Will YOU Spam for me?

[Bombardier]

A marketing firm that offers people cash in exchange for letting their computers be commandeered to distribute bulk e-mails has come under fire from antispam activists, who say the program is just a cover for a high-tech spamming operation.

The program, operated by Sendmails Corp., offers members $5 for downloading and installing the company's VirtualMDA (mail delivery agent) software. The New Hampshire company promises to pay an additional $1 for every hour of computing time that the VirtualMDA software spends blasting out e-mails on behalf of Sendmails and its clients.

It's a deal that some Internet users may find too hard to pass up. But critics of the program say it's just too good to be true.

"Anybody who's willing to pay $1 per CPU hour for sending messages has to be doing something illegal, or is going to get people's connectivity turned off," said Joseph R. Jones, a consultant with Web-hosting firm Market Matrix, and editor of Small Biz Advisor. "Any home user who sends out that much e-mail from their computer is going to get their cable or DSL connection cut off."

After downloading and analyzing the VirtualMDA software last week, Jones said he concluded that Sendmails' "primary reason for doing that service is so their clients' IP addresses don't get blocked by all the spam lists. Instead, all these cable-modem users who install the software get banned."

Many spam filters use lists of banned Internet protocol addresses -- which identify e-mail servers of suspected spammers -- to determine whether incoming e-mails should be accepted or blocked. By distributing e-mail through the computers of VirtualMDA users, Sendmails' clients can prevent their own IP addresses from being added to those block lists. They can also continue sending out e-mail until every single VirtualMDA user is blocked -- something that could take quite a long time if the program has thousands of members, as the company claims.

Sendmails chairman Brian Haberstroh readily admitted that circumventing block lists is a goal of his company's service. However, he countered claims that the service was intended for spammers, saying that block lists are inherently flawed and that even legitimate companies are affected by them.

"VirtualMDA was developed as a result of marketing companies not being able to get e-mail delivered," said Haberstroh. "We were sequestered by a rather large Fortune 1000 company to create an e-mail deployment service that would basically get their e-mail delivered to the recipients whose addresses they were paying for."

Haberstroh added that Sendmails requires its clients to obtain e-mail addresses through legitimate means and that they must comply with opt-out requests in accordance with the Can-Spam Act. He declined, though, to name any clients, saying only that they numbered in "the hundreds" and ranged from Fortune 500 companies to "small, three-person operations."

In response to critics' suggestions that Sendmails doesn't intend to pay VirtualMDA program members, Haberstroh provided Wired News with recent payment information, but there was no way to confirm that the information was authentic. He would not allow Wired News to contact any members who had recently been paid.

"Unfortunately, we are being typecast as the same people who hijack other people's computers," said Haberstroh, referring to the recent rash of Trojan horse viruses that have allowed spammers to turn personal computers into zombies that churn out spam on command. "We are being referred to in the same way as hijackers when, in fact, all we are is a messenger. We have ethics. We do everything by the book. We answer every phone call. We answer every e-mail."

Despite these reassurances, Haberstroh, VirtualMDA, Sendmails and its parent company, Atriks, have not managed to keep themselves off the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations. Run by a British nonprofit, the online directory contains hundreds of records of suspected spammers.

When asked to comment on one of the Spamhaus registry entries for Sendmails, which points to rumors about a Trojan horse found in the VirtualMDA software, Haberstroh suggested that the rumors had been started by Spamhaus founder Steve Linford. "We suspect it was Steve Linford trying anything else he can do to interfere with the business," said Haberstroh. "We've had unbelievable problems with Spamhaus, period. We write letters and they don't respond. We write e-mails and it sounds like a child is responding."

Linford denied the accusation. "We have never encountered a spammer who wasn't also a chronic liar, and by the same token we have not encountered a spammer who didn't attempt to paint himself as a 'legitimate e-mail marketer' and Spamhaus as 'criminals, terrorists, vigilantes,'" said Linford in an e-mail to Wired News.

While the argument between Sendmails and its critics is likely to continue for some time, both sides seem to agree on one thing -- it's the users' responsibility to find out whether they are violating any agreements or laws by using the VirtualMDA software.

"If somebody has an ISP that will let them send that kind of bulk e-mail, more power to them," said Jones. "But I'm not aware of any ISP that doesn't have a line in their customer agreement prohibiting that sort of activity."

Said Haberstroh, "We don't know who has what agreements. That's an administrative thing. We're not the judge and jury for what people can and can't do."

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,...tw=wn_tophead_1

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Here is the summary from dslreports.com

'Hey buddy, wanna spam?'

A New Hampshire marketing company pays users (preferably those with broadband connections) $5 for installing their VirtualMDA (mail delivery agent) software, and an additional $1 for every CPU hour their PC spends churning out marketing pitches. Obviously what the company doesn't tell the customers is that their connection will likely be terminated for spamming (provided they use a responsible ISP), and their IP range will often be blacklisted. As Wired News explores, the whole purpose of the company is to get around blocklists to begin with. "Unfortunately, we are being typecast as the same people who hijack other people's computers," complains the company's CEO.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/42643

[Bombardier]

Before anyone actually signs up (I don't think BK members would ;) ), that this is 1 dollar per CPU hour and not clock hour.

So it might total about $30 a month or something at the risk of having your ISP cut you off for violating their TOS.

As for my own view on this, it's a total disgrace :angry: I hope everyone who signs up for it gets their ISP to cut them off! I hate spam and don't want to see it increase.

The marketers would have to pay me a much larger chunk of their profits to make me start sending out spam (we're talking hundereds of thousands to millions of dollars here).

This service is just plain evil

:evil: :evil: :evil:

[Ken]

"VirtualMDA was developed as a result of marketing companies not being able to get e-mail delivered,"

People don't want your e-mail.

They like their penis just fine, thank you.

Also, I don't want an x10 camera or whatever piece of crap it is.

He sums up forced advertising as "getting e-mail delivered". What are you, a fucking robot!? Think! SPAM e-mails don't increase revenue. People don't read spam, they delete it, and report it.

When you force things onto a person, it doesn't have a positive impact for anyone.

Edited April 21, 2004 by Ken

[Redneck4sure]

The difference between a spammer and a bucket of shit is the bucket.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Accused Spammer Sues Individual Who Reported It

Atriks claims it's innocent, but company shows up on independent spam monitor list.

A company reported to an ISP for sending bulk spam is replying by suing the individual who made the allegation.

The sued party, Jay Stuler, reported New Hampshire-based Atriks, otherwise known as Distributed Mail, to his ISP after receiving unsolicited bulk e-mail over a period from April 2003 onward. According to court papers, Atriks then lost its account with its ISPs, Lightship Telecom, Spectra Access, and North Atlantic Internet, resulting in the legal action against Stuler.

The writ issued by the company denies the allegations, stating that it was not in breach of the U.S. antispam CAN-SPAM Act and that the complaint caused lost business due to the ending of the ISP contracts. In its legal submission the company claims: "Atriks does not originate or send commercial e-mail to third parties, and does not otherwise conduct activities regulated by the CAN-SPAM Act."

Read entire story here.

[slum_goddess]

A company reported to an ISP for sending bulk spam is replying by suing the individual who made the allegation.

all fucking assholes all the time.