“Groovy Motherfucker”

Win32Assassin

Since I’m posting so much about spam today, I might as well publicise the fact that my long-time mailbox saviour, SpamAssassin , is now available in a shiny new relatively-easy-to-use free Windows flavour.

Revenge, Spam, etc.

Following my my earlier post, an update on the situation.

First, Daryn replied from a different account (daryn@marinated.org):

Subject: Spam violation, washington state

Rod, 

 

Please do not forward your spam to Spam Arrest. We are a washington state company,

and as such, can take legal action against you for this.

 

Thanks,

 

Daryn 

Spam Arrest

However, I’ve checked the Washington state law and don’t believe I crossed the line, since I had no way of knowing if Daryn himself was a resident of WA.

Then he mailed me again

rod,

please remove me from your spam list.

As a washington state resident, if you do not honor my request, I can file a

legal complaint against you.

Thanks,

Daryn

Wrong again. WA state law says nothing about honouring opt-out requests. Only that you cannot a) forge the From address, b) forge a header or c) use a deceitful subject line.

Hmmm... An anti-spam firm who don't know anything about their local anti-spam laws? Promising.

So the forwarding of spam will continue.

In other news, I'm not the only one to be bothered by this spam, which means that SpamArrest's own mail servers are now appearing on various blacklists. Not a good sign for an anti-spam service.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served with Spam

This morning, I opened up my email and surfed through a mailing list I frequent. I was surprised to find a spam email waiting for me in the folder:

Subject: ADV: Enjoy a spam-free inbox

You may remember recently sending an email to a Spam Arrest customer,

and receiving a response asking you to visit our website and type in

a word that was shown to you in a picture.

It was pretty easy, wasn’t it?

Did you know that that one simple step stops virtually all spam from

entering our customers’ inboxes?

You too can enjoy the benefits of a spam-free inbox.

We are so confident you’ll like our product, that we’d like to offer

you a 30-Day free trial. If you are un-satisfied for any reason, just

cancel your account before the end of the trial and you’ll pay nothing.

Click here to visit our website and start your trial:

http://spamarrest.com/affl?1980401

Spam Arrest

Take control of your inbox!

Yes, that's right -- An unsolicited email advertising a spam-trapping service.

The reason I received this email is because one of the subscribers to the mailing list had subscribed to SpamArrest's service. Because I got annoying messages every time I mailed the list asking me to "validate myself", I eventually succumbed and went through the validation process. And because I validated myself, SpamArrest now think I'm fair game to receive their advertising messages.

I emailed spamarrest at privacy@spamarrest.com, ccing pr@spamarrest.com for good measure:

In what way, shape or form, exactly, does this comply with your posted
Privacy Policy?

I am absolutely sickened that an “anti-spam company”, of all people, is

spamming “passers-by”.

I did not opt-in for your publicity material.

Kindly explain your actions before I start publicizing this case more.  (I

think CNet and Wired News would love to make a story out of this)

rOD.

(I actually notified Wired News and CNet immediately. Ironically, two CNet journalists use SpamArrest's service, so I got two "please verify yourself" messages back. Needless to say, I didn't follow through.)

At 1.30pm, I received the following response:

Rod,

Our privacy policy states that we are allowed to contact “senders”, that is,

the people who send our customers email.

Please refer the section entitled “HOW DO WE USE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE

COLLECT?”.

You may use the opt-out link in the email, or visit

http://spamarrest.com/optout to remove yourself from receiving future

promotional emails from us.

Daryn

Spam Arrest

Fair enough -- In summary, "If you email one of our customers, we are allowed to spam you". So I replied:

Dear Daryn,

In accordance with my posted privacy policy at

http://arsecandle.org/~rod/daryn.html I will now start forwarding spam I

receive to you.

I hope you enjoy it.

Love and hugs,

rOD.

Daryn has since received a copy of every spam I have received for the month of February so far. That's approximately 450 spams. And he's been added to my reporting scripts for any spams I receive from here on in.

Awaiting further developments.

UPDATE: 16:09pm Read up on what happened next.

“I don’t want to debate world politics with you.”

Last week, I read this transcript of rightwing talking head nutjob Bill O’Reilly lose it with someone who didn’t agree with his point of view, but actually hearing it is something else entirely. What a freakshow!