| LED Digest 1933: So, is Spam Really Profitable? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................... February 16, 2005 Issue #1933 ............................................... .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Curing Spam ==-- ~ Marsha Kopan "[Deke's] theory of suing spammers would work if they were US Companies. " ~ David Chapman "Deke, I begged to differ on your views..." --== RSS Feeds ==-- ~ Joe Halbrook "I've put up an information page on RSS that contains references..." ~ Dagmar Lindner "I just found those two links with some basic, introductory information about RSS." --== Sacking SpamCop ==-- ~ Mary Findley "It doesn't help when Spam Cop pulls the stunts it pulls." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== New SE: Clusty.com ==-- ~ Dave Starr --== CGI Forms & Scammers ==-- ~ David S. Taylor ~ Michael Martinez ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Marsha Kopan Subject: Curing spam > Barnum's Law. And as long as the anti-spam activists > promote the idea of spammers as people getting rich > off the rest of us, it will continue. - Deke Hammel, LED 1932 Loved Deke's article. It was certainly amusing and he is certainly on point. The anti-spammers are making a ton of money. His theory of suing spammers would work if they were US Companies. Most of the spammers that I see out there are off shore. How does one litigate with them? Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA Executive Secretarial Services www.execsecsrv.com Delegate, don't stagnate. ------- new post - same topic -------- From: David Chapman Subject: Curing spam > Everyone knows that it's profitable to spam. Except if that > were true, why do I read no stories in Forbes and Fortune > about people who've gotten rich selling inkjet refills, little > blue pills and rolexes through email? - Deke Hammel, LED 1932 Deke, I begged to differ on your views. IT IS PROFITABLE for spammers to operate their businesses. Spam will NOT stop until more people stop buying!!! I posted an article back in Nov. 2004 that detailed how one particular spammer generated 24 million, yes 24 MILLION DOLLARS in sales. And I quote: "In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor." View the full article: http://www.oppf.net/cgibin/oppf/index.pl/read/3878 And just how did this guy (and there are others still in operation) gross $750,000 in a month? I quote "As one of the world's most prolific spammers, Jeremy Jaynes pumped out at least 10 million e-mails a day with the help of 16 high-speed lines, the kind of Internet capacity a 1,000-employee company would need. "Jaynes' business was remarkably lucrative; prosecutors say he grossed up to $750,000 per month. If you have an e-mail account, chances are Jaynes tried to get your attention, pitching software, pornography and work-at-home schemes." View Second Article: http://www.oppf.net/cgibin/oppf/index.pl/read/3949 As a programmer, I am partially at fault for some of this because I have in the past created software applications to push 10 million emails per day. I now use my savvy in more respectable ways... Moreover, it does not help when you have AOL employees being convicted of selling 92 million email addresses!!!! Full Article: http://www.oppf.net/cgibin/oppf/index.pl/read/4258 David Chapman, President Curbview.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: RSS > I want to thank Joe Halbrook for his response to my post. > Can anyone suggest a really good primer on RSS > - I prefer a book form (paper and ink) .... - Tom Anson, LED 1932 Hi Tom, You're very welcome. I've put up an information page on RSS that contains references that you might find helpful. The page is located at: http://www.info-for-life.com/2 Best of success, Tom. Joe Halbrook Permission Technologies http://www.ez-feeds.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Dagmar Lindner Subject: RSS Tom, I just found those two links with some basic, introductory information about RSS. Might be what you're looking for. http://www.whatisrss.com/ http://snipurl.com/6j3u [webreference.com] Cheers, Dagmar Lindner www.montage.co.nz ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Mary Moppins Subject: SpamCop > ... if your lists are truly opt-in, your opt-out procedures > are adequate, and your subscribers are not idiots, > SpamCop will never block you. Or so they say. - Sheryl Coppenger, LED 1932 Dear Sheryl, I can personally vouch this is not accurate. I send out a cleaning tips newsletter twice a month and have on two occasions received over a hundred blocks from Spam Cop. My newsletter is opt in only and the settings are correct. My opt outs are prominent on my newsletter yet I'm getting blocked. My server notified them after the first time it happened and it happened a second time. Spam Cop needs to contact the provider before blocking an email address. Now I'm finding that some people email me cleaning questions from my website then use my email address after I answer to send out their spam. I also have a link page on my website. Somehow the gods of the internet underworld have figured out a way to send out mass spam mailings to websites with link pages wanting a recipricol link to their shady websites. I now have to try to decipher which cleaning questions are legit and which are bogus. And I have to apply that same measure to my opt in newsletter. Without a doubt some people are not receiving the help solving cleaning problems they really need because I feel their email address could be bogus or their question does not sound legit. I also have to restrict the opt in email addresses for my newsletters that look strange and definately those from hotmail. It is such a shame that the people who need help and want my newsletter could be getting regected because of this shady underworld. It doesn't help either when Spam Cop pulls the stunts it pulls. Mary Findley Mary Moppins Co. http://www.goclean.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Dave Starr Subject: Clusty > A good suggestion for a new discussion topic might > be www.clusty.com, which you can read about at... - Jim Berry, LED 1932 I find that Clusty is an interesting new venture in the search engine 'jungle'. Their best feature is their clustering technology. (the 'read about' link furnished doesn't work but you can find the information on businesswire.com (use www.bugmenot.com if you don't feel like plodding through the registration process). I'm not sure how many potential web site customers will find the clustering useful, but using Clusty to research my competition has proved rewarding... comparing competitor's keywords and website copy gives insights into why they 'cluster' the way they do. I also found a competitors with services I might need in the near future for a partnering venture ... would never have slogged through all the returns on Google to find this guy. I certainly recommend it as a research tool. Best regards Dave Starr www.satviz.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: David S. Taylor Subject: Form scammers > Did this scammer actually go to my site > and fill in my form manually or have scammers > figured out how to utilize mailto_cgi bins? - Diane Dennis, LED 1932 Diane, The short answer to your question is yes, spammers have figured out how to use the various mail CGI scripts to distribute their stuff. The fix depends on the configuration of your server. If you have Apache and enable SUEXEC you can prevent some of the issues caused by the scripts running as the "nobody" user. I had a blast of about 500 of the Nigerian scam e-mails come through a church web site I host after they exploited a hole in one of the PHP-Nuke scripts that sent out e-mails to new subscribers. I just happened to be watching the server just after the exploit and was able to shut it down within 15 minutes. Much longer and my server probably would have been blacklisted. If the script exploit on your site causes the IP address to be blacklisted you could be impacting other sites on the server that share that IP. Regards, David S. Taylor, CISSP, GSEC DSTLink, Inc. http://www.dstlink.com/ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Form scammers If you are using a standard mail form script provided by your ISP, most if not all of them are deemed vulnerable to hackers. It is best to write a custom script that cannot be compromised. Worse, you could find yourself on numerous spam-block lists because of the script. Michael Martinez http://www.michael-martinez.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest." - Henry Miller |
