terrible, nasty idea...

[Bob Vincent]

On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 08:53:01PM +0200, Marek Kowal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> What I do not like about the whole idea of spamming the spamer is
> the fact that once your systems get widespread, they can be used to
> create DDOS attacks on completely innocent people/websites. Say, I
> do not like some website. I just put his/her URL in the spam message
> and send it to the sufficient amount of people who implemented the
> "terrible, nasty idea" of yours.

I'm personally verifying and authorizing each subscription.  Others
may do as they like with their lists; I'm not responsible for them.

> And that's all I have to do! Beautiful example of non-symmetric
> attack. I just send few emails, and you do all the dirty work for
> me.

Anybody may unsubscribe themselves or anybody else with two clicks of
a web browser.  Again, others may do as they like with their lists;
I'm not responsible for their actions.

> Please, do not follow in this direction. This trick resembles me the
> other one: still thousands of SMTP gateways send back the email
> saying that your message contained the virus and thus it has been
> destroyed and please, fix your computer blah blah blah. Of course
> usually the envelope sender is choosen randomly by the virus and it
> has nothing to do with the infected computer. And these days it has
> became possible to DDOS somebodys mailbox - just prepare message
> with known wirus inside, put your enemy's email in the envelope
> sender field and send it around the world. I do know several people
> who have been subjected to such an attack.

Dude.  I'm ALREADY under attack and have been for quite some time and
the intensity is escalating in an exponential fashion.

Last year I got 20-50 spams a day.

Six months ago it was up to 1000.

Last month it was 4000.

Today it's around 10,000.