Author: The Internet Patrol
I’m Sorry Teacher, the Spam Filter Ate My IPO
Two things are now clear to Aunty about Google’s upcoming IPO: 1) They are moving forward with their somewhat novel concept of making their initial offering directly to individuals, by email, and 2) they are worried about that email being zapped by spam filters. As such, Google and their investment…
Microsoft to begin checking for SPF with inbound email to Hotmail, MSN
Microsoft has announced that they will begin checking email coming in to Hotmail, MSN and Microsoft.com to determine whether the sending server has published a valid SPF record. The change is to occur on the first of October. It makes sense, given that they have merged their own Caller I.D….
A Really Bad Idea: Register Your Child’s Email Address with the Michigan or Utah Email Child Protection Registery
As stupid ideas go, this one is a doozy: people have long said that one of the downsides of a Do Not Email Registry is that it would be such an attractive target for spammers. Well how about this one: the states of Michigan and Utah just enacted law to…
BREAKING NEWS: NY State Attorney General Reaches Settlement With Spam King Scott Richter
In an exclusive story, the Internet Patrol has learned that the New York State Attorney General has reached a settlement with Spam King Scott Richter.
Breaking News: Court Dismisses SpamCop SLAPP Suit Against Richter
Aunty is still working to confirm this, but a little birdie whispered in her ear that SpamCop’s and parent company Ironport’s SLAPP suit against Scott Richter and his OptInRealBig, in response to Richter’s suit against SpamCop, has been dismissed by the Court. Here’s the history to date: Richter sues SpamCop…
Joe-Jobbing Can Be Dangerous
Being Joe-Jobbed – or, in normal English, having your email address spoofed in the “From:” line of a spam run – has always been annoying. Now it turns out that it can be dangerous, too. When Charles Booher of Sunnyvale, California kept receiving spam for products to improve and supersize…
Goverment Recommends “Use a Different Browser” to Combat Internet Explorer’s Security Vulnerabilities
In a move which surely can’t make Microsoft happy, no less an authority than US-CERT (the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) has recommended that one way to deal with the security holes in IE is to “use a different web browser”. In its notice, published this week and entitled…
Old Spammers Never Die…
In a triumph of stupidity over common sense, William “Billy” Carson has managed to distinguish himself by being the target of one of the first lawsuits by a state District Attorney’s office under CAN-SPAM. Massachusetts is suing Carson for sending “thousands of messages with numerous violations, including misleading subject lines…
Court Rules that ISPs May Read Customers’ Email Without Their Knowledge
Gentle Readers, This week a United States Court of Appeals in Massachusetts held that an ISP may read a customer’s email without the customer’s knowledge or permission. Yes, you read that right. It is not illegal for an ISP to read its customer’s email, even if they do not have…
DeniedRealBig: Court Rejects Richter’s Request for Injunction against SpamCop
On Friday afternoon the California Federal Court denied a request by King of Spam Scott Richter and his OptInRealBig for an injunction against anti-spam organization SpamCop.
One bad apple… (AOL’s Jason Smathers Arrested for Stealing Email Addresses)
AOL employee Jason Smathers has been arrested for stealing an AOL customer list containing 92 million AOL usernames and selling it to Las Vegas spammer Sean Dunaway. Police say that Dunaway, who was arrested as well, used the list to send spam about his online gambling business, and that he…
Gmail for GIs
Here is a cause you can really back, and it just doesn’t matter what your politics are. And if it does, well, shame on you. We call it “Gmail for GIs”, but the good folks over at Gmail 4 Troops call it a way to help troops who are stationed overseas and their families stay in touch. Gmail for the Troops is the brainchild of Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) and his friend Drew Olanoff, and is sponsored by our own ISIPP.
This List Tells You Who Is Advertising in Spam
The Internet Patrol is a big fan of that section of CAN-SPAM which allows for prosecution of the people who are advertising in spam, in addition to those who are sending the spam. We have long said that going after the advertisers makes a lot of sense, and is one…
FTC Says “No” to Do Not Email List, “Yes” to Sender Authentication
The FTC today has announced to Congress and the country that it does not believe that a national “Do Not Email” (“DNE”) list is viable until such time as “a robust email authentication system that would prevent spammers from hiding their tracks” is in place. In other words, email sender…
“Did They Read It” Service Tells Senders Whether, When, and WHERE You Read Their Email
Users of the “Did They Read It” (“DTRI”) service run their email to you through the DTRI server, where a web bug is embedded in the email. When you open the email to read it, the web bug reports back to DTRI that you have opened the email, and where, geographically, the IP address you are using is located.
