Spam King gets spammed

[mole]

Spam King Inundated By Junk Mail, Fails To See The Irony
by Bryan Chaffin


Irony can be a subtle thing, though it can be equally blunt, as well. It is with a healthy respect for that word, irony, that we bring you the following story. Mike Wendland penned a piece a few weeks ago about how spam lord Alan Ralsky was living high on the proceeds from wasting all of our time with his spam. That piece made the rounds here at TMO, and just about every other tech Web site on the Internet. According to a new article from Mr. Wenland, since the first one ran, a campaign launched by Slashdot readers to register Mr. Ralsky for physical junk mail has been a raging success. A success, that is, to everyone except for Mr. Ralsky.

This is where the irony kicks in: Mr. Ralsky is angry about it. From the article:

Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago, he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new US$740,000 home.

It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny.

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."

 

[spietreser]

LOL, grrreat story... maybe there IS a way to scare other spammers off! SpamCop v2

 

[beashnet]

I know Al and can say that it's not very amusing. Spam is a problem yeah, it's annoying sure, but it's not harassment more than any other direct advertising like callcenter promotors and such.

An organised effort, however, like this.. it's definitely harassment and any lawyer on the forum will agree with me on this.

Personally, I hope he nails the bastards with a juicy lawsuit.
And Slashdot for 'supporting' it.

 

[fizz]

IMO Al deserves it all.

He should think himself lucky that they didn't sign him up for every telemarketing operator out there, LOL.

 

[beashnet]

What they did to him is worse than what you're suggesting Fizz, IMO.

If they signed his number up to all telemarketing companies, at least he could shut his phoneline down like you could shut an email account down.

But it's definitely not the same thing to get thousands of catalogues, brochures, etc dumped at your place because he has to contact every single company to remove himself from those lists. He can't just change address since he has a new home, so it's very different from spam in that aspect.

No, it's not the same thing and while I sympathise with the people that did this, I must say that anyone who thinks he deserved it to go that far jumps down many notches on my respect ladder.

-F

 

[fizz]

I guess there's no middle ground for tolerance of spam or junk mail - people either hate it with a vengeance, or see it as being just another part of this electronic world we live in.

Personally, I treat my e-mail in-box like a PlayStation game and see how many spam messages I can identify (through their corny subject lines) and zap per second as they're downloading. Haven't mistakenly deleted an important message yet, LOL.

 

[Kid Kool]

Originally posted by beashnet
What they did to him is worse than what you're suggesting Fizz, IMO.

If they signed his number up to all telemarketing companies, at least he could shut his phoneline down like you could shut an email account down.

But it's definitely not the same thing to get thousands of catalogues, brochures, etc dumped at your place because he has to contact every single company to remove himself from those lists. He can't just change address since he has a new home, so it's very different from spam in that aspect.

No, it's not the same thing and while I sympathise with the people that did this, I must say that anyone who thinks he deserved it to go that far jumps down many notches on my respect ladder.

-F

he's just a poor little victim now. i know it must be a rough life having to live in a $740,000 house and get a ton of junk mail.
From the guy's own mouth "spam is a great way for the little guy to compete with big business". So, he should be happy that he's getting all these great offers since after all, spammers are the "little guy". Looks like spam is okay as long as its not addressed to him. just my opinion...

 

[mole]

Good article on avoiding the products of people like Alan :evil:

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/11/01/spam.html

And a specific link on how to still have your email addy on your web-site (without having to rely on a contact form) that the spambots can't pick up.

http://innerpeace.org/escrambler.shtml

Here's one to give you an idea the kind of advanced tools spammers use to invade your inbox

http://www.americaint.com/

Note the use of proxy routing and ip tunneling to hide the source of the email.

I'm not against legitimate email marketing for a living, but these spammers blatently use deceptive practices to hide their paths and steal emails (what opt in??) without permission.

 

[bidawinner]

Originally posted by beashnet
I know Al and can say that it's not very amusing. Spam is a problem yeah, it's annoying sure, but it's not harassment more than any other direct advertising like callcenter promotors and such.

An organised effort, however, like this.. it's definitely harassment and any lawyer on the forum will agree with me on this.

