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  • From: "Bill Geschwind" <geschwin AT email.unc.edu>
  • To: "'InterNetWorkers'" <internetworkers AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: How I got rid of one spammer
  • Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:42:30 -0400


I have been waiting for an opportunity when all the circumstances are
right to do something similar to those annoying telemarketers - you know
the ones, those bastards who call you in the middle of dinner to sell
you some new credit card or home burglar alarm service or whatever.
First, if one of those guys were to call me when I am in front of my
computer with a browser open, I would first ask him for his name,
including last name, and then try to determine what city he is calling
from. With some telemarketers that may not be possible, whereas with
others that may not be out of the question. I would tell them that if
they don't provide me that information then I would not be able to talk
to them and just hang up. Then, if I do get that information from them,
I would ask them to tell me all about whatever it is they are peddling,
just to buy some extra time to go on the web and into the PeopleFinder
page under bigyellow.com (or some equivalent site where you type in a
person's name and city and it returns their address and phone number).
Once I have that information, I would say something like, 'aren't you
the John Doe who lives at 456 main street and isn't your number
919-123-4567?' If I get a startled hesitation from the guy at the other
end, I would continue with something like 'well, I was just about to sit
down and have dinner. How about I call you back at a more convenient
time and then you can tell me more about your product. How does 3:00 am
sound?'

;)
Bill


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael S Czeiszperger [mailto:czei AT webperformanceinc.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 1:09 PM
> To: InterNetWorkers
> Subject: [internetworkers] How I got rid of one spammer
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> My corporate email addresses recently kept receiving several
> emails a week
> from the same outfit trying to sell email mailing lists.
> Yeah, I could have
> just ignored them, but getting the same emails week after
> week was starting
> to bug me.
>
> Using spamcop to report it to their ISP didn't seem to help,
> so I tried
> following their unsubscribe instructions, which of course
> didn't work either.
>
> The next step was to call the phone number listed and
> complain. The person on
> the other end was polite, and said the email addresses would
> be removed. Yet,
> wouldn't you know it the next day the same three emails
> showed up, and
> continued to show up in my mailbox.
>
> I waited a couple of weeks hoping it would just go away, but
> no luck. The
> following Sunday night at 10PM I checked my email, and seeing
> the email show
> up again, decided to call the phone number again and leave a
> message letting
> them know I wasn't pleased with the situation. Strangely
> enough, the same guy
> answered the phone. Since companies don't usually staff the
> phones at 10PM on
> a Sunday, I guessed this must be his home phone number.
>
> The next week the emails continued, so I hit upon the idea of
> keeping his
> phones tied up. Not only that, but given the time difference
> he'd be getting
> calls at 6AM in the morning :-) I simply configured my fax to
> just dial his
> number over and over. This isn't strictly legal, but I figured, hey,
> accidents happened and I just typed in the wrong number.
>
> I sent email to all of the email addresses listed, offering
> my services to
> stop junk fax transmissions. All he had to do was remove the
> following email
> addresses and the faxes would stop. I used the same language
> as in his
> instructions for unsubscribing from the email "please allow
> two weeks to
> process your request" :-)
>
> I kept this up for two days, and never heard back, but the
> emails have
> stopped!
>
> - --
> Michael Czeiszperger
> Web Performance Inc.
> Raleigh, NC
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>
>
> ---
> Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!
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