Guerilla Anti-Spam Tactics
Don't fight abuse with abuse. This section is here to show some last resort reactions to spam. For better tactics see the Index page.
- Ethics in Computer Security
- General Abusive Tactics
- Click on Spammer-Bought Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Ruin the Leads Spammers Sell
- Ring Spammer Freephone Numbers
- Countering Spammer Operations
- Let's (Not) Get Physical
- Bait Spammers
Other active reactions to spammers are listed immediately below that aren't abusive.
Ethics in Computer Security
Crossing the Line: Ethics for the Security Professional - www.secureworks.com/research/articles/ethics/
Fighting Abuse with Abuse is a Terrible Idea - tqmcube.com/abusive.php
General Abusive Tactics
Use their own trick against them! - www.azillionmonkeys.com/qed/ANTISPAM.HTML#owntrick
Rant on Spam - www.thriftyplanet.net/spam.shtml
Click on Spammer-Bought Pay-Per-Click Ads
Spammers often purchase adverts in pay-per-click programmes for keywords like “bulk email”, in order to make sales to other would-be spammers. Clicking on those links costs the advertiser some set value. Enough clicks on the adverts, the theory goes, and the cost of advertising will exceed the income from sales, so detering spammers from selling bulk email software in that manner.
George W. Bush's anti-terrorist Spam - phaster.com/unpretentious/bush_spam.html
Ring Spammer Freephone Numbers
The idea behind calling the freephone number of a spammer is that it costs him money, and you nothing but your time. Bear in mind that the sites listed here are likely to be extremely out of date, and that an untrusted third party may not accurately list numbers. In any case, this technique is abusive and not likely to be very effective.
Contacting Spammers - www.sarangworld.com/800.php3
Cost Those Spammers Money! - www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/spam/
Hitting Spammers Where It Hurts the Most – In Their Pockets! - fantomaster.com/faantispamtip3.html
Spam Spam! Wonderful Spam! - spam-spam.blogspot.com/
Countering Spammer Operations
Several sites advocate taking part in collective action against websites advertised in spam. Their actions can be counterproductive and possibly illegal. Actions range from outright illegal action where websites are taken over, through denial of service, where websites are taken out of action by (for example) repeated requests, right down to causing nuisance to a spammer by repeated interaction with a website that degrades the ability of a spammer to operate.
Discussion of Countering Spammer Operations
Users Asked to Target 419 Scammers — Don't Do It! - www.theinternetpatrol.com/mugu-marauder-windows-users-asked-to-target-nigerian-419-scammers-dont-do-it
Blue Security's anti-anti-spam scheme - weblog.johnlevine.com/Email/bluefrog.html
Lord Percy on Blue Frog Antispam - www.lordpercy.com/blue_frog_antispam.htm
Enabling the Complaint Department - www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/bluesecurity/index.html
Online Vigilantes Fight Back Against Phishing Fraudsters - news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/05/18/online_vigilantes_fight_back_against_phishing_fraudsters.html
Filters that Fight Back - www.paulgraham.com/ffb.html
Distributed Spam Responder - www.halfbakery.com/idea/Distributed_20spam_20responder
Dutch blogsites fight cyberwar against spammer - www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/24/dutch_blogsites_fight_cyberwar_against/
Spamalot: A Toolkit for Consuming Spammers' Resources - acm.cs.uic.edu/~lszyba1/
Counter Spammer Websites
“Punish” for Spam Bully - www.spambully.com/sb2help/?page=index_v2&id=49&c=2
SpamItBack - www.spamitback.com/
SpamVampire - thescambaiter.com/antispam/SpamVampire/index.htm
Spam Siteseer - spamsitetools.bottools.com/
Spampires - www.doyouhatespam.com/
Artists against 419 - wiki.aa419.org/index.php/Main_Page
Lad Wrecking Crew - www.google.com/search?num=100&&q=%22Lad+Wrecking+Crew%22
Spammer Slapper - www.plaza1.net/SpammerSlapper/
Make Love Not Spam - www.makelovenotspam.com/
Spamdot - spamdot.sourceforge.net/
SpamFryer - https://sourceforge.net/projects/spamfryer/
Okopipi - wiki.okopipi.org/wiki/Main_Page - incorrectly called “Black Frog” by some, a replacement for Blue Frog
PhishFighting - phishfighting.com/
SpamDSpammer - www.spamdspammer.com/
SpammerSkewer - spammerskewer.sourceforge.net/
A spamtrackers' Downloads - www.spamtrackers.eu/downloads/
Retaliators list - retaliators.net/
Counter Spammer Forms
Much spam is sent to attract people who need to remortgage their house, since they are in debt. The spammers sell these “leads” onto mortgage brokers, who then call the people who responded to the spam with offers for mortgages. By injecting false responses into the lists, and then educating the mortgage brokers of the source of the “lead” when they call, it is hoped that mortgage brokers will realise the source of their leads and cease contacting those list sellers, so increasing costs for the spammer.
Fight Spam With Spam - www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Security/Fight-Spam-With-Spam/
SpamRev - mitglied.lycos.de/AJSchmidt/ - look for SpamRev, at the bottom
The Canary Trap - www.stentorian.com/antispam/canary.html
Taking the fight back to the Internet scammers - www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=302603
Form Flooder - formflood.sourceforge.net/
Phish Fighting - www.phishfighting.com/
Spamalot: A Toolkit for Consuming Spammers' Resources - www.ceas.cc/2006/5.pdf
Let's (Not) Get Physical
Tale of Retribution
Two Spammers Shot Dead - www.iol.ie/~kooltek/deadspam.html
Russia's Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment - seclists.org/isn/2005/Jul/0097.html
Bait Spammers
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Page last updated: 25-Nov-2007