Porn-related spam proves relentless

The Denver Post ^ | 12/22/02 | Jennifer Beauprez

[Doctor Stochastic]

There must be little demand for porn if the advertisers must resort to spam.

Actually, I think it's more like extortion. Someone buys a useful URL and threatens to make it into a porn site. Those who may want to use the URL must pay to keep the name clean.

[TLBSHOW]

Now we are being attacked with porn via the internet. UnWanted emails that offer every kind of sick attack to the soul using porn and all its sickness. Or using any major search engine with just a keyword or two and Porn is opened up for all to taste. This is a major attack happening and it is slowly turning a great nation into a very very sick nation. Just read the news headlines day after day and what the porn is doing to people and their minds that they do such sick sick acts on others, innocent others.

Yes Terrorist won't be the death of America but Porn & Sexual Americans will.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/724683/posts

[Poohbah]

Outlook 2000.

[Myrddin]

I get 30+ emails per day that are SPAM. It wastes a tremendous amount of time sorting my business e-mail from all that trash. Even more irritating than the porn pics is the virus transport. Some of the e-mails contain a virus that launches while you are selecting the item for deletion. That is not only annoying, it is criminal.

[Treebeard]

"Click, Bang", indeed...

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Me too. As soon as I open my Yahoo email I have to delete 30 porn spams. Makes me nuts.

[DoughtyOne]

Hmmm, I've got that and have never used it. I'll check it out. Thanks.

[HairOfTheDog]

Never once.

I have never once gotten a pornographic email.

In fact, as much as I surf, and as many places as I have registered, I don't even get unexpected spam of any kind.

I never cruise porn sites, however. Never been to one. I can only think that is why I don't get spammed. My boss at work gets all kinds of porn spam. All addressed to a former employee who's address forwards to her. An employee, we now presume, who registered at porn sites from work. Neither of us get any, just him.

[ihatemyalarmclock]

I had a problem with outrageous porn solicitations in Outlook Express, plus a virus. We changed our e-mail address and got rid of the pornographers!

My brother has maintained a Hotmail account for several years. I asked him why he wasn't getting spammed to Hades and back, and he said: "look at my address."

He's right. It's not a name, it's a location, and the only part of it that's derived from a name doesn't use "common spelling."

Few "spambots" can find it, and he's largely unbothered.

[nanny]

Maybe the porn spams will FINALLY get Congress, ISP's and backbones, etc. to stop taking bribes from the Direct Marketing Association, and start actually doing something about spam.

Now I hate spam also. I get 50 to 90 a day on Yahoo. Yahoo puts in in the bulk folder and I just delete entire folder. Some get through 10 a day probably. But having said that, I am not sure I think it is wise to involve the government. They want their hands on the internet and this sort of thing is the best way for them to do it. Just think if we ask them to protect us from porn or direct marketing - what else will they feel we should be 'protected from'. Don't forget it is mind boggling at the number of people who can be offended by a number of things.

I am not sure the government is the answer. Maybe someone could invent a software program that could 'return' these every 5 minutes to the sender until the server is closed down. Maybe then the servers would be a little more discerning about their clients.

[cryptical]

Click !Bang! It's there. That has to be a factor in porns success on the web.

I've seen some technical articles on porn sites, and am impressed. I run a large email/web site for a .edu, and I'm guessing that there'd be a lot of good techniques that we on the 'legit' side of the world can learn from how porn sites do things.

[Afronaut]

I was spammed by a Child Porn portal. It was hosted on Geocities. I then tried to turn the link in at both Geocities and the FBI. I have since received a few more. I have turned in everything. Yet the sites are still up. These sites have children the same age as my daughters posted right on the site. I get so mad it's not even funny. I can't get them taken down no matter what. It's like nobody cares.

[Senator Pardek]

All addressed to a former employee who's address forwards to her.

LOL - a woman who searches for porn.

Like you, I've never gotten a porn spam, and I get about 1 non-porn spam a month. What am I doing wrong?

[Poohbah]

Well, it has a "junk senders" feature, and I tend to put whole domains off-limits, and make an exception list based on "My Contacts." One day, after a long weekend, I got 350 pieces of spam...and my computer had zapped the stuff in less than five minutes.

[Drew68]

I never cruise porn sites, however. Never been to one. I can only think that is why I don't get spammed.

I have two yahoo email addresses. One of them (as I mentioned) is constantly filled with spam. The other address never receives spam. I don't know what to make of it.

I have surfed "adult" sites (some porn, some just raunchy) and I don't know why one address gets spam and the other does not.

My mother (who is the only user of her computer) never surfs porn sites and still gets tons of porn in her email. She shops online and plays online games and jigsaw puzzles.

The spam doesn't really bother me as I just delete it without opening it. However, I don't have any children who use my computer. I would be more bothered if I did. And while I believe that porn has a right to exist on the internet, it should never be forced on anyone who does not wish to view it (as these spammers are doing).

[TLBSHOW]

I believe hal9000 was on to some way to stop it.

I just did that thread on what I thought, and you would of though I wanted to end sex or something.

Maybe it was the title lol

Terrorist won't be the death of America but Porn & Sexual Americans will

[Gorzaloon]

I am not sure the government is the answer. Maybe someone could invent a software program that could 'return' these every 5 minutes to the sender until the server is closed down. Maybe then the servers would be a little more discerning about their clients.

As an old Nethead from the '80's I agree that the Government is the last resort. But I have commercial sites, and am at the point where spam is causing so much harm to online business in general (That is, REAL business with real products of value), that I believe we are at the point where it is needed.

We cannot bounce the spam back because they all have forged headers. Some innocent third party will then have a crashed server. There have been successful lawsuits regarding these forgeries, but most spammers are just white trash with no assetts, who have already failed at selling Amway.

I run Mailwasher at home, which does bounce spam back..to _somewhere_, but never to the actual spammer.

If various agencies really wanted to shut these scum down, there are plenty of statutes already in existance they could use, or new interpretation of state laws regarding obscene phone calls, sexual harrassment, etc.

But the DMA bribes are just too good right now.

[DoughtyOne]

I use Netscape for my Earthlink mail. Do you use the Outlook 2000 to handle all your mail? I may need to rethink my management if you do.

[Poohbah]

Yes, I do.

The spam filter on Nutscrape never did what I wanted it to do.

[DoughtyOne]

I've checked out a few intros that sounded as if they were something else until you hit the front page of the prono site. Once you're there, they have your IP address and can share it with others. Before long you're getting all sorts of fruitcake stuff. Lucky you.