Subject: [Asrg] 2.a.1. Spam Measurements - Data - Unsubscribe

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 18:27:46 -0400

After trying to do unsubscribe from every spam that I got in a poisoned 
account, I came with some interesting observations. Of course there is not 
enough data to make this statistically correct but the empirical 
observations are interesting.

 From all the spams that were received in this account in the last 2 days, 
most seem to come from four specific sources. All these sources had 
unsubscribe pages. When I tried to unsubscribe twice, I got a warning that 
the address has already been removed. I tried doing this a day apart, it 
still worked. You can see for yourself at:

http://www.med21sx.com/a.html

What I am getting from this is that these four specific spammers maintain 
"remove" lists. One possible reason for them to do so, is that sending spam 
to people that do not want it anymore, will not provide spammers with any 
possibility of extra revenue, and may hurt them in the long run because 
those people if still receiving the spam, will report the spammers. Of 
course, the other reason could be that its all a ploy or a verify operation.

In any case, we need more data on this and preferably a large-scale study.

Yakov

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Yakov Shafranovich / <[email-masked]>
SolidMatrix Research, a division of SolidMatrix Technologies, Inc.
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"One who watches the wind will never sow, and one who keeps his eyes on
the clouds will never reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4)
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From: C Wegrzyn <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 18:53:59 -0400

From what I've heard about the unsubscribe issue is that once you "try" 
to unsubscribe they actually know there is active account. There is a 
spammer in Burlington MA that uses this technique to build email lists. 
I also understand they will send out "free things" types of emails to 
get you to come to the site.

Chuck Wegrzyn

Yakov Shafranovich wrote:
> account, I came with some interesting observations. Of course there is 
> not enough data to make this statistically correct but the empirical 
>  From all the spams that were received in this account in the last 2 
> days, most seem to come from four specific sources. All these sources 
> had unsubscribe pages. When I tried to unsubscribe twice, I got a 
> warning that the address has already been removed. I tried doing this a 
> day apart, it still worked. You can see for yourself at:
> 
> What I am getting from this is that these four specific spammers 
> maintain "remove" lists. One possible reason for them to do so, is that 
> sending spam to people that do not want it anymore, will not provide 
> spammers with any possibility of extra revenue, and may hurt them in the 
> long run because those people if still receiving the spam, will report 
> the spammers. Of course, the other reason could be that its all a ploy 
> or a verify operation.
>