Project Honeypot Launches Massive Anti-Spam Lawsuit'We are sick and tired of this crap and it's time for it to stop' ( old news - 01:36PM Thursday Apr 26 2007) tags: legal · business · spamTipped by newview  Users in our Security forum point out that Project Honeypot (not to be confused with the HoneyNet Project) has launched the largest anti-spam lawsuit ever filed. It was filed on behalf of users in 100 countries. The group has been working for some time to identify spammers and the spambots used to scour websites for e-mail addresses. Now they have compiled enough data to legally target and expose the operators of such harvesting operations. From the Project Honeypot website: "On Thursday, April 25, 2007 at approximately 9:00am in a court in the Eastern District of Virginia, Project Honey Pot filed the largest anti-spam lawsuit ever. Seeking more than $1B in statutory damages, the suit was brought on behalf of our members. It targets a huge swath of spammers. If you've harvested email addresses or sent spam in the last two years, chances are you're on our radar screen and we're coming after you.
This is, of course, only one step in a long journey to make the Internet a better place. But it's an especially important step because it was not brought by a single ISP or regional prosecutor. This suit was brought by you: the volunteer members of Project Honey Pot representing more than 100 countries around the world. It was brought, in effect, by the Internet community. And, as a community, we are sick and tired of this crap and it's time for it to stop." Also see this report in the Washington Post.
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 | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA
| Best of luck.. Sounds good, don't think I'd want to be listed as a Plaintiff though. Seems like they'll be sending a big list of people with internet connections to the worst spammers in the world.. wonderful. 
I wonder how many of them are actually in the U.S.? | |
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RadioDoc
Sortofadog
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
Chicago, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| Re: Best of luck.. Not to mention the possibility of a counter-suit naming all of those volunteer members as defendants.
Suing and winning is the easy part. Enforcing the judgment and collecting is where most of these efforts fall flat.
--
Toolmaster of La Grange. | |
| | | 
TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
 ·Comcast
edit:
April 26th, @01:12PM
| Re: Best of luck.. said by RadioDoc :Not to mention the possibility of a counter-suit naming all of those volunteer members as defendants. Suing and winning is the easy part. Enforcing the judgment and collecting is where most of these efforts fall flat. Maybe they can send retired CIA agents to rub them out?  
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Internet News
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blueeyesm
join:2003-09-05
Waterloo, ON
·Rogers Hi-Speed
edit:
April 26th, @01:47PM
| Re: Best of luck.. ...and in other parts of the world, ex-Spetsnaz, etc.,...
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LordMalak
join:2003-07-02
Brazil | Nice Nice publicity stunt. If I were Symantec, I'd be sponsoring this even though I know it just won't work.
Even if this lawsuit is filed in the US Supreme Court and won, it can't touch a Vietnamese spammer. | |
| | emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| Re: Nice Maybe not, but a US trade rep might meet with his/her Vietnamese counterpart, and say "Hey, we're ready to do this trade deal, but you've got these SPAMMERS who were convicted and unfortunately we can't move forward until something is done about them."
That's the way this stuff works (when it works.)
Of course, you'll never get 'em all, but that doesn't mean you should ease up. Don't let them get comfortable.
wig
--
Sometimes a paradox is just a paradox | |
| | | jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Re: Nice LMAO!
That's going to have me chuckling all day long... | |
| | | 
Steve
Security is inefficient
Consultant
join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA
| said by emptywig :Maybe not, but a US trade rep might meet with his/her Vietnamese counterpart, and say "Hey, we're ready to do this trade deal, but you've got these SPAMMERS who were convicted and unfortunately we can't move forward until something is done about them." Considering that trade deals are generally more important than grotesque human rights violations, I doubt that a "spammer crackdown" is going to make any difference.
Steve
--
Stephen J. Friedl • Unix Wizard • Microsoft Security MVP • Tustin, California USA • my web site | |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
·Embarq
| Re: Nice said by Nightfall :Stopping all these spammers is like playing whack-a-mole. Nobody said anything about stopping all spam. We go after all sorts of crimes, and even though more crop up where others are cut out, by having a comprehensive plan to go after those who commit crimes we can keep the problem down to a minimum. What is so special about SPAM that we should continue our sit-on-our-ass policy?
We need to go after them. We need federal support. We need intelligent laws and an effective enforcement policy. We lack all of this.
--
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| | rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT | 90% of all Spam originates in the US, or is paid for by US companies. | |
| | |
Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
·Embarq
| Re: Nice said by rahvin112 :90% of all Spam originates in the US, or is paid for by US companies. Exactly. We may not be able to stop the spam overseas, and we certainly won't be able to stop it all here, but our current strategy is to sit on our ass and complain. | |
| deadzoned
Premium
join:2005-04-13
Baton Rouge, LA
·Cox HSI
| Hmm I thought Spam was sorta like Death & Taxes these days? Do they actually feel like this could totally stop or at least severely curtail Spam that we get?
I would like to see that, but somehow, it just seems impossible.  | |
| 
odog
Cable Centric Vendor Biased
Premium
join:2001-08-05
Norcross, GA
clubs: | Will this work? I hope so.. | |
| | 
DeeplyShrouded
@comcast.net
| Re: Will this work? Doubtful.
Two solutions might:
1:
If the person isn't in your address book, you don't get the mail.
2: The spammer would have to know your email address and
your name and instead of just entering an email address,
they'd have to enter a first and last name field as well.
If all three don't match, the message hits the bit bucket.
--Deeply Shrouded & Quiet
--Central Control! D-Dial #49 | |
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justbits
More fiber than ATT can handle
Premium
join:2003-01-08
Chicago, IL
edit:
April 26th, @02:07PM
| Re: Will this work? Solution #1 could work.
