Scott Richter Settles Another Spam Suit

Oh looky, it's our "friends" Steve and Scott Richter in the news again. This time, they've settled with MySpace for $6 million after being accused of spamming thousands of MySpace.com users -- and using phished accounts to do it (see today's IT Blogwatch for more).

Of course, Scott gave up spamming some time ago. Or did he? Brian Krebs today offers an interesting investigation into domain registrations of spamvertised Web sites:

More than three quarters of all Web sites advertised through spam are clustered at just 10 domain name registrars ... Out of the 15,000 spam-advertised domains we examined, nearly half -- 7,142 names -- were registered through a Broomfield, Colo. company called Dynamic Dolphin ... the seventh most-popular registrar among spammers ... [and] owned by a company called CPA Empire, which in turn is owned by Media Breakaway LLC. The CEO of Media Breakaway is none other than Scott Richter, the once self-avowed "Spam King" who claims to have quit the business. Anti-spam groups also have recently implicated Media Breakaway in the alleged hijacking of more than 65,000 Internet addresses for use in sending e-mail and hosting commercial Web sites.

Remember kids, Rule #1: Spammers lie.

Your humble, award-winning blogwatcher

Update: for those of you clicking through from Yahoo Finance's Apple page, no I don't know why, either. But welcome, anyway! Feel free to read some more of my stuff.

Golly. My IT Blogwatch thingy over at Computerworld was just recognized as one of three Computerworld blogs to swing a Jesse H. Neal Award.

If you peer really carefully at this pic, you'll see my idiot-grin in the screen shot...



The very not-dead Linda Rosencrance says:

Computerworld today won Jesse H. Neal Awards for best Web site, best online series for its coverage of Apple Inc.'s Leopard operating system, and best blog ... "I don't think it's a stretch to say this may well be the single most outstanding accomplishment in the history of Computerworld," said Don Tennant, vice president and editorial director of Computerworld. ... The blog award recognized three blog posts in particular, one from the Web site's daily IT Blogwatch written by Richi Jennings, and others written by Ian Lamont and David Ramel. more

Blush.

Email Address Typos can Spell Trouble

A quick extract from yesterday's IT Blogwatch, in which The U.S. Air Force gets caught sending classified data in unencrypted email:

Sensitive information ... swamped Gary Sinnott's email inbox after he established www.mildenhall.com ... Emails intended for Air Force personnel at the Mildenhall Air Force base (who uses the domain mildenhall.af.mil) were being misdirected to the owner of the .com site ... hundreds of classified emails were sent from around the world ... detailing all kinds of secret military information ... I ask you, what sort of drooling idiots do the US Military employ? Do they breed them in special farms?

And so on, and so on...

Reminds me very much of when I helped migrate Ferris Research's email accounts from The Electric Mail Company to Google Apps. -- I set up a catch-all account to make sure we hadn't missed any weird aliases or mailing lists. You've almost always got to do this when migrating an email setup, because it's so easy to miss a useful address. You'd be surprised how many times you can ask the question "Is this alias still needed?", getting the answer "no", and find that in fact it is.

Anyway, I was amazed how much misdirected email we received -- much of it meant for ferris.edu (Ferris State University, Michigan), as well as obviously confidential attorney-client communication, love notes, and more. All of human life was here for a while.

I guess it only goes to prove -- if proof were needed -- that .com is the only game in town, when it comes to domain choice.

Alan Ralsky Indicted

Well well. It seems the Feds have decided that Ralsky has been helping the Russian stock kiters...

A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed today in Detroit charging 11 persons, including Alan M. Ralsky ... in a wide-ranging international fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk commercial e-mailing, or "spamming" ... The charges arose after a three-year investigation ... revealed a sophisticated and extensive spamming operation that, as alleged in the indictment, largely focused on running a stock “pump and dump” scheme.

Much, much more at today's IT Blogwatch.

(Happy new year, by the way.)

IT Blogwatch roundup

As you may know, every day I write the IT Blogwatch column for Computerworld. The idea is to take an IT/tech news story from the past couple of days, and tell the world what bloggers are saying about it.

The column recently won an American Society of Business Press Editors award. Hurrah.

For your delectation, here's a quick roundup of last week's efforts...

Fri 10th: Untangle untangles AV testing mysteries (and ant joke)

Fancy seeing you here. It's Friday's IT Blogwatch: in which we find an interesting test of anti-virus engines at LinuxWorld. And did you hear the one about the ladybug and the ant?..

Thu 9th: Go green: climate change changing data centers (and !bug)

It's an inconvenient Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which we examine power-saving data centers. Not to mention the classic QA joke, reinterpreted as visual pun...

Wed 8th: New iMacs, iWork, iLife, iEtc. (and pukelight)

Boom! It's Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which Steve Jobs unveils a load of new Mac stuff. Not to mention the LED flashlight that makes its victims vomit...

Tues 7th: Linux StinkPads ahoy! (and compendium vol 10)

Strike a light, Mary Poppins, it's only Tuesday's IT Blogwatch: in which ThinkPads are to officially run Linux. Not to mention something for everyone in today's "And Finally"...

Mon 6th: Dateline Las Vegas: hackers whack a mole hack (and outed-FSJ)
Monday's IT Blogwatch: in which an undercover NBC reporter gets busted at DEFCON 15. Not to mention Fake Steve Jobs revealed...

Last week's IT Blogwatch roundup

As you may know, every day I write the IT Blogwatch column for Computerworld. The idea is to take an IT/tech news story from the past couple of days, and tell the world what bloggers are saying about it.

The column has just won an American Society of Business Press Editors award. Hurrah.

For your delectation, here's a quick roundup of last week's efforts...

Who wants a free Google phone? (and comic() {comic();})

Can you hear me now? It's Friday's IT Blogwatch: in which the oft-rumored Google phone gets closer, perhaps. Not to mention a recursive comic-strip...

Something wireless in the AAir (and LOLpresidents)

I'm your humble blogwatcher, fly me. It's Thursday's IT Blogwatch: in which American Airlines and others test in-flight Wi-Fi. Not to mention some hilarious politician macros...

Microsoft's OSI open-source offer (and Nasha... hic!)

Rabbits, white rabbits on Wednesday's IT Blogwatch: in which Microsoft "embraces" open source licensing. Not to mention how NASA discovered those naughty drunken astronauts...

Grub-by open source searching (and weirdest mating ritual)

It's Ruby Tuesday's IT Blogwatch: in which Wikia buys Grub, in Jimmy Wales' bid to take over the world's knowledge. Not to mention the courtship dance of the waved albatross...

And so the iPhone class-action action begins (and recut trailers)

Yes, iT's Monday's iT Blogwatch: iN which we learn of an iPhone class-action lawsuit. Not to mention some more recut classic movie trailers...