STOP NEWSGROUP SPAMMING!
(Or at least help slow it down!)

This page has been accessed  times since March 11 1995.

I've seen lots of Spam in Newsgroups since I've been on the Net. Yes,
I'm sick of it too.

Spam, for those who don't know, is (typically):

- In its most basic and simplest definition, anything that is wasted
bandwidth -- assuming that much of the Internet isn't by definition
wasted bandwidth. :)
- Excessively quoted material (ie. quoting the whole post then only
saying "I agree")
- A useless, stupid thread of meaningless junk (or "Make Money Fast"
or "Please send me postcards" or something else bogus) whose most common
attributes are that they are the very same post, or a series of bogus
posts on the same stupid subject.
- Unfortunately, the above isn't 100% accurate. Spam can also be a
legitimate thread given an appropriate forum, but it's posted in the
wrong newsgroup(s). The operative notion here is that it is misplaced
and annoying to the readers of a group, and usually of many groups.
- The same thread which can be found in dozens or even hundreds of
newsgroups at the same time.
- You often see a lot of responses to it, often unfortunately to the
effect of "Please stop this nonsense" or "Please remove such and such a
group from the newsgroups line."
- And of course those annoying email spams.

One of the real problems with spam is that the responses are also spam,
despite perhaps in some cases being an otherwise legitimate
continuation of a legitimate thread. These responses often actually
constitute the bulk of the spam as many spammers realize that their
little kernel will mushroom into the real nuisance in the form of
hundreds of responses and perpetuation of the thread. THEREFORE DON'T
RESPOND TO SPAM IN PUBLIC FORUMS; YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS EVERYONE ELSE
CONTINUING THE THREAD IF YOU DO! Or conversely, take a look at the
"newsgroups:" line and edit it so that the appropriate newsgroups are
targeted, and the unrelated ones aren't.

- Spam also is junk, unsolicited email -- not to be confused with
unsolicited but very welcome personal communications (ie. I'm a known
"internet 'expert'" on winemaking; people who don't know me are welcome to
write to me asking me about winemaking without invitation.)

It also works along similar lines for other things like lists.

It is quite annoying, and wastes bandwidth and system resources, having
the effect of:

- slowing down the Internet's response time to your requests
- increasing the costs of your access to the net
- increasing the amount of junk you have to wade through to find anything
useful, reducing the productivity of your online time
- reducing your enjoyment of the resources you do find useful
- need I go on?

Bottom line is that even if you don't see it wherever you go, it still
affects you.

How to deal with spam when you encounter it:

- IGNORE IT AND MOVE ON. Frustrating, but unless you know how to shut
them down or report them to the right people -- if there is a "right"
person to report them to (which often there may not be) -- or otherwise
effectively do something about them, then you actually either do nothing
by your actions, perpetuate the spam, or make it worse. Such is the
nature of the net.
- If your newsreader or email client supports it, use a kill file to
screen out posts with given keywords.
- If you use trn to read news and you want to ignore crossposts, put
the following line in your killfile:

/^Newsgroups: {newsgroup name without the brackets}$/HNewsgroups:+

- Ignore it until it goes away. Tell your friends to ignore it too.
By responding to it, you are actually actively helping the thread to
survive instead of helping to kill it.
- Start posting relevant articles to your newsgroup. It won't actually do
anything about the spam, but at least the signal to noise ratio will be
higher.
- Snip quoted material that you're responding to down to a minimum
(especially the signatures) Remember that this will have a cascade effect
when people respond to your responses but forget to snip.
- If you feel compelled to respond to spam, edit the "newsgroups:" line,
instead of just saying that "they" should have done so.
- Conversely, if you are responding to an otherwise legitimate thread,
edit the "newsgroups:" line so that your post goes to the appropriate
forum.
- Try responding to the spam, BUT change the "follow-up" line to something
like alt.test. I really don't suggest this, as it actually continues spam.
However it does redirect future spam originating from your posts to
someplace useless, and it avoids having it proliferate all over.
- Try to track down the originator, and spam them. Try organizing a
mailbomb campaign on their account, and complain to their sysdamin.
Usually they have addresses like
- root@[domain]
- sysop@[domain]
- support@[domain]
- admin@[domain]
- postmaster@[domain]
- info@[domain]
- abuse@[domain]
and so on, where [domain] is the spammer's domain, usually what is
after the @ sign in their address. It may be fake, so some digging
may be necessary. Sometimes these addresses will be the spammer
themself, and therefore the message will go unheeded. But if you
don't try, the spammer may try again.

