IP: Revenge spam hits antispammer

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 20:24:15 -0400
From: "Beth Arnold" <betharnold () cfjf dyn ml org>
Subject: Revenge spam hits antispammer


My name is Elisabeth Arnold.  As you may or may not know, I have been the
victim of a massive revenge spam.  I work at a small ISP in New Jersey.
Recently, I pulled a spammer's account for repeated violation of our
acceptable-use policy.  This was 2 weeks ago.  That weekend, a message was
sent out by "Beth Arnold" with a bunch of gibberish and a 200k wav file of
"animal sounds".


This weekend, 2 separate messages were sent, one to participants in the
net-abuse groups -- including a 300k wav file of recordings from the
activity menu of an Audix voice-mail system, and another to participants in
the comp.* and rec.* groups.  You may very well have received this message:


> Call BETH ARNOLD at 1-800-450-5766 to order a list of e-mail addresses and
> bulk e-mail software.  If you got this message, congratulations.  You are
> on a list of e-mail addresses that we sell.  You will receive many more
> messages like this one.  
[SLIGHTLY EDITED FOR RISKS.  PGN]


This message was obvious flame bait, and it worked very well.  I received
200 calls to my 800 number before disconnecting it.  My mail server was
inundated with mail bombs, returns, and complaints.  My http ports were SYN
attacked.  And I was "ping stormed".


UUNet is useless in tracking this person down.  They just don't care.  I
would appreciate any help I can get.


Thank you, Beth Arnold  betharnold () cfjf dyn ml org




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