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Surprises

by Mike Masnick

Sun, Dec 14th 2003 10:54pm





Chinese Authorities Annoying Poster Spammers With Automated Phone Calls

from the poetic-justice dept

It appears that authorities in Shanghai are picking up on one anti-spam method: spamming back the spammers to knock them out of commission. The BBC is reporting that a system has been set up to automatically call phone numbers found posted in posters and fliers around the city once an hour, telling people to take down the illegal posters (and to pay a fine). After a couple days of hourly annoyance, the system will increase the rate of calls to the point where phone numbers found in such posters should expect to receive one such automated call every eight minutes. The only way to stop the calls? Pay a fine or disconnect the phone number.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Automated DDOS

    identicon
    Patrick, Dec 15th, 2003 @ 6:45am

    An automated DDOS system for url's in spam? It would first require criteria/method for distinguishing spam from legitimate mail, but I like the idea in theory.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Automated DDOS

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 15th, 2003 @ 7:18am

    I think you missed the point. They ignore the company who put up the posters and go after the company using the posters to advertise. Hence; forget about the spammer and go after the product the spammer is advertising. The whole approach to dealing with spammers is fairly stupid anyway since it's the only advertising medium where the advertiser is not held responsible for the ads. Advertising agencies and media companies just agents for the advertiser.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Useful annoyance tool?

    identicon
    LittleW0lf, Dec 15th, 2003 @ 12:40pm

    Hmmm... Now all I have to do is come up with a couple posters with the names and phone numbers of my competitors or my worst enemies. No due process at all...but then again, this is China that we are talking about.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Automated DDOS

    identicon
    Patrick, Dec 15th, 2003 @ 6:12pm

    No, I didn't miss the point--in fact, when I receive spam, I not only send letters to postmaster/root/et al for the domain of any relay mail server, but also to the domains of servers referenced in any html in the message; in practice, holding the advertiser responsible, though I believe the spammer should share the blame. However, before any action (legal, DDoS, or other) should be taken, there has to be some method for determining the (il-)legitimacy of the mail (see LittleW's comment).

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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