Sam...
You are fantastic.
van
>This is totally off-topic but this is the kind of thing you all can
>appreciate, and it may even help some of you.
>
>For the last several months I have constantly been spammed by what can be
>described as Son-of-Spamford. There's some spam e-mail software marketing
>company in Los Angeles that sends out millions of these messages I guess.
>They use web crawlers that steal e-mail addresses from web pages. They
>then send out this spam letter with forged headers and false return
>addresses. Very annoying. However, they do include a phone number and
>address at the end of the spam. Interesting. I've included the message
>at the end of this message so you can see if you've been spammed by these
>assholes as well.
>
>I was so incensed at one point that I was almost going to buy a plane
>ticket, fly down to L.A. with a box full of this spam e-mail printed out,
>kick the door open to the office that these guys are in, find the
>president of this "company", beat the shit out of him (or pimp-slap her),
>then start shoving the printouts down this person's throat (yes, this is
>rather violent :)
>
>But I soon figured out that the address was merely a private mailbox, and
>the phone number rings into a voicemail box. Hmmm. Well, I have the
>resources to find out where this number rings in to, possibly track down
>the service provider, but then what? Then I realized, "Hey, I have a PBX,
>a T-1 and a voicemail system with 16 ports...its time to have some fun."
>
>Thus sprang forth the Spaminator! The Spaminator is something I threw
>together in about 10 minutes. What the Spaminator does is call the
>offendor's number, wait for the voicemail to answer, dial a digit to cut
>thru the outgoing message, then it starts singing simple tunes by playing
>"spam" in different notes. I recorded a "spam" scale with my own voice.
>Basically I sang "spam" starting from A and going to G.
>
>I created 10 different song files, with simple tunes such as "Mary Had a
>Little Spam", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Spam", "Happy Spamday", "We Shall
>Overcome (the spam)", "Jingle Spam", "Popeye the Sailor Spam", and a few
>others. The Spaminator randomly selects three spam tunes to play for each
>call. It plays the tunes, then hangs up and calls right back up again.
>The Spaminator is currently running, filling up the spammers voicemail box
>with spam tunes. Hopefully, it will fill up the voicemail box and they
>won't be able to receive any other messages. Also, it will bring them
>much anguish as they constantly try to delete these messages that don't
>stop coming.
>
>The last I checked the Spaminator had played over 100 spam tunes into
>their voicemail box. I am ecstatic. The Spaminator will continue to run
>over night. Tomorrow morning I will check its progress (it keeps a log of
>all tunes it plays so I know how many it did).
>
>If anyone is interested in utilizing the Spaminator for spaminating other
>egregious spammers, let me know. I can easily program it to
>simultaneously call out to other phone numbers and sing a symphony of spam
>for them as well.
>
>I hope that my simple solution brings some manner of grief to these
>idiots, whoever they are. Ideally it will give them more anguish than
>their constant barrage of spam has brought me. I will not relent. My
>next step is to try and track down the actual owners of this "business",
>try to find out their other phone numbers (preferrably home numbers) and
>unleash the Spaminator on those numbers as well.
>
>Thanks for letting me vent.
>
>Sam Alternate e-mail:
>dastar_at_siconic.com
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Ever onward.
>
> September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
> [Last web page update: 07/05/98]
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 16:16:46 -0700
>From: "***Bull*sEye)*" <33rq2w_at_att.net>
>To: vcoffey_at_bu.edu
>
>Authenticated sender is <33rq2w_at_att.net>
>Subject: ++BullsEye-*Targeting*Software*)+
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>EMAIL MARKETING WORKS!!
>
>Bull's Eye Gold is the PREMIER email address collection tool.
>This program allows you to develop TARGETED lists of email
>addresses. Doctors, florists, MLM, biz opp,...you can collect
>anything...you are only limited by your imagination! You can
>even collect email addresses for specific states, cities, and
>even countries! All you need is your web browser and this program.
