Lycos set to destroy spammers... - GoFuckYourself.com

RuthXtremePay · 11-29-2004, 01:36 PM

Sorry if you guys already know about this, figured it's something that might be valuable knowledge to a few of you guys out there.

The short version is that Lycos is getting people to download a screensaver that then tries to sign up through known spamming websites increasing the bandwidth of the spam sites therefore increasing COSTS to the spammers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm

Screensaver tackles spam websites
Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites
Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

Cost curve

"We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do," said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe.

"In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users," he said, "but now we are going to go one step further."

Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive
Malte Pollmann, Lycos

"We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."
By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity.

Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with.

He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web.

"Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day," he said, "about one MP3 file."

But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day.

Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann.

"That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing," he said.

Slow down

The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer.

Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day.
The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods.

As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann.

Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%.

Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver.

While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data.

The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden.

Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days.

"There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more," he said "Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...gy/4051553.stm

JamesK2 · 11-29-2004, 01:38 PM

funky

Persius · 11-29-2004, 01:47 PM

wouldnt that be sponsors and not spammers?

lol how can they make spammers cost more bandwidth?

RuthXtremePay · 11-29-2004, 01:48 PM

If you're hosting yourself then your bandwidth will increase..

otherwise it will affect the sponsors, you're right..

but I know there are some guys/gals out there who host their own sites even though they're mailing for another sponsor

RuthXtremePay · 11-29-2004, 01:50 PM

AND.. if they make it unviable for sponsors to pay for hosting.. then that will inevitably affect the spammers themselves..

MickeyG · 11-29-2004, 01:50 PM

they can't get away with this in the US. They'd be sued for sure. So who cares let em weed out some of the competition

BuckLover · 11-29-2004, 01:53 PM

Nasty · 11-29-2004, 01:56 PM

Lycos who?

You think they have enough market any nore to really effect much?

azguy · 11-29-2004, 01:58 PM

BRILLIANT. DIE FUCKERS

CheneyRumsfeld · 11-29-2004, 02:01 PM

if the spammers sue and win a judgement against Lycos they can force them to pay the bandwidth bill they ran up.
backfire!!!!

yuvalus · 11-29-2004, 02:02 PM

damn those f*ckers

this maybe the biggest threat to the industry

Jakke PNG · 11-29-2004, 02:04 PM

Fun for those whos machine gets hacked by spammers.

skillfull · 11-29-2004, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CheneyRumsfeld
if the spammers sue and win a judgement against Lycos they can force them to pay the bandwidth bill they ran up.
backfire!!!!

and if the spammers redirect the traffic to Lycos site + take the proxies they use to DDoS Lycos, Lycos will go fuck themselve ;)

Shaddam IV · 11-29-2004, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by yuvalus
da
this maybe the biggest threat to the industry

idiot.

- Jesus Christ - · 11-29-2004, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by skillfull
and if the spammers redirect the traffic to Lycos site + take the proxies they use to DDoS Lycos, Lycos will go fuck themselve ;)

Uh. How do you redirect the traffic coming from many thousands of IPs without redirecting all traffic?

You don't.

Persius · 11-29-2004, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by skillfull
and if the spammers redirect the traffic to Lycos site + take the proxies they use to DDoS Lycos, Lycos will go fuck themselve ;)

HAHAH

Persius · 11-29-2004, 02:08 PM

or just mail super anti's straight to lycos site

yuvalus · 11-29-2004, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shaddam IV
idiot.

well mr. why don't you post your tip?

ytcracker · 11-29-2004, 02:15 PM

www.spamtec.com

Mr Pheer · 11-29-2004, 02:16 PM

sounds like a DOS attack

TheJimmy · 11-29-2004, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nasty
Lycos who?

You think they have enough market any nore to really effect much?

that's exactly what I was thinking...

who the fuck uses lycos anymore?

this sounds more like a publicity stunt than anything real

Phoenix · 11-29-2004, 02:20 PM

haha they cant do shit..all they will do is end up getting their shit hacked and screwed up

Doctor Dre · 11-29-2004, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Persius
wouldnt that be sponsors and not spammers?

lol how can they make spammers cost more bandwidth?

Get a BP host flooded see how quick the 56k connection slow down

Rich · 11-29-2004, 04:22 PM

How do they decide which emails they're going to basically hotlink on a massive level? If someone is obeying the Can Spam rules, how do they have the right to attempt to disrupt their legal business? Isn't this basically the equivalent of a DOS attack?

fris · 11-29-2004, 04:24 PM

no spammers here

smack · 11-29-2004, 04:24 PM

that's got go be illegal.

MrJackMeHoff · 11-29-2004, 04:38 PM

this will never work.