- You should also check the "Getting a complaint to the correct person"
section of the alt.spam FAQ.
- Suggest to the maintainer of your group's FAQ to have a section on
spam policy, and how you wish to react to it (hopefully in a useful
manner, of course!)
- Using a newsreader that allows it, compare things like email addresses
and news ID numbers. That often allows you to track down the spammer. That
way a flame to them and/or a complaint to their sysadmin is more likely to
get to the right party.
- Link this page to your homepage, and direct others to it. Please use the
following url: http://www.pobox.com/~malak/spam.html -- the different
domain from what you see is just a redirection service so that you will
always find it wherever it may be on the net.
- Make and advertise your own campaign against spam that of course
does not spam newsgroups.
- Check:
- the news.admin.net-abuse FAQ
- the alt.spam FAQ and follow its advice
- the ADComplain page.

- For the US: David Medine, Bureau of Consumer Protection
dmedine@ftc.gov, and the Fraud Department at the Internal Revenue Service
1040fraud@irs.gov
- Check:
- the "Abuse of Usenet" page and its many links
- the National Fraud Information Center Homepage
- the Blacklist of Internet Advertisers
- the Coalition Against Unsolicited Email page
- Donna Troy's E-Mail Filtering Service (fee applies)
- The Junkbusters Home Page
- http://www.macintouch.com/spam.shtml
- the IEMMC FAQ
- check Scambusters and subscribe to their newsletter
- includes a page on how to reduce the junk email you receive
- http://www.mmgco.com/nospam/

From Davide Kehoe (kehoe@netcom.com):

- If the spammer is on AOL, call their 800 number, and AOL's "Terms Of
Service" (pronounced "toss") department will quickly and happily toss the
offending subscriber. The AOL TOSS email ID is TOSEMail1@aol.com -or-
TOSEMail2@aol.com
- If it's a chain letter scheme, print out a copy and send it to your
local post office inspector. With respect to the USA, look in your
telephone directory's "Blue Pages" for federal government offices, look
in the US Postal Service section for the "Postal Inspector" office.
Only larger cities have a postal inspector, so you may have to call your
post office to find the closest postal inspector. Postal inspectors are
federal police that investigate crimes committed by mail. Chain letter
schemes are crimes. The url for the US Postal Service with respect to chain
letters is:
http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm
- If the person claims "I made $23,849 from this! Honest!", print out a
copy and send it to the spammer's income tax office, suggesting they check
if the spammer declared the $23,849 on their taxes. For the IRS, again
look in your "Blue Pages" section, under the Internal Revenue Service.
Look for the office of "Criminal Investigation". Mail to that address,
or give them a call.
- Hoaxes: http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
- Big foot Anti-Spam defense: http://www.bigfoot.com
- http://www.mmgco.com/nospam/

From eppp8.buffnet.net:

1) (For Make Money Fast articles) Make sure they know the IRS is on to
them!

2) Send them to jail.
Forward a copy of the original post to:
the Postal service - mailto:customer@email.usps.gov
the IRS - mailto:npr@npr.gov
the National Fraud Commission - mailto:nfic@internetMCI.com

Click here for more on chain letters.

Please reference this page on your homepage or somewhere else appropriate.

If you have any more suggestions, write me at malak&pobox.com (&=@)

Here are questions I've answered about spam.