Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Joey O'Doherty" <joey AT odoherty.net>]

From the Interesting People List:

--- snip ---
Subject: [IP] Time Travel Spammer IDed
From: Dave Farber <dave AT farber.net>
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 17:05:43 -0400
To: ip AT v2.listbox.com

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0%2C1284%2C60141%2C00.html


This summer, Dave Hill got a refreshing break from the run-of-the-mill 
spam that routinely invades his e-mail inbox. Instead of hawking 
mortgages, penis-enlargement pills or weight-loss products, a message 
arrived that seemed straight out of a science-fiction novel.

The anonymous e-mail offered $5,000 to any vendor capable of promptly 
delivering a collection of far-fetched gadgets for conducting time 
travel. Among the mysterious devices sought by the message's author were 
an "Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal 
displacement" and an "AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing 
the GRC79 induction motor."

A trail of Internet clues has fingered Robert "Robby" Todino as the 
source of the time-travel messages. In a telephone interview last week, 
the 22-year-old Woburn, Massachusetts, resident admitted that he has 
sent nearly 100 million of the bizarre messages since November 2001.

"It almost feels worthless now because the people who are monitoring my 
every move always seem to win. But it's the only form of communication I 
have right now," Todino said.

His father, Robert Todino Sr., worries that malicious users have preyed 
on Robby's "psychological problems" and bilked him out of money.

"What bothers me is that some people are trying to sell him equipment 
and take advantage of him," said Todino Sr. "He's invested a lot of 
money into it and has been hurt by it."

But Robby insists that he is "perfectly mentally stable," and that the 
time-travel technology he seeks is out there somewhere.

"A lot of people will say the stuff I talk about is crazy and out of 
this world. But I know for a fact that it is true and does exist. 
Untrained minds may disagree with me, but they don't have access to the 
sources that I do," he said.

Be that as it may, Todino's recent spam not only appears to violate the 
laws of science, but some may also flout a 2001 legal action against him 
by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In August 2001, the state's attorney general 
<http://www.ago.state.ma.us/txt/rtmarket.htm>ordered Robby Todino's 
company, 
<http://web.archive.org/web/20001004043659/http://www.rtmarketing.com/>RT 
Marketing, to stop sending fraudulent e-mail advertisements for "free 
government grants" and "detective software."

Under an "assurance of discontinuance" deal -- the first antispam action 
ever taken by Massachusetts regulators -- Todino agreed to pay a $5,000 
fine and halt "misleading and deceptive" spamming practices.

Shortly thereafter, Todino's first wave of time-travel spam hit the 
Internet. In November 2001, using the AOL screen name Robby0809 AT aol.com, 
he sent thousands of anonymous 
<http://www.adultvideoondemand.com/adultvideoondemand.html>e-mails with 
the subject line, "Time Travelers PLEASE HELP."

The messages appealed to anyone who was a "time traveler or alien 
disguised as human" and stated that the sender's life had been "severely 
tampered with" and he needed "temporal reversion" to correct it.

In December 2001, a three-page, single-spaced 
<http://www.geocities.com/dictatoroftheuniverse/story.html>message 
signed by someone named "Robby" began appearing in many Internet users' 
inboxes. The e-mail described how the author had been drugged and 
poisoned as a child by a woman his father had dated. He said he needed a 
"time traveler" to help him "take back what was stolen from me in the 
first place. MY LIFE."

Over the years, many netizens have posed as time-travel vendors in 
online 
<http://www.smooshspace.com/weblog/archive/000284.html>conversations 
with the spam's sender, who has referred to himself by aliases including 
Bob White and Tim Jones.

Some Internet users have speculated on discussion lists that the sender 
is a sci-fi author in search of material. Others have suggested the 
time-travel messages are just a cunning way for spammers to harvest 
working e-mail addresses.

The more common assumption is that the unidentified author of the 
e-mails is just out for fun. To play along, a few pranksters have 
created fake eBay 
<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3032445202&category=294>auctions 
in response to the bizarre messages.

Officials with the Massachusetts Attorney General's office said they 
have been monitoring Todino's online activities to ensure compliance 
with the 2001 agreement. However, they could not comment on the 
information they have gleaned.

Todino acknowledged that, soon after being busted by authorities in 
Massachusetts, he resumed sending commercial spam messages in the fall 
of 2001 under the company name PK Marketing.

PK Marketing's spamming reached a peak late last spring, when Todino 
broadcast millions of 
<http://mailman.boxedpenguin.com/pipermail/debian-kerberos/2003-April/000717.html>messages 
advertising "free cash grants" at its site grantgiveawayprogram.com.

Despite a stated desire to conceal his identity "to avoid the 
anti-spammers," Todino has done puzzlingly little to separate PK 
Marketing from the time-travel spam.

For example, the company's federalfundingprogram.com site was listed as 
a contact address for more information in the July 
<http://www.childsupportanalysis.co.uk/guest_contributions/dwg_strill.htm>messages 
seeking a dimensional warp generator.

A subsequent e-mail message broadcast across the Internet instructed 
recipients to "teleport" the DWG to a set of geographic coordinates in 
Woburn at 3 p.m. on July 28. The message apparently prompted several 
people to convene near the drop-off spot, but no paranormal phenomena 
were <http://www.inertramblings.com/archives/000250.html>reported.

Todino believes that if it hadn't been for an intervention by "the 
conspiracy," he might finally have laid his hands on a time-travel machine.

"There are forces that are constantly monitoring, and anyone who tries 
to send something to those coordinates will get it blocked," he said. 
"But certain intergalactic couriers have the means to deliver the stuff 
to me. And I'm sure if I pursued it I could get something out of that."

End of story

--- snip ---

BigLee Haslup wrote:
> There is a class of spam for which the only purpose is to collect the 
> eMail addresses of people who will respond to random eMails.
>
> I got one today that said, in effect: "I had fun at the pub last week, 
> are you interested in joining me?"
>
> I wonder what the demographics would be for people who want to help the 
> time traveler?
>
> BigLee
>
> At 12:48 PM 9/5/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>
> > Has anyone else received this spam?
> >
> > http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/timetravelspam.html
> >
> > I read it a couple of times trying to figure out what the possible scam
> > could be with no luck.
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________ 
> > _________
> > On Poetry: People could like daffodils if they wanted to, but should
> > not be allowed
> > to take up more than a page to say so. -- Pratchett
> >         -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC
> >
> > ---
> > Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!  
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>
>
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pub  1024D/B663781B 2001-11-13 Joey O'Doherty <joey(at)odoherty(dot)net>
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