MetaMan · 11-29-2004, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Persius
wouldnt that be sponsors and not spammers?

lol how can they make spammers cost more bandwidth?

i guess you will be out of business.
LOSER

flashfreak · 11-29-2004, 04:49 PM

I don't think they will succed, tho I'd like it.

VirtuMike · 11-29-2004, 05:41 PM

It's not Lycos - It's Terra Lycos. They're big in Spain. They still host a LOT of free sites. And they do have the traffic.

However, this isn't really anything more than a DDOS attack.

It's marketing genuis though - the more people that they get to load their screensaver, the more people carry their toolbar.

Spyware opportunity!

Myst · 11-29-2004, 05:44 PM

what would be awesome is the spammers hosting their site on lycos

and lycos will end up DOSing their own servers

$5 submissions · 11-29-2004, 05:51 PM

They may get sued for that. Unless of course, they have a provision in the TOS of the 'screensaver' where the person downloading 'consents' to such actions.

However, INTENT may still be an issue. Since the INTENT of the downloader/user is to cause damage to the 'spam' site, this may fall out of the purview of any legit TOS.

Quote:

Originally posted by RuthXtremePay
Sorry if you guys already know about this, figured it's something that might be valuable knowledge to a few of you guys out there.

The short version is that Lycos is getting people to download a screensaver that then tries to sign up through known spamming websites increasing the bandwidth of the spam sites therefore increasing COSTS to the spammers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm

Screensaver tackles spam websites
Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites
Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

Cost curve

"We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do," said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe.

"In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users," he said, "but now we are going to go one step further."

Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive
Malte Pollmann, Lycos

"We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers."
By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity.

Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with.

He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web.

"Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day," he said, "about one MP3 file."

But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day.

Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann.

"That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing," he said.

Slow down

The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer.

Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day.
The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods.

As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann.

Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%.

Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver.

While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data.

The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden.

Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days.

"There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more," he said "Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...gy/4051553.stm

Bigjohn · 11-29-2004, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by VirtuMike

It's marketing genuis though - the more people that they get to load their screensaver, the more people carry their toolbar.

Spyware opportunity!

Exactly what I was thinking...

datezonline · 11-29-2004, 07:44 PM

wow i see lycos are going to get ddos'd, what a stupid idea....and anyway spammers wouldnt spam if people didnt buy. there is money in it and thats why it continues, these pieces of crap dont have a right to make that decision for the 50 million people who buy through email. die lycos

11-29-2004, 01:36 PM	#1
RuthXtremePay Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 471	Lycos set to destroy spammers... Sorry if you guys already know about this, figured it's something that might be valuable knowledge to a few of you guys out there. The short version is that Lycos is getting people to download a screensaver that then tries to sign up through known spamming websites increasing the bandwidth of the spam sites therefore increasing COSTS to the spammers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm Screensaver tackles spam websites Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data. Cost curve "We've never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do," said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe. "In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users," he said, "but now we are going to go one step further." Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive Malte Pollmann, Lycos "We've found a way to make it much higher cost for spammers by putting a load on their servers." By getting thousands of people to download and use the screensaver, Lycos hopes to get spamming websites constantly running at almost full capacity. Mr Pollmann said there was no intention to stop the spam websites working by subjecting them with too much data to cope with. He said the screensaver had been carefully written to ensure that the amount of traffic it generated from each user did not overload the web. "Every single user will contribute three to four megabytes per day," he said, "about one MP3 file." But, he said, if enough people sign up spamming websites could be force to pay for gigabytes of traffic every single day. Lycos did not want to use e-mail to fight back, said Mr Pollmann. "That would be fighting one bad thing with another bad thing," he said. Slow down The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer. Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day. The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods. As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann. Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%. Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver. While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data. The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden. Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days. "There's a huge user demand to not only filter spam day-by-day but to do something more," he said "Before now users have never had the chance to be a bit more offensive." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...gy/4051553.stm __________________ XtremePay Let's do business - hit me up - ICQ #233854608 Promote the Web's Best Selling All Inclusive Sites! 50-70% Recurring! Click here now!!

11-29-2004, 01:38 PM	#2
JamesK2 Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 6,589	funky __________________

11-29-2004, 01:48 PM	#4
RuthXtremePay Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 471	If you're hosting yourself then your bandwidth will increase.. otherwise it will affect the sponsors, you're right.. but I know there are some guys/gals out there who host their own sites even though they're mailing for another sponsor __________________ XtremePay Let's do business - hit me up - ICQ #233854608 Promote the Web's Best Selling All Inclusive Sites! 50-70% Recurring! Click here now!!

