spam mail, can you FIGHT back ?

[Vad3r]

I'm really getting fed up with the amount of junk mail I get. I'm using Thunderbird to filter it, but some days there is like 5-10. This is checking mail everyday. It is a waste of bandwidth I pay for, and disk space I pay for. Yes it's a small amount, thats not the point. It's unwanted.

As a linux user for ALL things internet related, I could seek out the latest and greatest virus of the month. Reply to some of these junk senders with the attachment.
What would happen ?
Could I claim, say, Outlook Express did it without my knowledge ?.
I put this in OS forum, as I'm fairly sure 99% of these spammers are running winblows.
I haven't done this, not saying I will, just curious what they could do about it.

 

[phisrow]

Much as it would be nice, this sort of thing isn't likely to work. The bulk of spam is sent from 0wn3d machines and/or spoofed addresses, and spammers have no real reason to check their email accounts, even if they were stupid enough to use a legitimate address. Assuming your emails are even noticed, they'll just confirm that you are a live address and attract more attention. Just not worth it.

On the plus side, because responding with a virus would be so utterly useless, your odds of doing federal time are pretty low. You would either get a false address, be ignored in some spam trap domain that nobody checks, or accidentally 0wn some random sap whose email address got spoofed.

Give http://www.acme.com/mail_filtering/ a look for an expert view on spam filtering. He claims to get a million spams a day, and knows a thing or two about blocking them.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Use OpenBSD on your mail server, and use their spamd.

 

[Haden]

You would send mail to who exactly? From and reply headers in spam are forged for sure, so you would send mail to some 3rd party (much like idiotic NAV bounces).
If there is some contact in mail content itself/site which is advertised, well no one will "come after you" no matter what you would send, but I think it would be pointless too.
Instead (if you got spare time on your hands), make some spam report templates, then analyze spam headers and send reports to IP owner ISP, there is (very slim) chance of getting spammer squashed by his ISP.

 

[spyordie007]

(unfortunetly) You're much better served spending your time fighting the symptoms than trying to go after the sources. As was suggested use filtering on your mail servers (if possible) and improve your local filtering.

I personally recieve between 100 and 150 spam message a day. However typically I see less than 5 actually make it to the inbox thanks to a mail gateway with RBL, filtering, as well as client-level filtering.

If you really want to go after them than support some of the organizations that fight spam such as spamcop.net or spamhaus.org

 

[corkyg]

I used to get 60-100 spams a day. Then my ISP offered a spam blocking service from Postini for $4.95 a month, and I said "yes."

Spam

It has been marvelous - it blocks everything and lets me control both a white or black list. The malware never gets past the ISP server - and gets trashed there. It also blocks all viruses, trojans and crap like that.

I have used it now for over a year and a half, and unwanted email has become a non-problem - well worth the extra fee.

I have another backup system on my computer, (Mailwasher Pro 4.0) and it, along with my AV program have sort of become like the Maytag repairman.

Defense in depth is good.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Oh, tarpits are awesome. Nothing like letting a spammer waste 30 minutes trying to send 1 message.

 

[dawks]

I have actively been using my Gmail account for over a year now.. I receive about 15 normal e-mails perday.

By using a non-generic address at Gmail I get about 3-4 spam e-mails per day, and with their spam filter I have not seen a spam message in my inbox in over a month now..

I also have two e-mail addresses from my ISP forwarding to my Gmail account.. my ISP has a spam filter and catches 3-4 spams per each of those addresses also. Rarely lets any through.

Spammers can't communicate with me, therefore they get nothing. They'll get tired of trying eventually!!! (doesnt matter to me anyway though! )

 

[bsobel]

a) It's won't work, as has been pointed out
b) This is NOT an OS question, and your argument that it is is a joke
c) What your suggesting is actually a federal crime in the US

Bill

 

[Vad3r]

Well, I had to ask. Sometimes just makes me nuts the amount of spam that one can recieve. Ok, so my idea wouldn't work. But I will say, if it "could have worked", I would go to sleep that night with a large smile on my face.

I used to get 60-100 spams a day. Then my ISP offered a spam blocking service from Postini for $4.95 a month, and I said "yes."

Now I'm glad your happy with this. Your ISP offers a service to filter/block this, and you are willing to pay it to have a clean "inbox" each day.
But even this for me would make me more angry that I need to do that.

Everyone else that replied, thank you. I now see it's silly and a useless task. I'm guilty, I was thinking of getting back at them. I know now I can't.

bsobel -

a) It's won't work, as has been pointed out
b) This is NOT an OS question, and your argument that it is is a joke
c) What your suggesting is actually a federal crime in the US

a) agreed
b) as said, I wasn't really sure where to post such a question. But thats all it was, a question. But in my opinion/view, it boiled down trying to get back at someone(s) in my best guess is using Windows.
Really tho, how is my arguement a joke. No sarcasim here, I'm really asking. Persons are using "my bandwidith" and "my disk space" that I didn't authorize. If I reply to them telling them I don't want this, it's considered a "live/valid" address and now continue sending even more. In my opinion, I see/consider spam mail to be a kind of virus being sent to me continuesly against my will. Couldn't one consider this spam mail a virius.
Web pages I click on, friends that mail me and what not, I want that and pay for that. Never ending mails from unknown persons is something 'I do not' wish to pay for. Asking them nicely is not going to work. Yes it would be anal to work out the price of a single email received (bandwidth / diskspace), thats not the point, I don't want it.
Ok, so this great plan of mine won't work, but I asked. Now I know.

c) as said, I didn't do it, Microsoft Outlook did it, get Gates for it. But if I thought I could give just one spammer a major headachce, I would have done it.