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December 27, 2005
Joe-job on Blue Security
Some trickster is trying to hit a spammer (Robert Soloway) and an anti-spammer (Blue Security) with a single stone.
Someone recently placed an order at the web site of spammer-for-hire Robert Soloway. Using a stolen credit card, the unidentified person signed up for Soloway's $149 "Custom Broadcast Emailing to 2,500,000 People" service. The trickster, who claimed to be with Blue Security, wanted Soloway to broadcast a message with the subject line "Do away with unsolicited ads" and the following message body:
Learn how to wipe out unsolicited advertisement snders. Our active approach allows for eye for eye justice. We poison the databases of those who send out these unsolicited ads in order to cause them to run afoul of the law and cost them money in wasted billing efforts, phone calls, etc .
Soloway faxed me a copy of the order last week, and I passed it along to Blue Security. The people at Blue were, as you might expect, a bit miffed at this apparent attempt to give them a black eye. But this isn't the first time that's happened. Last August, a someone forged a bogus email ad in an effort to Joe-job the fledgling company.
Don't know if it's cause and effect or not, but the bogus order submitted to Soloway happened just a couple days after I pointed out that Blue Security had begun reporting spam sites to various authorities. (If spammers truly want Blue to leave them alone, wouldn't it be easier just to download and use the Blue Frog remove lists?)
I asked Blue Security for a copy of the opt out complaint they post in the order forms of spammers who send unsolicited ads to Blue Frog members. For the record, the message begins like this:
An unsolicited commercial email advertising your website was sent to me. I am currently not interested in receiving such unsolicited email. I kindly ask that you or anyone on your behalf cease sending me such emails and remove me from your mailing list.
I'd post the full opt-out message, but some clever spammer (or militant anti-spammer?) would probably use it to perform another Joe-job on Blue Security.
Posted by brian at December 27, 2005 2:51 PM
Comments
I dont get this
Why are you 'sticking up' for Soloway - hes a known scammer scumbag - just by him faxing a forged order doesn't make him ok again
Posted by: heh at December 29, 2005 9:59 AM
What makes you say I am "'sticking up' for Soloway"?
Posted by: Brian at December 29, 2005 11:21 AM
Soloway is pure scum - and should be put away.
Posted by: at February 4, 2006 4:01 AM
All of Soloway's "opted in" addresses are stolen and farmed... FAR from opted in! How is he any different that the one who used the stolen credit card?
Soloways emails are all forged, and now he is using Goecities sites to get past the spam filters. The addresses automatically redirect the user to one of his (usually forged) websites.
That guy is a criminal. There is no honor in his business that sells harvested email addresses and pawns them off as opted in.
Posted by: at February 4, 2006 4:05 AM
