How should this be considered?

[polonus]

Hello malware fighters,

Some time ago in Holland some developer wanted to get back at notorious spammers, and he came up with a nag-tool that was called the "braatolizer". Braatolizer is a tool consisiting of pages running inside a browser and filling in bogus forms in a random and unique way and order to eventually resulting in the service of the notorious spammer having at least we may say "a very hard time". In several cases it was very effective, the only "but" was combined attacks consumed rather some bandwidth. Now there is also an American braatolizer,
called Refi Retalliator (to be found here: http://spamkings.oreilly.com/refi_retaliator.zip
Had to inform you about this pehnomenon, else for instance you  wouldn't have known about braatolizer lore, and uncle Blue the developer of the braatolizer.
But what do you think? Can spammers spam regularly, and cannot the victims retaliate? Or is such a tool to be classified as at leat questionable.

polonus

[drhayden1]

hey polonus...what type of spam tool would take care of that problem??if available

[neal62]

Boy oh Boy, don't know what I would do with that tool other than get myself into trouble. 

[polonus]

Hi neal63,

There is even some second generation tools, like here:
http://thescambaiter.com/antispam/

I would not endorse it either, but these tools are certainly around. Other anti spam actions also met a lot of resistance, because of the money involved, but spam should actually be for the people that do not oppose to it, and specially directed at  those that can't live without it. This kind of people also exist that cannot live with an empty mailbox.

polonus

[neal62]

Yes, I know Polonus. Well, I use "PopTray" which I filter my incoming mail at the server level anyway before downloading to my pc. I get rid of all spam that way and other stuff I don't want. 

[drhayden1]

hey polonus and neal....this is the spam tool is use for my pop3 account...seems to do a good job

http://www.firetrust.com/firetrustpro.html

[DavidR]

Personally I don't think it is worth the effort to get back at spammer, it just generates more email traffic.

I use mailwasher pro and simply delete it at source, my email servers, it doesn't take much effort and if preferable to downloading it on my dial-up connection to then filter it. Mailwasher has a bounce function and I don't even think that this is worth the bother, treat SPAM the way it should be treated, simply delete it and don't generate even more traffic.

[drhayden1]

hey davidr.....i also use mailwasher pro(as posted above) also and i don't know whether it is doing any good or just masking the problem of spam

[Lisandro]

But what do you think? Can spammers spam regularly, and cannot the victims retaliate? Or is such a tool to be classified as at leat questionable.

The only problem is that we need to chain our browser through anonymous proxies...
I don't want to lose speed just to make spammers angry... I'll try to get rid from spam but keeping my speed... 
Thanks anyway.

[DavidR]

hey davidr.....i also use mailwasher pro(as posted above) also and i don't know whether it is doing any good or just masking the problem of spam

It is hardly masking spam and it is very effective for me it has over time provided a very high spam detection 98%+. Especially since it means I don't have to download this cr** on dial-up to subsequently filter it or take this kind of action (braatolizer, etc.), life is too short just delete the stuff and be done with it. I added another blacklist database to my origins of spam and that one catches the lions share of al the detected spam (sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org).

As far as how much good it does, if spam gets deleted then it hasn't achieved it aim to get opened.

[drhayden1]

thanks davidr...after i posted that masking comment i realized it was misleading or ?
i do like what mailwasher pro does-is there any other pop3 program that could work along side or help more
or is it necessay to have a little more or not?

[DavidR]

I don't know what you mean by pop3 program, to me that is email programs and mailwasher can pretty much work with any or independent of email programs. If you are talking about other anti-spam programs then I don't think there is a need, mailwasher is very configurable. You have the ability to add more blacklist databases, learning, Bayesian detection, etc. so it is more than up to the job.

[drhayden1]

i mean something like mailwasher pro that could work along side of it.....but after reading your post nothing more is needed
figure with my.......
avast!(of course!!)
webroot firewall(by makers of spy sweeper)..passed both shields up and leak test!
ewido full version as real time
ad-aware and spy sweeper as scanners only
winpatrol
spyware blaster
and mailwasher pro for my pop3 mail(incredimail premium and mozilla thunderbird)
webroot window washer
Ccleaner
tune-up 2006 utilities
and diskeeper 10 home edition Defrag
+++I should be OK++++

oh...almost forgot davidr-thanks for the help and reply-have a good one!

[polonus]

Hi DrHayden,

What you could do in mailwasher is to put in some extra, let us say 5 - don't overdo it, good spyware blacklists. In that case when they are put in there like you have deadbeef, spamhaus etc. etc., the mailwasher checks all the incoming mail against these regularly updated lists, and all the spam is checked on the pop server, and you can delete all them at once. Far better way than a childish Retaliation Tool,

polonus

[drhayden1]

Far better way than a childish Retaliation Tool,

you are right polonus=thanks

another cow one for you polonus