Thread: Spam!?

  1. #1
    The superhaterodyne twomers's Avatar
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    Spam!?

    http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...131981,00.html

    "Its website advertised his ability to send out up to 20million e-mail advertisements in 15days for US$495 ($758), it was said."

    I think I read he's facing 75 years for spamming! Wohoo! This the first guy to get charged with spamming people?

  2. #2
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    He wasn't particularly smart. All that's going to happen now is others will take his place and ask for more money.

    Treating the symptom, not the cause.

  3. #3
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    What is the "cause" of spam? People wanting to send out large amounts of advertising using a relatively new and very widely used medium for very little money? How do you treat that, by turning off email?

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    Free things that are unaccountable will get abused to hell. So the options are making it accountable (which I'll assume the W3C are working on) or charging for it (much like regular mail, the postal service doesn't care who sent it just as long as they paid the stamp).

    This situation generates the "symptom" of stupid people throwing money at geeks to take advantage of a system that was never designed for mass public use.

  5. #5
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > So the options are making it accountable

    How would you do that without totally overhauling the way the system works?

  6. #6
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    That's probably why this problem was identified about ten years ago and it still hasn't been fixed.

    I imagine a staged approach would be best, maybe they could tie it up with marketing in the first instance and produce something vaguely MySpaceian so all the kids with the funny haircuts will say "Rly? Aw riiiiiiiiiiight" and produce 20+ million accounts on this "secure mail network".

    Then they could try using the clout they would then have by banning send/receive to non-new network addresses. Pretty fascist I'll admit, but if they use good leadership and ask people whether they want a decent network or spam, the rest could join.

    Can I patent this?

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    Spammers have all sorts of methods and techniques. It's that green paper called money that they're after and by tricking someone into getting something that is not legitimate, especially those who are computer illiterate, they could take your money but you may or may not get anything. There's also spam for trying to get your passwords, usernames, social security numbers, etc., often referred to as "phishing". Some things may actually be legitimate, but those who get advertising without wanting it would think of the E-mails as spam. I've had extreme spam before, 600 messages in just 5 days. I haven't had this in quite a while or anything even close to what I was getting, so apparently the capture of that guy didn't seem to affect me that much.
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    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    I imagine a staged approach would be best, maybe they could tie it up with marketing in the first instance and produce something vaguely MySpaceian so all the kids with the funny haircuts will say "Rly? Aw riiiiiiiiiiight" and produce 20+ million accounts on this "secure mail network".
    That idea is just crazy enough to work! :P

  9. #9
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
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    This is hardly the first time the controlled web or a variant thereof has been proposed.
    All the buzzt!
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  10. #10
    The superhaterodyne twomers's Avatar
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    >> What is the "cause" of spam?
    Fast food restaurants.

  11. #11
    For Narnia! Sentral's Avatar
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    If you're gonna commit a crime, go out an do something cool, like kill 20 people and store them in the basement. Not "spam" people ... loser.
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  12. #12
    A Banana Yoshi's Avatar
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    >> What is the "cause" of spam?

    Vikings.
    Yoshi

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