SCI/TECH: Lycos Offers Spam-Server Attack Program

Lycos Europe is offering a program that the company says will allow the user to fight back against spam. Since its introduction, more than 65,000 people have downloaded the software that in essence floods the spam mailers address with spam of its own. The effect serves to choke off their servers with a deluge of email. Some computer experts worry that two wrongs do not make a right however. The program chooses its targets by reviewing suspected sites as identified by spam monitors such as SpamCop.



Lycos says they are stopping short of a denial of service attack by limiting the attacks down to 5 percent of the servers total bandwidth. While I appreciate the revenge after having spent so much time deleting spam despite filters, this could erupt into attack and counter attack that could end up bogging down the net by sheer traffic. For now though it seems the hunters may have become the hunted.

Seems like a bad idea in principle, and also in practice: a 5% bandwidth reduction isn't exactly going to drive the spammers out of business.

Better if people do all they can to block and report spam, but most importantly NEVER respond to any spam, ever, even if the subject looks interesting. Amazing as it may seem, a fair number of people must be responsing to and buying stuff from these people, otherwise they'd quit doing it.

Oh well, at least there are now all these guys with larger "equipment"

Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
looks interesting. Amazing as it may seem, a fair number of people must be responsing to and buying stuff from these people, otherwise they'd quit doing it.

Well as cheap as it is to send out emails, one or two hits from a mass mailing a day could turn into big money over the course of a year.

The spam community is way too far ahead of the curve for something like this. Spammers don't use their own email addresses, they use zombie machines and randomly generated addresses. Responding to the server will do nothing but pin honest people against honest people.

The concept won't work. That's like cutting emissions by adding more cars that use fossil fuels.

Actually if you read through the article, the servers targeted are those that are selling the product that the spam advertized

Lycos chooses its targets by reviewing lists of suspect sites identified by independent spam monitors such as SpamCop. The company said it checks each manually to make sure it genuinely carries products promoted by spam, though Oberbeck acknowledged the risk of going after a legitimate site that has been hijacked by a spam-spewing site.

It sounds like a good start, but I wonder if you can do some 'adjustments' to the software to make it a full scale denial of service attack. This could go both ways if we are not responsible with the software. I want software that will give me the home phone number of the owner of the spamming server. That way, I could let him/her hear my thoughts vocally.

Originally posted by Kidfinger
It sounds like a good start, but I wonder if you can do some 'adjustments' to the software to make it a full scale denial of service attack. This could go both ways if we are not responsible with the software. I want software that will give me the home phone number of the owner of the spamming server. That way, I could let him/her hear my thoughts vocally.

Haha that would be a great idea but i have actually tried it before. I noticed a company doing a port scan on my comp and my firewall caught it... i looked up the ip address and got the company name and # and address.... I haven't called yet though. It should be a great feeling though when I get around to it.