From this week's issue of Eastman's newsletter:
- MAISER Lists Shut Down By Spammer
I have written in the past about e-mail "spammers," Anyone who has
read this newsletter for a few months knows that I have strong
feelings on the subject. But something happened this past week that
makes me pause and think. A spam took place with the result that many
genealogists lost a valuable service, some systems administrators lost
sleep and labor, plus one business man lost thousands of dollars in
business and good will. Meanwhile, the real culprit is rumored to have
escaped.
MAISER provides a series of e-mail "mailing lists" and operates on
Indiana University's systems. These are surname-oriented mailing
lists. For instance, there was one for the surname Eastman. Anyone
interested in that surname could subscribe to the mailing list. Any
messages sent to the list are automatically re- broadcast to everyone
who subscribes to that particular list. Many thousands of people
subscribed to one or more of these lists.
This past week the mailing lists were shut down when they filled
up with "spamming messages" advertising printing supplies from
Benchmart Print Supply in Georgia. Apparently, someone sent a
large number of advertising messages to the mailing lists with a
forged return e-mail address. The servers became overloaded and
either crashed on their own or were shut down to remove the flood of
unwanted messages. Such "spamming" goes beyond bad manners. While I am
no lawyer and cannot claim any legal expertise, I wonder if this
action even violated laws. There may possibly be criminal charges for
causing disruption to Indiana University's computers and networks.
The online genealogy world has been buzzing the past few days with
thousands of "let's teach this guy a lesson" messages. My mailbox
filled up this week with these incendiary messages. Many genealogists
forwarded messages from others asking everyone to mount a campaign
against Benchmart Print Supply. Thousands of irate e-mails were sent
to the company. Still others telephoned their place of business. It
got so bad that the manager of Benchmart Print Supply stopped
answering the phone. Even his existing customers could not reach him.
Still other messages that I received asked for people in the Atlanta
area to go to Benchmart's place of business to let them know of the
genealogists' ire. In my mind I can picture hundreds of genealogy
vigilantes carrying burning torches surrounding Benchmart Print
Supply's tiny office.
However, the story took a less humorous twist a few days later
when the Atlanta Constitution newspaper ran a story about the
incident. The paper reports that Sam Khuri, general manager of
Benchmart Print Supply in Dunwoody, Georgia, saw a printed
advertisement claiming that he could advertise his business to
50,000 potential customers for only $100. Mr. Khuri reportedly is not
very literate in the procedures and protocols of online systems. He
sent a $100 money order to the post office box listed in the ad. Mr.
Khuri reportedly does not know how mailing lists operate. In fact,
until this week he probably didn't know what a mailing list is. The
Atlanta Constitution newspaper quoted Mr. Khuri as saying "If I knew
what they were going to do, I never would have sent the money."
The newspaper goes on to say that the advertising service, whose
identity Khuri said he lost in a computer crash of his own, e-
mailed thousands of ads touting Khuri's service last week. The
junk e-mail was routed through Indiana University computers,
making it appear the ads had come from the same computers that are
home to the genealogy lists. The mailing list servers reportedly
became overloaded and crashed.
This raises a question or two. Who is the real culprit? Mr. Khuri or
the unnamed "advertising service?" I am not sure that I believe Mr.
Khuri's claims of ignorance, and it seems mighty "convenient" that
both his computer crashed and his memory lapsed at about the same time
that the problems occurred in Indiana. Even though he says he cannot
remember the name of the company involved, I bet his bank can show him
the canceled check with the advertising company's name and the name of
the bank where they cashed the check.
But let's assume for a moment that Mr. Khuri is telling the truth.
Perhaps he is simply a small businessman who is not literate in online
protocols and etiquette. Does that make him innocent? What little
legal knowledge I do have suggests that ignorance is not an excuse to
escape from responsibility. At a minimum, he is guilty of poor
judgment. But it can be argued that he hired "agents" to commit the
act in his place. If so, that makes him fully responsible. On this
point I will defer to others with more legal training than I have.
But I would certainly like to know who this unnamed advertising
service is. And I bet Indiana University is curious, too. I would
suggest that Mr. Khuri's canceled check should be found immediately.
Also, Indiana University may be able to trace the routing information
contained in the message headers. Clever e- mail spammers usually use
forged e-mail return addresses, but it is difficult to hide the
routing information. Let's hope that all the culprits are identified
in this one.
!!!!!!!
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