GMail - instant spam !

I got my invite to join GMail this morning and instantly signed up.

Just a few hours later, having notified my new GMail address to only 2
people - my dad and my buddy of 20 years, neither of them likely
spammers - I received my first piece of spam, as below.

What the hell ois going on ?

Nick (severely pissed !)

verify@0spam.com to me
More options 11:22 am (5 hours ago)

HUOMIO!

Äskettäin lähettämäänne viestiä, jonka otsikko on "Hello", ei
ole vielä toimitettu perille, koska sen vastaanottaja käyttää
osoitteessa http://www.0Spam.com sijaitsevaa roskapostin
suodatuspalvelua. Olkaa ystävällinen ja klikatkaa alla olevaa
linkkiä varmistaaksenne, ettei kyseessä ole roskaposti. Kun tämä
varmennus on suoritettu, edellämainittu ja kaikki jatkossa
lähettämänne viestit hyväksytään automaattisesti.

http://www.0spam.com/verify.cgi?user=3D1104847464&verify=3D8 62065

==================== =====3D=
===============3D
Tämä on automaattinen viesti osoitteesta 0Spam.com.
Ole ystävällinen, äläkä vastaa tähän sähköpostiviestiin.

Etsitkö ilmaista roskapostin suodatuspalvelua?
Lisätietoa osoitteessa http://www.0spam.com.

Re: GMail - instant spam !

In article <1108834174.781939.284850@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, says...

> I got my invite to join GMail this morning and instantly signed up.

> Just a few hours later, having notified my new GMail address to only 2
> people - my dad and my buddy of 20 years, neither of them likely
> spammers - I received my first piece of spam, as below.

> What the hell ois going on ?

Dictionary attack? If you picked an easy to guess name, you gave the
spammers their shot. "John@example.com" can be easily changed to any domain
under the sun, and tried. "Gmail.com" is, like "aol.com", "hotmail.com", and
"yahoo.com", a popular domain; both with users, and spammers.

FWIW, I have had a GMail account for a couple of months, and I have yet to
get any spam there.

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint

Re: GMail - instant spam !

fisherofsouls@hotmail.com writes:

> I got my invite to join GMail this morning and instantly signed up.
>
> Just a few hours later, having notified my new GMail address to only 2
> people - my dad and my buddy of 20 years, neither of them likely
> spammers - I received my first piece of spam, as below.
>
> What the hell ois going on ?
>
> Nick (severely pissed !)
>
> verify@0spam.com to me
> More options 11:22 am (5 hours ago)

Apparently recipient is using mail filtering service
which sends challenge to allenged sender, before it delivers
mail to recipient.

That challenge text is Finnish.

According of text http://www.0Spam.com/ is mail filtering service.

You are challenged for message with subject "Hello".


> HUOMIO!
>
> Äskettäin lähettämäänne viestiä, jonka otsikko on "Hello", ei
> ole vielä toimitettu perille, koska sen vastaanottaja käyttää
> osoitteessa http://www.0Spam.com sijaitsevaa roskapostin
> suodatuspalvelua. Olkaa ystävällinen ja klikatkaa alla olevaa
> linkkiä varmistaaksenne, ettei kyseessä ole roskaposti. Kun tämä
> varmennus on suoritettu, edellämainittu ja kaikki jatkossa
> lähettämänne viestit hyväksytään automaattisesti.
>
> http://www.0spam.com/verify.cgi?user=1104847464&verify=86206 5
>
> ========================================
> Tämä on automaattinen viesti osoitteesta 0Spam.com.
> Ole ystävällinen, äläkä vastaa tähän sähköpostiviestiin.
>
> Etsitkö ilmaista roskapostin suodatuspalvelua?
> Lisätietoa osoitteessa http://www.0spam.com.

/ Kari Hurtta

Re: GMail - instant spam !

