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Filtering form content?

Mon, 2006-09-11 14:28 — tafinucane

Wouldn't a spamming company be able to easily remove the thousands of "please don't send me email" POST bodies? It seems the only way this can be effective is if it is a DOS attack.

‹ possibly a silly question enciphered e-mails as a SPAM countermeasuer ›
Wed, 2006-09-13 15:25 — Jimbo

No, no, no.

Haven't you guys heard? An expert recently published a paper about (& code that is very good at) getting around captchas. It's in the 90-something percent range of accuracy. It would take very little time to integrate this into Okopipi since the code is already out there.
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Tue, 2006-09-12 08:11 — Journeyman

maybe

sure, they might beable to, the goal is to post on their order form and depending on how its set up it may not be that easy. we might have to do some random letter generating our selves, we will use the spammers tactics to our advantage. If the okopipi community gets big enough, a side effect could flood the server, and generate lots of costly bandwidth. I think one way or another we will get their attention.

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Wed, 2006-09-13 00:26 — fungus_b

Bandwidth...

a side effect could flood the server, and generate lots of costly bandwidth. I think one way or another we will get their attention.

Bandwidth is the only thing which actually costs a spammer money. I think the "form filling" plan is a waste of time because spammers can simply put up captchas and it's game over.

I'm more for sucking their servers dry. The ideal scenario for me wouldn't be a DOS/flood attack (which just prevents other people from getting through), it'd be to get their servers running continually at 95% bandwidth. Bandwidth costs them actual money and would get their attention faster than anything else.

The way to do it is to go to their servers, find some image files and start downloading them over and over again. There's a script out there called spam vampire which does this but spammers are getting wise to it and making their sites more spam-vampire-proof (you have to download the HTML as well as the images).

Wed, 2006-09-13 06:50 — Journeyman

that is illegal

There are many places that do that, but that is illegal. some captchas can be "cracked", and if we can't then we will find another way. We are trying to keep Okopipi as legal as possible.

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Thu, 2006-09-14 01:46 — fungus_b

Illegal?

"There are many places that do that, but that is illegal."

Downloading a web site that you have a written invitation to go and visit is illegal...? Please don't post drivel.

Thu, 2006-09-14 06:11 — Journeyman

You are mistaken

uhm yes it is illegal, you are constantly redownloading the same files in an attempt to use bandwidth, you are indeed attacking the website, its called a vampire attack. Now maybe you are saying each client only downloads the site for each spam sent, even that isnt much bandwidth, websites don't use much bandwidth unless they are heavy flash sites.
You seem to think the CAN-SPAM Act gives you more power than it really does. The most you can do is complain (1 per spam) and they 10 business days to remove you from their list.
Again Asking you to come to my webpage is not inviting you to download files a bunch of times with the intent on using bandwidth.
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Fri, 2006-09-15 05:33 — fungus_b

Attacking web sites...

uhm yes it is illegal....

Maybe, I'm not a lawyer and neither are you, but:

How exactly do you think a spammer will sue people? Even the RIAA has trouble getting names and addresses out of ISPs and they've bribed the US congress to pass laws in their favour want as much publicity and police involvement as possible.

Do you think a Russian spammer can do this...?

Clue: "No."

Mon, 2006-11-13 11:36 — secondwheel

Because we want users

fungus_b, we want users. Once this thing gets going, we want Joe Sixpack and his grandma to feel comfortable using the Okopipi software. The more users we have, the more power.

Do you seriously want the media reviews to explain to potential users that our policy is "we know it's illegal -- but the spammers probably can't prosecute us because it's anonymous!"

Clue: "No."

Do we want the reviews to say "and it's totally legal, based on the CAN-SPAM act and other laws, because they only submit one removal request per spam?"

Clue: "Yes."

Fri, 2006-09-15 08:40 — Journeyman

not the point

It isn't about if they can find us or not. Just because you can get away with somthing doesn't make it legal.

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Wed, 2006-09-13 07:54 — colbycurtis

I've got the solution!!

OK here's all we have to do. Some crack programmer just invent a way to punch someone in the face through TCP/IP. Hey if we can put a guy on the moon why can't I punch someone in the face over the internet?? :) LOL

Ok a very sad attempt at humor but sometimes ya just gotta laugh or say WTF

Wed, 2006-09-13 22:12 — Journeyman

bash.org

Sounds like that bash quote...

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