Spam - not just for breakfast.



  • Before people slam me for not doing something obvious to them, I'll preface this story by saying I am in no way a network admin.  I'm just the guy who knows the most about computers in a small company.

    One morning I load up Thunderbird and start downloading my email.  I see about 100 emails with the subject line "<font size="-1">YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DAILY SMTP RELAY LIMIT".  Oh. Shit.  We've never reached our limit, or even come close before, this can't be right.  I log into our server and bring up the list of emails queued to be sent.  It's gigantic.  Ohgod-ohgod-ohgod-ohgod.  Someone hacked our server and is using it to spam.  They've used up all of our relays and now none of our emails we send will go through!  What the hell do I do?!
    </font>

     
    <font size="-1">I've been so careful to enforce strong passwords and to sanitize all webpage inputs.  Ohgod-ohgod-I'm sweating, I'm gonna throw up.  I'm going to have to format the server and spend countless hours getting everything back up while the entire company grinds to a halt.  I'm so fired.</font>
     

    <in walks one of the owners> 

    owner: Hey, so Bill sent out a few thousand (unsolicited, read: spammed) emails late last night, I think that'll help with some extra sales.  He has the entire student directory for State University (40K+ people) and is emailing (read: spamming) all of them, too.  Isn't that awesome? 

    me: ...........what.

    My hyper-ventilating didn't stop immediately.  I had to then explain how absolutely ridiculous, and illegal, that is.  Then explain to them that everyone gets to use their personal email accounts or to make a hotmail account to send email from until the relays are back in order.  This crowd probably won't be surprised that the conversation wasn't as simple as them just understanding and agreeing.  The owner's solution was to increase our SMTP-relay limit.

    In the end we all agreed to stop, and that I get to kick Bill in the face when I see him.  But I'll never forget that terror - over nothing.


     



  • @ItsAllGeekToMe said:

    owner: Hey, so Bill sent out a few thousand (unsolicited, read: spammed) emails late last night, I think that'll help with some extra sales.  He has the entire student directory for State University (40K+ people) and is emailing (read: spamming) all of them, too.  Isn't that awesome?

    I'd bet five dollars your boss suffers from baldness and the little hair he's got left on his head is pointy.



  • Might is suggest disabling the offenders account? If anything you can watch someone else be frantic with terror.


    At the least procure yourself a clue-by-four.



  • Why not fake up an e-mail to Bill from the FBI saying that they have detected significant amounts of spam originating from that e-mail address and they will be popping in to investigate. Include the fact that if the spams are genuinely sent by him he will be liable for 6 months in jail for each one sent. Then inject this into your e-mail server so it appears to have genuinely arrived from the FBI.

    Then watch him panic for a while
     



  • @GettinSadda said:

    Why not fake up an e-mail to Bill from the FBI saying that they have detected significant amounts of spam originating from that e-mail address and they will be popping in to investigate. Include the fact that if the spams are genuinely sent by him he will be liable for 6 months in jail for each one sent. Then inject this into your e-mail server so it appears to have genuinely arrived from the FBI.

    Then watch him panic for a while
     

    That is a wonderful idea  -I think I'll rip this one off....



  • Even you have little contact with computers and don't realize what bulk emailing will do to your infrastructure, you must still be a complete fucktard not to know that what you're doing is bad.

    When you see the guy kick him in the face for me too. 



  • @DOA said:

    Even you have little contact with computers and
    don't realize what bulk emailing will do to your infrastructure, you
    must still be a complete fucktard not to know that what you're doing is
    bad.

    When you see the guy kick him in the face for me too. 

    And mallet his nads for me!

    Seriously
    though, I would have thought this was wonderful news.  I've always
    wanted to get my hands on spammers but they're usually a continent or
    two too far away.  How convenient it must be to have them brought
    to you!

     



  • @GettinSadda said:

    Why not fake up an e-mail to Bill from the FBI saying that they have detected significant amounts of spam originating from that e-mail address and they will be popping in to investigate. Include the fact that if the spams are genuinely sent by him he will be liable for 6 months in jail for each one sent. Then inject this into your e-mail server so it appears to have genuinely arrived from the FBI.

    Then watch him panic for a while
     

     I remeber working at an ISP and sending random emails from God to people.   Those were the days....



  • If I were a spammer, especially looking to target sysadmins, you have just given me a cool idea for my subject line.

    <font size="-1">YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DAILY SMTP RELAY LIMIT</font>

    <font size="-1">To send more emails faster, with NO need to upgrade your servers, you need</font>

    <font size="-1">PORKMAIL PRO!</font>

    <font size="-1">Only $99.99 from www.porkmailpro.com! Introductory offer, download today!</font>
     





  • When testing Mail Servers I always using Putty to send a test mail from " God@Hell.Com ".

     



  • @m0ffx said:

    If I were a spammer, especially looking to target sysadmins, you have just given me a cool idea for my subject line.

    <font size="-1">YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DAILY SMTP RELAY LIMIT</font>

    <font size="-1">To send more emails faster, with NO need to upgrade your servers, you need</font>

    <font size="-1">PORKMAIL PRO!</font>

    <font size="-1">Only $99.99 from www.porkmailpro.com! Introductory offer, download today!</font>
     

     
     " PROKMAIL PRO - MAKES THEN SQUEAK LIKE A PIG....," 



  • how exactly is sending unsolicited emails illegal?




    If he gave a way to opt out, provided the company's postal address, identified the email as an advertisement, and did not use a misleading subject line, then he's fine.



  • In the UK "opt-out" is now illegal, it has to be opt-in (data protection act?). Hasn't stopped it though, you still see forms doing things like "tick these two if you don't, these two if you do or the last two if you don't want to not receive crap in the mail"...

    Or the nectar card email I got today saying something like "We periodically send special offers to our customers. When you signed up you chose not to receive offers like these. Please?" What part of "don't contact me about offers" don't you understand?

     


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