* NormanM wrote:
> In article <1108834174.781939.284850@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, says...
>
>> I got my invite to join GMail this morning and instantly signed up.
>
>> Just a few hours later, having notified my new GMail address to only 2
>> people - my dad and my buddy of 20 years, neither of them likely
>> spammers - I received my first piece of spam, as below.
>
>> What the hell ois going on ?
>
> Dictionary attack? If you picked an easy to guess name, you gave the
> spammers their shot. "John@example.com" can be easily changed to any domain
> under the sun, and tried. "Gmail.com" is, like "aol.com", "hotmail.com", and
> "yahoo.com", a popular domain; both with users, and spammers.
>
> FWIW, I have had a GMail account for a couple of months, and I have yet to
> get any spam there.

I agree. I have 2 gmail accounts. One I have used a bit, some friends
even have the email address - but the username is not a dictionary word.
This account has not received any spam yet.

The other account I have never told, emailed, or even written down the
email address. But the username is a dictionary word (well, combo of 2
dictionary words) and it has 26 spams sitting in it, and no legit email.

Lesson - choosing your usernames wisely is as important as any other
anti-spam technique.

--
T R O Y P I G G I N S
e : usenet@piggo.com

Re: GMail - instant spam !

On 19 Feb 2005 09:29:34 -0800, fisherofsouls@hotmail.com
wrote:

> I got my invite to join GMail this morning and instantly signed
> up.
>
> Just a few hours later, having notified my new GMail address
> to only 2 people - my dad and my buddy of 20 years, neither of
> them likely spammers - I received my first piece of spam, as
> below.
>
> What the hell ois going on ?
>
> Nick (severely pissed !)
>

How does one make money on the Internet?

Sell goods or services.

Which means advertising.

Which means spam.

You'll see, if you look into it, that a _whole_ lot of people
who claim to hate spam, and even claim to be spamfighters, are
spammers themselves: They don't regard *their* un-solicited,
bulk, commercial email to be spam.

*They* (they say) are "legitimate business-persons".

In-other-words: Their shit doesn't stink.

Even though my mail filter kills 100% of the spam, I wouldn't
go near gmail.

Right now, I send all mail from hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.,
through a filter that strips the spam sigs they all tack on to
everyone's mail.

By-the-way, "NormanM" is one of the hundreds of aliases of
a local troll. I don't ever read its posts.


AC

FAQ: Canonical list of questions Beavis refuses to answer (V1.00) (was Re: GMail - instant sp

This is a MIME GnuPG-signed message. If you see this text, it means that
your E-mail or Usenet software does not support MIME signed messages.

--=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-29586-1109203376-0002
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Beavis writes:

> By-the-way, "NormanM" is one of the hundreds of aliases of
> a local troll. I don't ever read its posts.

FAQ: Canonical list of questions Beavis refuses to answer (V1.00)

This is a canonical list of questions that Beavis never answers. This FAQ is
posted on a semi-regular schedule, as circumstances warrant.

For more information on Beavis, see:

http://angel.1jh.com/nanae/kooks/alanconnor.shtml

Although Beavis has been posting for a long time, he always remains silent
on the subjects enumerated below. His response, if any, usually consists of
replying to the parent post with a loud proclamation that his Usenet-reading
software runs a magical filter that automatically identifies anyone who's
making fun of him, and hides those offensive posts. For more information
see question #9 below.

============================================================ ================

1) If spammers avoid forging real E-mail addresses on spam, then where do
all these bounces everyone reports getting (for spam with their return
address was forged onto) come from?

2) If your Challenge-Response filter is so great, why do you still munge
when posting to Usenet?

3) Do you still believe that rsh is the best solution for remote access?
(http://tinyurl.com/5qqb6)

4) What is your evidence that everyone who disagrees with you, and thinks
that you're a moron, is a spammer?

5) How many different individuals do you believe really post to
comp.mail.misc? What is the evidence for your paranoid belief that everyone,
except you, who posts here is some unknown arch-nemesis of yours?

