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An AppleScript to forward spam to the FTC via Mail
Authored by: TigerKR on Feb 27, '06 10:45:15AM

"If you get spam email that you think is deceptive, forward it to spam@uce.gov. The FTC uses the spam stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email."

If the government can really help to get rid of spam, and they're asking for me to forward to them all of my spam, then by golly, I'm going to do it.

I would think that the federal government and state governments would want people to stagger their tax returns throughout the year, because I would think that if everyone sends their forms in the same few days every year, that they would be overwhelmed and not be able to process the data in a timely fashion.

Yet somehow, the government finds a way.

I guess the moral is that one shouldn't underestimate the size of the government.



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[OT] government ways
Authored by: sjk on Feb 27, '06 07:22:18PM

And a trip to the DMV may give you reasons not to underestimate certain things about the government. ;-)



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An AppleScript to forward spam to the FTC via Mail
Authored by: tinker on Feb 28, '06 05:54:45AM

True... but note the part of the quote that asks for spam "that you think is deceptive." I don't know about you, but I'd say that less than 10% of my spam is actually deceptive; most of it is selling something like meds or hair loss treatment or, ah, enhanced masculinity. They might be "deceptive" in the sense that they don't work, but what they're offering, at least, is up front. I would think that "deceptive" e-mail is something more like the ubiquitous letter from Nigeria asking you to help the former wife of the deceased Minister of Finance move his money out of an account and offering you obscene quantities of money in exchange for your assistance. If the FTC is really looking for those sorts of e-mails and not the masculine enhancement / pharmaceuticals kind, we wouldn't be doing them any favors by auto-flooding them with tons of the latter. Is my point.



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An AppleScript to forward spam to the FTC via Mail
Authored by: Anonymous on Jul 31, '06 01:36:59PM

Most spam is sent from relays. These are often computers taken over by "kittens"-type viruses (you know, the one with the cute Powerpoint slideshow and the not-so-cute payload). So by forwarding spam to the FTC, or KnujOn or whoever else takes on the responsibility, you're also helping to cut the number of zombified Windows machines, and ultimately, cleaning up the Internet of unnecessary bandwidth usage. When one of the most successful anti-spam efforts, Blue Frog, went down, something like 90% of Internet traffic for the following days was spam.

I'm trying to tweak this script to send raw source to KnujOn. I'll post again if I'm successful.



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