11-29-2004, 01:50 PM	#5
RuthXtremePay Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 471	AND.. if they make it unviable for sponsors to pay for hosting.. then that will inevitably affect the spammers themselves.. __________________ XtremePay Let's do business - hit me up - ICQ #233854608 Promote the Web's Best Selling All Inclusive Sites! 50-70% Recurring! Click here now!!

11-29-2004, 01:56 PM	#8
Nasty Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Sunny Fucking California Posts: 1,575	Lycos who? You think they have enough market any nore to really effect much? __________________ “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.” ― Omar Bradley (1948)

11-29-2004, 01:47 PM	#3
Persius Tap into MOBILE! Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Hollywood Posts: 11,779	wouldnt that be sponsors and not spammers? lol how can they make spammers cost more bandwidth?

11-29-2004, 01:50 PM	#6
MickeyG Confirmed User Join Date: May 2004 Location: South Florida Posts: 4,134	they can't get away with this in the US. They'd be sued for sure. So who cares let em weed out some of the competition

11-29-2004, 01:53 PM	#7
BuckLover Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: I'm everywhere Bitches!! Posts: 1,656

11-29-2004, 01:58 PM	#9
azguy Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ Posts: 5,167	BRILLIANT. DIE FUCKERS

11-29-2004, 02:01 PM	#10
CheneyRumsfeld Confirmed User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 1,341	if the spammers sue and win a judgement against Lycos they can force them to pay the bandwidth bill they ran up. backfire!!!!

11-29-2004, 02:02 PM	#11
yuvalus Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 1,906	damn those f*ckers this maybe the biggest threat to the industry __________________ Mail me: [email protected]

11-29-2004, 02:04 PM	#12
Jakke PNG ex-TeenGodFather Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Suomi Finland Perkele Posts: 20,306	Fun for those whos machine gets hacked by spammers. __________________ ..and I'm off.

11-29-2004, 02:08 PM	#17
Persius Tap into MOBILE! Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Hollywood Posts: 11,779	or just mail super anti's straight to lycos site

11-29-2004, 02:15 PM	#19
ytcracker stc is the greatest Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: rip sean murray Posts: 12,403	www.spamtec.com __________________ www.ytcracker.com \| www.digitalgangster.com i love you

11-29-2004, 02:16 PM	#20
Mr Pheer Retired Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 21,257	sounds like a DOS attack

11-29-2004, 02:20 PM	#22
Phoenix BACON BACON BACON Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Poems everybody, the laddie fancies himself a poet Posts: 35,462	haha they cant do shit..all they will do is end up getting their shit hacked and screwed up __________________ Skype Phoenixskype1 Telegram PhoenixBrad https://quantads.io

11-29-2004, 04:22 PM	#24
Rich So Fucking Banned Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 11,486	How do they decide which emails they're going to basically hotlink on a massive level? If someone is obeying the Can Spam rules, how do they have the right to attempt to disrupt their legal business? Isn't this basically the equivalent of a DOS attack?

11-29-2004, 04:24 PM	#25
fris Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 55,372	no spammers here __________________ Since 1999: 69 Adult Industry awards for Best Hosting Company and professional excellence. WP Stuff

11-29-2004, 04:24 PM	#26
smack Push Porn Like Weight. Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Inside .NET Posts: 10,652	that's got go be illegal. __________________ Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

11-29-2004, 04:38 PM	#27
MrJackMeHoff Confirmed User Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: LOLLIPOP ISLAND =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Posts: 4,569	this will never work. __________________

11-29-2004, 04:49 PM	#29
flashfreak Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: cloud number 9 Posts: 4,396	I don't think they will succed, tho I'd like it. __________________ SEO Mogul \| ICQ: 163671223

11-29-2004, 05:41 PM	#30
VirtuMike Confirmed User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Seat 1A Posts: 2,483	It's not Lycos - It's Terra Lycos. They're big in Spain. They still host a LOT of free sites. And they do have the traffic. However, this isn't really anything more than a DDOS attack. It's marketing genuis though - the more people that they get to load their screensaver, the more people carry their toolbar. Spyware opportunity! __________________ Host it in AMSTERDAM at EUROTIVITY! - We also offer BACKUP SERVICES! XYZZY4L

11-29-2004, 05:44 PM	#31
Myst Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 4,707	what would be awesome is the spammers hosting their site on lycos and lycos will end up DOSing their own servers __________________ ICQ: 298-523-037

11-29-2004, 07:44 PM	#34
datezonline A man trapped in a woman's body Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: hardrive Posts: 450	wow i see lycos are going to get ddos'd, what a stupid idea....and anyway spammers wouldnt spam if people didnt buy. there is money in it and thats why it continues, these pieces of crap dont have a right to make that decision for the 50 million people who buy through email. die lycos