>Our software utilizes the latest in search technology called
>"spidering". By simply feeding the spider program a starting
>website it will collect for hours. The spider will go from website
>to targeted website providing you with thousands upon thousands of
>fresh TARGETED email addresses. When you are done collecting, the
>spider removes duplicates and saves the email list in a ready to
>send format. No longer is it necessary to send millions of ads to
>get a handful of responses...SEND LESS...EARN MORE!!!
>
>A terrific aspect of the Bull's Eye software is that there is
>no difficult set up involved and no special technical mumbo-jumbo
>to learn. All you need to know is how to search for your targeted
>market in one of the many search engines and let the spider do the
>rest! Not familiar with the search engines? No problem, we provide
>you with a list of all the top search engines. Just surf to the
>location of a search engine on your browser then search for the
>market you wish to reach...it's that easy!
>
>For instance if you were looking for email addresses of Doctors
>in New York all you would do is:
>
>1) Do a search using your favorite search engine by typing in
>the words doctor(s) and New York
>2) Copy the URL (one or more)...that's the stuff after the
>http://... for instance it might look like
>http://www.yahoo.com/?doctor(s)/?New+York
>3) Press the START button
>
>THAT's IT!!! The Bull's Eye spider will go to all the websites
>that are linked, automatically extracting the email addresses
>you want.
>
>The spider is passive too! That means you can let it run all
>day or all night while you are working on important things or
>just having fun on your computer. There is no need to keep a
>constant watch on it, just feed it your target market and give
>it praise when it delivers thousands of email addresses at
>the end of the day!
>
>Features of the Bull's Eye Software:
>
>* Does TARGETED searches of websites collecting the email
> addresses you want!
>* Collects Email addresses by City, State, even specific
> Countries
>* Runs Automatically...simply enter the Starting information,
> press The Start Button, and it does the rest
>* Filters out duplicates
>* Keeps track of URLs already visited
>* Can run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week
>* Fast and Easy List Management
>* Also has built in filtering options...you can put in words
> that it "Must" have while searching,...you can even put in
> criteria that it "Must NOT Have"...giving you added flexibility
>* Also imports email addresses from any kind of files (text
> files, binary files, database files)
>* List editor handles Multiple files to work on many lists
> simultaneously
>* Has a Black-Book feature... avoid sending emails to people
> who do not want to receive it
>* Built-in Mail program...send email directly on the internet
> with just a click of your mouse
>* Personalized Emails...if the email address has the user's
> name when it is collected,..you can send Personalized emails!!!
>* Sort by Location, Server, User Name, Contact Name
>* Advanced Operations:
>
Email address lists export in many different formats
> (HTML, Comma delimited, text file)
>
Advanced editing...Transfer, Copy, Addition, Delete, Crop,
> Move to Top/Bottom
>
Operations between lists...Union, Subtraction, Comparison
>* Program is Passive,...meaning you can run other programs at
> the same time
>
>CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 213-427-5820
>CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 213-427-5820
>
>ORDERING INFORMATION
>
>Customer Name
>Company Name
>Address
>City
>State Zip
>Phone Fax
>Email Address
>
>______ BULL'S EYE SOFTWARE $259.00
>Includes Software, Instructions, Technical Support
>
>______ Shipping & Handling (2-3 Day Fedex) $10.00
> (Fedex Overnite) $20.00
>
>______ TOTAL
> (CA Residents add applicable sales tax)
>
>*All orders are for Win 95 and Win NT
>
> *****CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED*****
> MASTERCARD VISA AMEX
>
> PLEASE CALL 213-427-5820 to process your order
> 9am-5pm Pacific Time
> Checks or Money Orders send to:
> WorldTouch Network Inc.
>5670 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 2170 Los Angeles, CA 90036
>Please note: Allow 5 business days for all checks to
>clear before order is shipped.
>
>
>*If you would like your email address removed, please
>write us at the above address.
........................................................................
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71 ------------] web superstation of the stars...
van burnham
http://www.futuraworld.com
production manager
wired 520 third street fourth floor san francisco ca 94107 united states
........................................................................
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Received on Wed Jul 15 1998 - 12:08:50 BST