Personally, I hope he nails the bastards with a juicy lawsuit.
And Slashdot for 'supporting' it.

Yooooour kidding right..


do you realize his next step is simply to by pass email?..every time you turn your computer on you'll get a pop up of his crap..
He should be sitting in a federal prison.

 

[Manic]

Originally posted by mole
Spam King Inundated By Junk Mail, Fails To See The Irony
by Bryan Chaffin


...

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."

Poor little rich guy, openly admits that he has prospered from the harrassment of others.

That is the best news article I've read in months! Now, we just need to expand the campaign, to reach all the spammers.

I support Slashdot all the way.

 

[AQHost]

Originally posted by beashnet
But it's definitely not the same thing to get thousands of catalogues, brochures, etc dumped at your place because he has to contact every single company to remove himself from those lists. He can't just change address since he has a new home, so it's very different from spam in that aspect.

It's not the same thing eh? If I want to get myself removed from SPAM lists, I have to contact every single company to get myself removed. And even then all that will happen is that my address will be marked live and I'll receive more SPAM.

Did it occur to you that a great number of people can't just change email addresses either? I get a ton of SPAM to my sales address every day, and how do you suggest I change that? Or my abuse address? Billing address etc?

A**holes like Ralsky do everyone a disservice including legitimate marketers, and to be quite blunt he got what he asked for.

Simon.

 

[draqon]

i wouldnt be surprised if beashnet was a spammer himself to put forth such an absurd viewpoint. of course this idiot deserves it, he spams millions of people per day. and yet he doesnt deserve to be spammed himself? gimme a break.

 

[beashnet]

Actually no I'm not a spammer and am sick of spam.

But I still don't think sending thousands of catalogues, etc, to someone's home is the same thing as text messages that can be deleted in seconds or even filtered out. And spam is unsolicited advertising sent to more than 25 people, ergo this isn't spam but harassment. (Or, as a comparison, mailbombing.)

And I didn't say I supposted his spam practices either, just to make that clear. And while I understand that people find it amusing, I don't really think he deserves it to go this far.

So just because I don't think he deserves it, are you going to verbally attack me? Just because I'm stating a POV?

I didn't exactly intend for this to get into a heated discussion about things, so I'll gracefully dance out of this thread now

Cheers

-F

 

[mole]

http://www.spammers.net - hmmm, why does this webmaster call himself the Spam King. Is it Alan's site, or just another wannable 700k house-owner.

 

[Fearless]

Instead of sending mail to this guy, he should be repeatedly dunked in a vat of spam slime.

 

[Jack Gordon]

Obviously the spammer-sympathizers don't get the 100+ spam messages that the rest of us get every day. My e-mail address is my business address - there is no changing it or deleting it.

To make things worse, I use it both at home and at work, so I spend an insane amount of time deleting irrelevent, porn-filled, asian-language, get-rich-quick, nigerian business opportunity, cheap viagra, mlm and god-knows what other crap e-mails from TWO computers on a daily basis.

Spammers belong in prison. And if this motherf**ker is living in a $700,000 jouse, I hope the IRS has had a good, long look at him, because somebody who obviously cares so little for decency and integrity in business is most likely holding the government in the same high regard.

I send out nearly 60,000 e-mails a week but I guarantee that every one of them is opt-in and subscribers have an extraordinarily easy time permanently removing themselves from my databases. This a**hole makes it harder for people like me to make an honest living. Screw him.

P.S. What's his address? I'd like to sign him up for a few subscriptions myself.

 

[spietreser]

His business email address: [email protected]
(I am not responsible for your acts! hehehe)

Oh, I forgot to post his phone number: 888-531-4793 (easier to change than home address though)

 

[yahoohaha]

wow, first time see people killing people in a forum.

 

[wwww]

I just sent him 7 more brochures....this thread is fun :evil:

 

[system0]

im not going to participate in spamming the guy at his home but i personally believe hes got what he deserves

hes made a living out of wasting everyone elses time - and for many people time means money

we've come to an age when email addresses have a shelf life of months rather than years because people like him make a living out of junking someones mailbox

great article but from his point of view i dont see why hes so pissed - hes made a killing from it and a few letters through the door doesnt exactly take his precious cash away