6) How many times, or how often, do you believe is necessary to announce
that you do not read someone's posts? What is your reason for making these
regularly-scheduled proclamations? Who do you believe is so interested in
keeping track of your Usenet-reading habits?

7) When was the last time you saw Bigfoot (http://tinyurl.com/23r3f)?

8) If your C-R system employs a spam filter so that it won't challenge spam,
then why does any of the mail that passes the filter, and is thusly presumed
not to be spam, need to be challenged?

9) You claim that the software you use to read Usenet magically identifies
any post that makes fun of you. In http://tinyurl.com/3swes you explain
that "What I get in my newsreader is a mock post with fake headers and no
body, except for the first parts of the Subject and From headers."

Since your headers indicate that you use slrn and, as far as anyone knows,
the stock slrn doesn't work that way, is this interesting patch to slrn
available for download anywhere?



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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

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=wVam
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--=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-29586-1109203376-0002--

Re: GMail - instant spam !

* Alan Connor wrote:

> Even though my mail filter kills 100% of the spam, I wouldn't
> go near gmail.
>
> Right now, I send all mail from hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.,
> through a filter that strips the spam sigs they all tack on to
> everyone's mail.

Gmail doesn't tack anything on the end of their emails, other than the
sig the user creates. Sure the user can use gmail accounts for spam
sending (or forging gmail account names), but the OP here was
complaining about _getting_ spam.

--
T R O Y P I G G I N S
e : usenet@piggo.com

Re: GMail - instant spam !

On 24 Feb 2005 02:11:34 GMT, Troy Piggins
wrote:

> * Alan Connor wrote:
>
>> Even though my mail filter kills 100% of the spam, I wouldn't
>> go near gmail.
>>
>> Right now, I send all mail from hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc.,
>> through a filter that strips the spam sigs they all tack on to
>> everyone's mail.
>
> Gmail doesn't tack anything on the end of their emails, other
> than the sig the user creates.

Not even a little one-line, 'use gmail' ad?



If not, then the filter just passes the mail through, so no
big deal.

> Sure the user can use gmail
> accounts for spam sending (or forging gmail account names), but
> the OP here was complaining about _getting_ spam.
>

I know.

About the Ccing my response to this post: Post on the Usenet,
read on the Usenet.

Can't see why you should be an exception, Troy.

AC

Re: GMail - instant spam !

* Alan Connor wrote:

>> Gmail doesn't tack anything on the end of their emails, other
>> than the sig the user creates.
>
> Not even a little one-line, 'use gmail' ad?

Nope :)

>
>
> If not, then the filter just passes the mail through, so no
> big deal.

True. No biggy.


> About the Ccing my response to this post: Post on the Usenet,
> read on the Usenet.

You mean my Mail-Copies-To: header? You don't have to cc if you don't
want to. That's why slrn/newsreaders give the option. I check my email
much more that I come to this newsgroup, so sometimes it is handy to
know if someone has followup'ed (is that even a word?). Not many people
do choose to cc anyway, but I leave the option there. My email
addresses are not munged, my life is an open book.

> Can't see why you should be an exception, Troy.

Hmm, I won't bite - other than to say "Why is there an option to do it
in slrnrc then? How can I be an exception?" Not trying to be a
smart-ass, just don't think I need to be chastised.

--
T R O Y P I G G I N S
e : usenet@piggo.com

Re: GMail - instant spam !

* Alan Connor wrote:
>> Gmail doesn't tack anything on the end of their emails, other
>> than the sig the user creates.
>
> Not even a little one-line, 'use gmail' ad?

Jeez you've put me in a shitty mood now, mate. Been thinking about
this. I know you are not selling anything (for money, anyway), but your
sigs - a la :

Pro-Active Spam Fighter
Pass-list --> Spam-Filter --> Challenge-Response
http://tinyurl.com/2t5kp

are more/equally as obtrusive as gmail's non-existent one.

> About the Ccing my response to this post: Post on the Usenet,
> read on the Usenet.
>
> Can't see why you should be an exception, Troy.

