SPAM-related web sites

Useful links/boomarks

• Getting Rid of "Spam" ... and Other E-mail Pests by Randy Cassingham
• EmailAbuse.org
• Yahoo's spam news
• Some legal articles
• One PERL programmer writes about his experience with defending himself against SPAM. A 3-part paper "My Life with Spam - or - How I Caught the Spam and What I Did With it When I Caught it"
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
• When you want to filter email from Unix, there nothing better than postfix and sendmail (both public domain)
• Eric Demeester against network abuse (in French)
• Foires Aux Questions sur le Spamming (in French)
• Representative Chris Smith has a proposed extension of the junk fax ban
• Stop SPAM FAQ
• Boycott Internet SPAM by Scott Hazen Mueller
• Chain letters are illegal
• AntiSPAM ressources at MSExchange.org
• The web site of E.Piotelat (in French)
• Antispam mode d'emploi (in French).
• SpamFo.co.uk
• A web site with a lot of useful links about SPAM: http://www.spam-hq.com/antispam

SPAM-L

There is also this very nice mailing list (SPAM-L) where information is freely exchanged (mainly between system administrators) about practical data for actively SPAM-fighting.

Send a message with the following body "SUB SPAM-L votre nom" to LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM.

Where to complain?

Directly to the Internet providers when they have some abuse department. But be patient with them. They have a difficult job.

A few e-mail addresses should be kept handy to complain about certain aspects of SPAM:

enforcement@sec.gov to report attempts to manipulate Stock Exchange.

net-abuse@nocs.insp.irs.gov to report hoaxes that may interest the American IRS.

bbroder@ftc.gov to report frauds and scams (in the USA). Or the online form.

An additional list titled « Spam: Where to Complain About Frauds & Scams on the Internet ».

How to find a spammer?

Then, a loosely related information about white-pages services and web sites which help you locate somebody with limited information available at your hands.

http://www.four11.com

e-mail/phone support@four11.com

http://www.whowhere.com

e-mail/phone/address delete-entry@whowhere.com

http://www.switchboard.com

e-mail/phone/address webmaster@switchboard.com (DELETE in the subject line)

http://bigfoot.com

e-mail/phone/address/map overexposure@bigfoot.com

http://www.searchamerica.com

This service requires a subscription to view information. Their information page claims that they track names, addresses, and telephone numbers. webmaster@searchamerica.com

http://www.abii.com/lookupusa/adp/peopsrch.htm

phone/address/map consumerupdate@abii.com

The headers of the mail are the most important item to study

Obtaining the full headers

This all depends on which mail client, and even which version, you are using.

• Netscape v3: In the Mail Window, select Options, then Show Headers, and then Full.
• Eudora Light: Select Special and then Settings, or select Tools and then Options, depending on the version. From the icons on the left hand side of the dialogue box select 'Fonts and Display', then check 'Show all headers (even the ugly ones)'.
• Outlook Express 4: Open the message, From the File menu, select Properties, then Details.

Cracking forged headers

Unfortunately, many SPAMs include headers which have been modified to hide the true origin of the mail message.

For information on cracking forged headers, see Figuring Out Fake E-mail and Posts which discusses what an ISP can do, and contains a wealth of information on how you can dissect e-mail addresses, and tools you can use against SPAM.

If you need to use these facilities, your followup e-mail should also mention that the spammer hacked the email headers to avoid retribution, which indicates knowledge of guilt, which means that the postmaster will often cancel the account immediately instead of waiting for further violations. In addition, many postmasters will not notify you directly of their actions, but will instead post summaries to news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins.

If the spammer's address is an independent address like "compuserve.com", you can determine responsible parties by using whois - a standard UNIX utility. Whois, Finger, and additional network utilities are also available for Windows 95. You can use the Switch Whois web page to issue a whois command.

Once you determine the appropriate people to contact at the spammer's site, copy each of them with your complaint. If you need additional help, contact your system administrator about specific email abuse.

Resolving an IP address

You often get an Ip address in the form of XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX and you don't know who this is. Here are a few sites helping you.

• Sam Spade (with the excellent Sam Spade for Windows)