Offers for sexual potency pharmaceuticals, wire transfer scams, porn, the glut of spams and scams that once flooded your e-mail inbox was cut by 70 percent recently when one (yes, only one) ISP was shut down.
McColo was a San Jose, California-based Internet Service Provider that was apparently responsible for the majority of the spam you’ve received — or haven’t received in recent days. After the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog identified the source, it was shut down. The immediate effect is shown in the chart below: a sudden drop in world-wide spam traffic.
I suppose this is all due to economy of scale, a knife that cuts both ways. In case you didn’t know, it takes only one reply from a 12,000,000 volume spam e-mail blast to make the spam project pay for itself. Put simply, spam is a profitable business. As such, eventually you’ll see consolidation of spam spewers, just as you see dozens of tiny companies eventually join (or get bought out) to become a giant corporate conglomerate. And therein lies the flaw.
Once these spam companies get big, it’s easier to find them and shut them down, as was shown with McColo and a company called Atrivo before it.
Still, it’s just a matter of time before the scumbags find another ISP to exploit and flood our inboxes with unwanted e-mail. Again, as long as some idiot somewhere responds to a spam e-mail, the system works. Why anyone would buy pharmaceuticals from a random e-mail message where the products aren’t even spelled correctly is beyond me. But then, again, never underestimate the stupidity of the typical human.
There was a slashdot article recently about a woman who took all her (and her husband’s) retirement money, remortgaged their house etc, and sent it to the Nigerian prince/banker scam. Everyone told her to stop, but she just wouldn’t listen.
Sometimes I feel that obscene stupidity should be a crime….
Comment by sriksrid — November 14, 2008 @ 8:53 am
Our system of law goes after those who prey on the stupid, not the stupid themselves. It still bothers me that someone would buy “C1ali1s” from a spam e-mail message. Not that some dipwad is getting ripped off, but that the sale ensures that more spam follows.
Comment by admin — November 14, 2008 @ 9:14 am
It’s precisely because of the couple of idiots who actually respond to this pile of fecal nonsense that spamming is still profitable. According to this BBC News story, the response ratio is something like one response to 12,500,000 recipients. However, if you can extort several grand (or, in the case of that idiot woman who fell for the Nigerian scam, ~$400,000) from something that doesn’t take long to hijack and doesn’t take any more equipment than a hired script kiddie in his bedroom, then it is very profitable.
Then again, I suppose it’s just natural selection in action. These twerps will end up being financially fleeced and will be better off for it – they’ll know not to do such a thing again, and warn other people about the dangers of responding to unsolicited e-mail. As for the spammers, these vermin should be dismembered and have their legs turned into premium golf clubs for Bill Gates. (Well, I’m exaggerating, but they should be punished, and punished hard.)
Comment by Jonathan Rothwell — November 16, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
A valid argument for requiring a “computer license” similar to a driver’s license.
Comment by admin — November 16, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
Wow. No wonder I haven’t been getting any email.
Comment by T.S. — November 18, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
I’m at a loss where to buy my cheap C1al1s!
Comment by admin — November 18, 2008 @ 9:49 pm