Solution #2 wont: The more advanced spammers have associated databases of email addresses, names and snail mail addresses of their targets. My parents and my boss' kids have been targeted this way. | |
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
Gainesville, FL
| Re: Will this work? said by justbits :Solution #1 could work. Solution #2 wont: The more advanced spammers have associated databases of email addresses, names and snail mail addresses of their targets. My parents and my boss' kids have been targeted this way. Yep I get spam with my name address and phone number all the fucking time dirty spammers.
--
Am Heimcomputer sitz' ich hier, und programmier' die Zukunft mir | |
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Michieru
zzz zzz zzz
Premium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | ! This will be fun to watch | |
| Techie714
join:2005-08-02
Anaheim, CA
 ·ViaTalk
| Wont Work I hate spammers as much as the next guy. But I would not expect much at all to happen to ANY of the foreign spammers. Now those that live in the U.S. thats another story they "might" have some problems coming there way. It's still a good start though. | |
| 
antiphishing
Nigerian 419 Scam Baiter
Premium
join:2004-06-09
Wilkes Barre, PA
|  Total malware volumes grow 'dramatically'
By Robert Jaques, 26 April 2007 15:49 AEST
Malicious code writers target the web in earnest.
Total malware volumes grew "dramatically" during the first three months of 2007 as the majority of malicious code writers began targeting the web, new research warned today.
Sophos identified 23,864 new threats in the first quarter of 2007, more than double the 9,450 found in the same period last year.
At the same time, the percentage of infected email dropped from 1.3 per cent, or one in 77 emails, in the first three months of 2006, to one in 256, or just 0.4 per cent, in 2007.
Sophos identified an average of 5,000 new infected web pages every day from January to the end of March, indicating that this route to infection is becoming more popular with cyber-criminals.
»www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=7···ite-marq
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Specializing in "takes downs" of phishing and advance fee scams
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KILLtheSCUM
@comcast.net | Every Spammer should be hung by their thumbs... ... for a minimum of two years, then buried dead or alive. | |
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Jehu
d1Sux
Premium
join:2002-09-13
MA
·Comcast
| Pointless Hope they get good money from those google ads and tshirts, they ain't going to get far. If they were really serious about trying to prosecute spammers, they would not be relying so heavily on spamtrap addresses.
--
The worm he licks my bones | |
| | jsouth
Jsouth
join:2000-12-12
Wichita, KS | Spammers I think I read somewhere that most of the spammers are based here in the US. Hopefully this can get a few of them.
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Bush bashing is old. How about more solutions instead? | |
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agaprazr
What...Me Worry?
Premium
join:2005-01-08
Salem, OR | Spam back in the Can One small step towards putting the Spam back in the can. I hope it works....
--
...and the greatest of these is love. 1Cor.13:13 | |
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norky
Premium
join:2002-12-02
Lithia, FL | Re: Spam back in the Can How do I get my slice of the 1 billion? | |
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nomorebling
@comcast.net
| Re: Spam back in the Can Its funny how there is this big push against internet spammers; "oh no! i have 30 emails advertising crap!! So hard for me to hit the delete button."
But yet no one is bringing lawsuits against the people filling my snail mail box with all the unwanted crap I get 6 days a week. | |
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tshirt
Premium
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
edit:
April 26th, @05:23PM
| Re: Spam back in the Can said by nomorebling :
Its funny how there is this big push against internet spammers; "oh no! i have 30 emails advertising crap!! So hard for me to hit the delete button."
But yet no one is bringing lawsuits against the people filling my snail mail box with all the unwanted crap I get 6 days a week.
but the snail mail advertisers are paying for each piece by weight, which subsidises the rest of the USPS, without it every letter you send would cost like UPS/fed-ex.
Spammers, on the other hand, have no socially redeeming value | |
| | | | rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT
| If you only get 30 a day then you are extremely lucky. I'd be happy to accept spam into my server if they paid me to use the computer resources they are using, much like postal mail "spam" helps pay the costs of the postal system.
Spam is nothing more than junk mail where the receiver is forced to foot the bill of the spam. Anyone that thinks it is no big deal should be paying the costs so the rest of us don't foot the bill. So you pony up the costs to me, computer time is valued about approximately $1.80 per minute, my computer spends close to 24 hours every month processing spam. So you can write a check monthly to me of $43.20 of you could pay yearly at the rate of $15,768, but I'll cut you a discount for paying yearly, I'll shave $768 off the price tag for a nice round $15,000K a year. And if you are willing to commit to a payment contract with a 3 year term I might even cut the price in half.
If you don't think those costs are reasonable then you don't have a concept of what running a mail server costs. You have to pay for the electricity, rack space, administrator time, hardware costs, drive space, backups, bandwidth and the contract rate to pay for the person to go through and delete the emails that make it through the filters. None of that is cheap, and every spam mail costs a business around $5-20 depending on who received it and there is no difference with personal costs. For every email I have to delete in my personal account it takes a minute of family time away. Those minutes are priceless.
So if you don't think it's a big deal why don't the rest of us who do just setup a forward on spam to send it your way, after all, if it's no big deal you will post your email account, right? | |
| | | | 
AB
Premium
join:2006-04-04
Leesburg, VA
| It's a good day . "On Thursday, April 25, 2007 at approximately 9:00am in a court in the Eastern District of Virginia, Project Honey Pot filed the largest anti-spam lawsuit ever. . . ."
It may be publicity, it may be futile . . . but some days, I'm just proud to be a Virginian! | |
| | 
Barbara Ann
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-17 | Re: It's a good day . Great news ArgleBargle! | |
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Go get'm boys!
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