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23 May 11 - 03:51 PM (#3159315) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Bee-dubya-ell "90% of all email traffic" does not equate to "90% of all emails received". Most SPAM is blocked, but blocking still uses valuable resources, including the human ones. Imagine how much productive work all those programmers who write code for spamblocker and anti-virus software could be doing if they weren't devoting their careers to keeping one step ahead of a pack of low-life scumbags. |
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23 May 11 - 04:29 PM (#3159338) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Q (Frank Staplin) I seem to have a pretty good spam blocker, in my cable company. Only one today that I am not responsible for, some gambling outfit. I buy much through the net, and some of the companies I have bought from send me almost an adv. a day. Neiman Marcus, Smithsonian, Amazon, etc. But I can't call their offerings spam. |
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23 May 11 - 05:01 PM (#3159359) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: JHW Yahoo diverts them pretty well to the spam folder but for whatever reason I've found a big reduction in the last few months, down to a quarter or less than had been coming. But who would BUY anything from these guys anyway? If you actually needed a fake degree or watch, viagra or a bigger willy you would surely never buy it from a cold calling spam email!? If anything I'm most pestered now by green and animal charities. |
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23 May 11 - 05:20 PM (#3159370) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: GUEST,Eliza I don't get much spam, but what I do get is girls offering me a good time, as my e-mail address has a man's name in it. As an elderly lady, I don't require these services! |
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23 May 11 - 05:38 PM (#3159380) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: number 6 I thought this was about spam ... that dreadful meat stuff (the Hawaiians seem to love) that comes out of Minnesota somewhere. biLL |
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23 May 11 - 06:22 PM (#3159406) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Q (Frank Staplin) Digression- Spam, the famous precooked pork product, chopped shoulder and ham with potato starch and the usual nitrite preservative, was an instant hit when it was introduced by Hormel in late-depression days, 1937. American troops took it around the world, and it is part of popular named food offerings in SE Asia, as well as Hawaii. Condemmed out of hand by many, it is a good source of protein, packed in cans that are proof against contamination. Wikipedia says one can is consumed every 3.8 seconds in the U.S. We are not addressing the original intent of the post by JohninKansas, i. e., stopping the internet kind. Nor has anyone answered my query- would it be legal to stop it? Are there any laws against it? Not that spam is a problem to me, but can we find answers to these questions? |
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23 May 11 - 06:25 PM (#3159410) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: GUEST,Jon I get very little spam these days and I'm not aware that it is because of filtering. My main and my parents email accounts are part of a web hosting package. Things may have changed but when spam filtering was discussed on the web hosting forum, it was agreed that they would add a tag to enable customers to identify mail they suspected as spam but they would not block anything. |
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23 May 11 - 08:10 PM (#3159451) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Joe_F Only a minute proportion (maybe a few percent) of what comes to me over the Internet is unsolicited commercial or crackpot advertising. Inasmuch as I have never, e.g., learned how to set Gnus to block spam, I have to suppose that my ISP (Verizon) & my newsfeed (Eternal September) are gratifyingly vigilant. In contrast, I guess that about 60% of my snailmail & 90% of my incoming phone calls are junk. |
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08 Jul 11 - 05:44 AM (#3183631) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: MMario Actually those figures are a bit behind the time. I believe the average is now 95% of ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC is spam...and some days it will spike to over 98 %. |
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08 Jul 11 - 06:10 AM (#3183637) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Joe Offer True, MMario - in a way. Like Joe, I have a Spam filter on my e-mail that sorts out most of the garbage. Unfortunately, it also sorts out many Mudcat password reset requests, so I have to look through my Spam folder every day to make sure I don't miss any. -Joe- |
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08 Jul 11 - 06:21 AM (#3183640) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: GUEST,Grishka Most European countries have laws against any email that is not the result of an existing "consensual" relationship. Even if you publish your mail address, you can sue persons who use it for other purposes than intended, and continue to do so after your protest. Spammers therefore use servers outside Europe and try to hide their business relations. Needless to say, spam continues. In my opinion, all emails should have an "electronic signature" that is recognized by the authorities worldwide (though the sender may remain anonymous towards the receiver, if the latter accepts such mails). Suing spammers will then be almost automatical, since the proof is built-in. The system already exists, but costs a little money. As soon as it is free, I will no longer accept any unsigned mails. |
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08 Jul 11 - 02:26 PM (#3183865) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Sawzaw It seems that prosecution of email fraud, spam, bank account hacking and Phishing is nearly impossible. Only a small percentage ever gets investigated. Prevention would be a better solution. I believe the solution is to charge a minuscule amount to send each Email like stamps required for postage. If it cost a hundredth of a penny to send each email spammers could not survive and it would not harm people sending email legitimately. How this could be implemented is beyond me but I believe it should be feasible. You can't mail a letter or send a package with out paying a fee. Another thing I do not understand is how someone can clean out someone's online bank account and the final recipient cannot be tracked down. How can banks transfer money without knowing where it went? Why shouldn't they be held accountable for tracing the transfer to the end recipient or cover the loss? This phishing element of spam is much more insidious that trying to sell something. In other words, hold the service providers responsible for preventing the misuse of their services. They get paid for their services and whatever it costs should be included in the price. |
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09 Jul 11 - 05:39 AM (#3184218) Subject: RE: BS: SPAM Could be STOPPED Right Now From: Crane Driver A simple technological solution that email providers could introduce (if they were so minded) was suggested a few years ago - set up a 100 millisecond 'dead space' between sending copies of any email. If you're just sending a few, or even a couple of dozen copies, it would hardly notice, but if you're sending out hundreds of millions of the things your computer could be locked up for hours - and time is money. Any bets on how long before someone introduces it? Andrew |