First of all, hello and welcome.
About me and when I get spare time , I am an active anti spam activist administrating on some of the worlds largest blacklists although it did get me in a bit of hot water a few years ago when I become the first person in the world to be sued by a spammer.
Two questions: how did that work out? (and a subsidiary question - Was it Spamhaus or SPEWS you were involved with at the time?)
And can you comment on the future of SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in regards to spam reduction?
Thanks ,
Basically Wayne Mansfield was Australia's largest spammer running a company at the time called T3 Direct and many other aliases , thankfully due to this case Australia now has the worlds most strict anti spam laws .
Poor old Wayne had the world against him when he said these words to me " I am in this business ( spamming ) because I dare to challenge the rights of anyone who tries to shut me down" Well basically Wayne waved a red flag at me and I promised him that I would take up that challenge.
At the time I was on a capped internet plan that I was constantly exceeding because spammers kept using up my bandwidth , Most people still struggle to understand this , but you pay to receive spam , it doesn't matter if you delete it you have already paid for it , the sender ( spammer pays nothing ) in reality it's the same thing as being forced to take a reverse charge phone call without the option of saying no.
Most people think spam is the same as Junk mail you get in your letter box but it is very different , because you pay to receive spam , but you dont pay to receive junk mail in your letter box , the sender / advertiser pays for that.
In short life become very difficult for Mansfield , to point that any ISP hosting him was instantly blacklisted around the world until he was removed as a customer , I am not ignoring the question about Spamhaus or Spews although I confirm the problems being listed in these blacklists can cause is massive for any service provider or customer.
Steve linford was from Spamhaus fights the same cause I do so was a great support , SPEWS doesn't exist :) No one knows who SPEWS is or who managed the databases , It is now called aSpews and the administration dont exist :)
SORBS is another I am involved with , I also work with large Providers who were spam friendly hosts who have decided to clean up their act., as anyone who has ever tried to get removed from some of these lists know it is almost impossible , unless you know the right things to say in the right places.
Back to Mansfield , he was forced to concede defeat when the judge informed him that everything I said and that everything posted publically about him was fact , it could not be proved I had anything to do with SPEWS or getting him blacklisted in every ( I mean every ) black list in existence.
He was back soon after up to his old tricks but this time via unknown sources every move he made was used to turn the cards on him after the new Australian laws come into effect , His was finally fined over 4 million dollars that forced his company into bankruptcy and also fined just over 1 million dollars personally.
There is obviously a lot more that went on behind the scenes and things that I cant talk about because of the work I am still currently involved in.
SPF , I am a fan of this and honestly cant understand why it hasn't taken off quicker than it has , people are catching on slowly that is does help , not a total answer by any means but certainly effective.
I think these days the most effective solution is outbound SMTP filtering considering that 80% of the worlds spamming is done via compromised Trojan or virus infected pc's on larger networks.
