Spam Wars: Our Last Best Chance to Defeat Spammers, Scammers and Hackers

reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Author: Danny Goodman

Interview: http://www.louisehartmann.com/clips/HodgePodge/TH-111804-HP.mp3

http://www.dannyg.com

http://www.spamwars.com/book.html

Select Books

http://www.selectbooks.com/t_spamwars.html

Released: 2004

$18 USD, $27 CND, £10 GBP, 16€ EUR

ISBN: 1590790634

For anyone interested in fighting spam. In other words – you!

Strengths: Catalogs criminal activity of spammers, scammers and hackers that use the Email systems to keep the spamonomy going.

Weaknesses: One or two swear words hiding in there.

Spam Wars: Our Last Best Chance to Defeat Spammers, Scammers and Hackers by Danny Goodman is one of the latest books attempting to educate the unsuspecting public about the online schemes used to separate them/us from our money. And Danny Goodman uses humor to make that bite just a little less painful as he shows us just how ineffective the JHD (Just Hit Delete) mentality really is. He counters with “Just Don’t Spam!” Spam can be avoided and it can also be successfully fought with this self-defense book.

Hopefully we won’t get Joe-Jobed (spam barrage) by Spammers or Chickenboners (spammers working out of house trailers surrounded by take-out chicken boxes) using a Mainsleaze (spammer operations based ISP) and we could just get Listwashed (removed from spammer lists) and tagged by them as a LARTer (Luser Atttude Readjustment Tool used by someone to alert an abuse desk of spamming activities).

I’ve personally come to appreciate what a Cartooney is (cartoon attorney) – a lawyer who threatens antispammers with lawsuits – only the ones I’ve been forced to deal with have teeth and deep pockets claiming “Frea Speech” (so-called ‘commercial’ Free Speech) due to my recent involvement with ICPAL (Informal Coalition of Private Anti-spam Litigants).

And that is why I wanted to read this book. I have been pushed into a corner by the Email bullies and it is time to fight back as a Anti-spam Warrior. The knowledge on how to be an anti-spam ninja can be found within the pages of this book. Okay, maybe not, but would you believe a brown belt in anti-spam karate? Danny shows us how we can get them to boil in their own spew.

Dan shows how we ended up in this electronic Email mess and how we can get out of it. Dan gives plenty of “for instances” and backs up his no-holds-barred comments with plenty of facts.

Litigation in the courts takes time, money and lots of other resources and in the Law section Danny shows what kinds of things are needed to “get there”. The last chapter is an Email manifesto and lists things we call can do to fight back.

While you are waiting for the book to arrive, why not check out the information below? This is part of “my “ fight…

NOTICE OF OFFER TO RECEIVE UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL (SPAM)

YOUR ACTIONS MAY CONSTITUTE A BINDING CONTRACT.  PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY.  BY SENDING UNSOLICITED SPAM TO ME AT THE FOLLOWING DOMAIN, MACCOMPANION.COM, YOU ACCEPT MY OFFER TO YOU CONCERNING RECEIPT OF UNSOLICITED MATERIAL FROM YOU UNDER THE FOLLOWING TERMS:

1- THAT IN VALUABLE CONSIDERATION, SUFFICIENCY AND ADEQUACY OF WHICH YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE, OF ME RECEIVING ANY UNSOLICITED MATERIAL FROM YOU;

2- UNLESS, YOU HAVE OBTAINED PRIOR AUTHORIZATION FROM ME TO SEND YOUR MATERIAL TO ME; YOU AGREE TO CONFER THE SUM OF US$500 PAYABLE IN CERTIFIED CHECK TO ME EFFECTIVE AND COLLECTIBLE UPON YOUR SENDING OF ANY UNSOLICITED MATERIAL TO THE DOMAIN, MACCOMPANION.COM;

3- YOU AGREE TO CEASE AND DECEASE ANY FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO SEND ANY ADVERTISING MATERIAL WHATSOEVER TO THE DOMAIN, GORDONWORKS.COM;

4- THIS AGREEMENT MAY BE MODIFIED AND/OR CHANGED BY ME AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE;

5- YOU AGREE THAT THE AMOUNT OF FUNDS (IN US Dollars) I CHARGE FOR EACH ADDITIONAL UNSOLICITED PIECE OF ADVERTISING SHALL BE CALCULATED AS FOLLOWS: (NUMBER OF OFFENSE) MULTIPLIED BY ($500). FOR EXAMPLE: ON YOUR THIRD UNSOLICITED MAILING TO ME, YOU AGREE TO PAY ME THE AMOUNT OF US$1500, AND ON YOUR FOURTH UNSOLICITED MAILING, YOU AGREE TO PAY ME THE AMOUNT OF US$2000, AND SO ON;

6- YOU AGREE THAT VENUE FOR ANY AND ALL DISPUTES RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS SHALL BE THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, BENTON COUNTY;

7- YOU SUBMIT YOUR PERSON TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURTS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON.

Links

http://www.danbalsam.com/danhatesspam/

http://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/article.php/3412891

http://spamlinks.net/legal-action.htm

http://www.aboutspam.com/

A Map -  http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/index.html

And the Law -

http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/Internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/gv00304e.html  http://www.spamlaws.com/state/index.shtml

And Suits - http://sueaspammer.com/  http://legal.hypertouch.com/  And the one where I have been involved: http://legal.hypertouch.com/impulse-marketing-group/  http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso_id=ROK5431

And some stuff about the Informal Coalition of Private Anti-spam Litigants -  http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3412891

The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy - http://www.isipp.com/

AntiSLAPP -  http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html#Whatareslapps

 Tools to Understand and Research spam -  EmailTrackerPro - a tools used by law enforcement to analyze the header information - http://www.visualware.com $29.95  VisualRoute - this application locates the geographic origin of the email and prepares a traceroute, which illustrates the computers between my computer and the point of origin of the message. http://www.visualware.com $49.95 ($69 when bundled with EmailTrackerPro)  SmartWhois - Identifies the owner and contact information of the domain name or the owner of the IP or netblock (of IP addresses). http://www.tamos.com/products/smartwhois/ - $29.00  NetScanTools - A robust suite of network analyses tools, which includes the functions above and much more - including an analysis of the blacklists that the IP address belongs to. http://www.netscantools.com/ - $249.00

Attorney General’s Web Site RE: spam -  http://www.atg.wa.gov/junkemail   

  Research Tools -  http://www.dnsstuff.com  http://centralops.net/co   

Background Info on spammers -  http://www.spamhaus.org  http://www.senderbase.org   

Public Records Research -  http://www.searchsystems.net

And other anti-spam resources -

http://www.sitetamer.com/strads/spam

http://www.bestprac.org/links.htm

http://spam.abuse.net/spam

http://www.gigalaw.com

a. http://www.lawforwa.org/home.html

b. http://washingtonlawhelp.org/WA/index.cfm

c. http://www.nolo.com/index.cfm