How to bust the amateur spammers
Source: CW360
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. The sentiment behind this well-worn expression is that Internet users automatically have a degree of anonymity. However, contrary to popular wisdom, anonymity, particularly over the Internet, is a very uncertain state.
Let me give you an example.
Recently, I was spammed with some material that I didn't much like. Those who send junk e-mail tend to hide behind "re-mailer services", but this was different - it looked to be very much an amateur effort. Normally, when the author happens to be xyz123@Yahoo or Hotmail.com, there is little you can do except send an e-mail to "Abuse" at the respective service provider but this time I tried something a little more creative.
Working on the hunch that xyz123 might have popped up somewhere else on the Internet before, I ran all the big search engines (including Google and Alltheweb.com) against the address. To my surprise, the same address popped-up on a school site, listing the names of ex-pupils and their contact e-mail addresses.