And this one - slrn asks a simple question if you want to cc by mail,
and you simply hit the 'y' or 'n' key. No sweat. Do you consider this
a pain in the arse, considering your C/R system for emails?

I'll be in a better mood tomorrow, I hope. Nothing against you
personally, just don't like hypocracy.

Peace
--
T R O Y P I G G I N S
e : usenet@piggo.com

Re: GMail - instant spam !

On 24 Feb 2005 03:47:57 GMT, Troy Piggins
wrote:

> * Alan Connor wrote:
>
>>> Gmail doesn't tack anything on the end of their emails, other
>>> than the sig the user creates.
>>
>> Not even a little one-line, 'use gmail' ad?
>
> Jeez you've put me in a shitty mood now, mate. Been thinking
> about this. I know you are not selling anything (for money,
> anyway), but your sigs - a la :
>
> Pro-Active Spam Fighter Pass-list --> Spam-Filter -->
> Challenge-Response http://tinyurl.com/2t5kp
>
> are more/equally as obtrusive as gmail's non-existent one.
>

As long as a sig is four lines or less and uses a proper
delimeter so that people have the option to not see it if
they configure their newsreaders that way, then it is
perfectly okay.

Perfectly within the Netiquette guidelines.

And _not_ intrusive.

Email is something else altogether.

>> About the Ccing my response to this post: Post on the Usenet,
>> read on the Usenet.
>>
>> Can't see why you should be an exception, Troy.
>
> And this one - slrn asks a simple question if you want to cc by
> mail, and you simply hit the 'y' or 'n' key. No sweat. Do you
> consider this a pain in the arse, considering your C/R system
> for emails?

Nope. It isn't a big deal. I just thought you deserved an
explanation for why I wasn't Ccing you.

Most people will not respond to the Cc'd post on the Usenet, and
this means that the rest of the people reading the thread and
the Archives will not see the answers/solutions (if any) that
were posted.

As for C-Rs being intrusive? Nope. Only someone who has mailed
me, intruded into my personal space, receives one.

THEY started it. Why should they be able to mail me and me not
be able to mail them in return?

Do you knock on stranger's doors and expect to be admitted
without an explanation and/or some kind of identification (verbal
or otherwise)?

However, if you were in a coffee shop or bar, you could
closely approach anyone because it is a public place.

>
> I'll be in a better mood tomorrow, I hope. Nothing against you
> personally, just don't like hypocracy.
>

I'm not being a hypocrite.

I don't complain about even blatantly commercial sigs on the
Usenet as long as they conform to the Netiquette guidelines.
If I don't want to see them, I hit the right key and they
are gone. And leave there if I don't want to see any sigs.

Email is quite different. It is PERSONAL. Those are my PERSONAL
mailboxes and they are NOT a public forum, which the Usenet is.

*I* make the rules in my personal space.

If the C-R bothers someone, they don't return it. Good riddance.
Keeping jerks out of my mailboxes is just as important as keeping
trolls and spammers out.

Anyone who finds taking 5 seconds to return a C-R when mailing
me for the first time, in order to prove that they are using
their real email address and are not one of these viscious
trolls or a spammer, too much can just fuck off. I don't want
to know anyone like that.

If they knocked on my door and refused to identify themselves
and explain why they wanted to see me, I wouldn't open the
door and good riddance to them.

And if a stranger (someone not passlisted) mails me (knocks
on my door) then they are going to tell me who they are and
why they are knocking on my door, and if I don't like what
they have to say, etc., I do NOT have to open the door.

> Peace -- T R O Y P I G G I N S e : usenet@piggo.com

Likewise.

But you are so far off-base that you can't even see it.

I repeat: Usenet is _public_ forum. My mailboxes are PRIVATE.

AC

--
Pro-Active Spam Fighter
Pass-list --> Spam-Filter --> Challenge-Response
http://tinyurl.com/2t5kp