Borked Pseudo Mailed wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2007, Borked Pseudo Mailed <nobody@pseudo.borked.net> wrote:
>> Borked Pseudo Mailed <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote:
>>
>>> As most of you already know, there is a serious pandemic problem facing
>>> readers
>>> in news groups. There is a glut of spammers and sock puppets who seem to spam
>>> with
>>> impunity, many through the Google Groups web to usenet interface. I am
>>> talking
>>> about commercial spam, people selling things, people who want your money. I
>>> had
>>> always thought that posting commerical spam links to groups with charters
>>> against it
>>> was considered abuse, and could get the spammer's account cancelled. That no
>>> longer
>>> seems to be the case, at least not with Google.
>>>
>>> Complaints to <groups-abuse@google.com> seem to be ignored. You copy the
>>> complete
>>> spam message with headers and send it to them, with "Commercial SPAM link
>>> complaint"
>>> or other obvious wording in the subject title, but no bananas. The spam
>>> continues,
>>> and new Google sock puppets keep popping up like summer dandelions.
>>>
>>> A few months ago, I began tracking the IP addresses in the spam and sock
>>> puppet
>>> message headers, of all spam that has been disrupting our groups, noticing
>>> that
>>> some
>>> of the messages had been cross posted to other groups, and in very odd
>>> combinations.
>>>
>>> I began to notice that the Google IP addresses in the spam headers are
>>> coming
>> >from all over the place, from Australia, the US, UK, everywhere that Google
>>> Groups
>>> is accessible.
>>>
>>> I don't get it. I can't believe that spammers around the world could be
>>> working
>>> in cahoots, could they? Have spammers created a global usenet link-exchange
>>> program,
>>> where they agree to constantly create new Google sock puppets, each from their
>>> own
>>> injection points that Google identifies by IP block, then keep posting each
>>> other's
>>> spammy links in usenet messages, and maybe to proprietary Google web groups
>>> too?
>>>
>>> I know there are plenty of other spammy ISPs and what not. But how many
>>> other
>>> Google Groups are there? It's like they are working tag teams. One Google
>>> user
>>> posts a newbie message "I am new here," "I need information." Then the
>>> spammer
>>> responds right on que, usually with their own Google Groups account, or other
>>> usenet
>>> service.
>>>
>>> So I guess I have two questions. Is an international spammer's
>>> "link-exchange"
>>> program really going on here? And if it is, then is there any practical way
>>> to
>>> stop
>>> them? Maybe I'm just being paranoid, or don't fully understand how the whole
>>> Google
>>> Groups posting thing works. Spam sucks. Whatever happened to the UDP?
>>>
>>> Paranoid
>>>
>> You're either a troll or eelbash, who, of course, never heard about
>> botnets.
>
> Actually, you've helped to suggest an answer to one of my two primary
> questions, to some extent, that it may be possible that spammers have
> automated programs that allow them to post and morph through the Google
> Groups interface. But isn't Google the world's leading search engine? Why,
> or how, would they allow malicious commercial spammers to take advantage
> of them?
>
> I'm not the reviled eelbash, but I'm probably ignorant enough about the
> subject matter on Internet spam, to qualify as a "troll" in the watchful eyes
> of Internet experts. I am just sick of the spam. If there is nothing that
> can be done about it, then I suppose that is that. Please say it isn't so.
>
> I've never heard of botnets before, so I searched that term inclusive of
> usenet AND spam AND google AND groups, which returns some interesting results.
>
> I read that the "24hoursupport.helpdesk" and "alt.internet.search-engines"
> groups might be of help on this, so I've added them to this reply.
>
> Paranoid
>
Here is an eWeek story on botnets you may find interesting.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895...MNL041707EP38A

-_-