Posted: 9/25/2006 10:35 AM
Post subject: Anti-spam?
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Dromiceius
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
I like the idea of tripping up spammers by any means possible, but... what do you make of this? http://members.hostedscripts.com/antispam.html Do you think that actually works to any extent? And if so, wouldn't it make more sense to use the addresses of spammers, rather than strings of random letters?
Posted: 9/25/2006 10:36 AM
Post subject: Re: Anti-spam?
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Firefox can't find the server at members.hostedscripts.com. Check the address for typing errors such as ww.example.com instead of www.example.com Edit: Weird, it works somewhere else though. You are talking about spammers' honeypots. I am somewhat opposed to them; it only produces a waste of network traffic without significantly hindering the spammer's work. Also, re: "address of spammers"... where do you intend to get those addresses from? More than 99% of all spam is sent with forged addresses; addresses of other spam victims. Distributing them in honeypots isn't doing any good; it only causes the existing spam victims to get more spam.
Posted: 9/25/2006 10:44 AM
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Dromiceius
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Huh. I might have guessed about the traffic...
Also, re: "address of spammers"... where do you intend to get those addresses from? More than 99% of all spam is sent with forged addresses; addresses of other spam victims. Distributing them in honeypots isn't doing any good; it only causes the spam victims to get more spam.
That I did not know. The site I linked seemed rather naive. I'm not surprised. Thanks for the speedy and informative reply, Bisqwit.
Posted: 9/25/2006 10:48 AM
Post subject: Re: Anti-spam?
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Don't take my argument of the traffic as a fact. I'm not an authority in the matter; there are many who think differently and support the honeypots. But it is my opinion that the honeypots are a waste.
Posted: 9/25/2006 10:51 AM
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DeFender1031
Joined: 8/29/2006
Posts: 68
does it help at all that they seem to get the collector bots stuck in an infinate loop?
Posted: 9/25/2006 10:59 AM
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
DeFender1031 wrote:
does it help at all that they seem to get the collector bots stuck in an infinate loop?
It's not like the collector bots can't work breadth-first, issuing an equal average amount of hits in each site, instead of hammering a single site desperately in attempt to find the tail of the clew end of the ball of yarn.
Posted: 9/25/2006 11:03 AM
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Nach
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Bisqwit wrote:
DeFender1031 wrote:
does it help at all that they seem to get the collector bots stuck in an infinate loop?
It's not like the collector bots can't work breadth-first, issuing an equal average amount of hits in each site, instead of hammering a single site desperately in attempt to find the <strike>tail of the clew</strike> end of the ball of yarn.
Doing such would require an ever increasing stack. More than they would need if they just need a smaller stack to store browsing history. I could imagine the memory usage for any of these spiders could get quite insane.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Posted: 9/25/2006 2:39 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Such pages might prove mildly annoying to spammers, but I can't picture them making a dent. If the spammers are smart enough to find enough valid emails such that a profitable number of idiots respond, this certainly won't stop them. I absolutely have no love for spam, but it is necessary to recognize that a successful spammer must have a significant degree of technical competence, given the number of countermeasures that exist.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
Posted: 9/25/2006 4:15 PM
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Bob_A
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 432
The code they list at the end is invalid xhtml.