8000 spams in 24 hrs:Hotmail

polo · 3 Aug 2002, 08:34 AM

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=660
I've had personally not 8000 but 500 of the same spam message in more than 1 Hotmail account. I'm curious if Yahoo users have ever had the same spam spamming your account like this? I hear of some people saying Yahoo is just as bad as Hotmail (personally find that hard to believe as I've never had any experience of that. AFAIK even if spammers try to spam your account Yahoo DO something about it)

Or any other service -- do you get 100-8000 spams of the same spam?

tsang · 3 Aug 2002, 02:19 PM

I once had 242 identical mails in 2 hrs.
I decided to strike back.
I clicked the link, went to the page and found that I could have my debt reduced by filling out a form and pressing return, after which I would be taken back to the the same form that I could fill out.

Well, since I was so desparately eager to get rid of my debt,
I thought that filling just one form may not be too effective.
I filled that form with the sender's name and some obviously rediculous info.
I then put a weight on the enter key and went to dinner or took a bath...
Alas.
A filled form was thus sent every second, repeatedly.
Well, until the site was down and no longer accesible after about 30 minutes.
I did these steps a number of times for the next 2 days.
After 2 days, the website is never again in operation.
I have checked every month since then.

Is that illegal?

Jeremy Howard · 3 Aug 2002, 02:34 PM

How about this?: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...pacific.net.au

**Gankaku** · 3 Aug 2002, 08:10 PM

tsang I got quite a chuckle out of that one! hee hee

robert@fm · 4 Aug 2002, 02:02 AM

tsang, I never thought that reading of a DoS attack (Denial of Spam, in this case) would give me a laugh...

sillyshorty · 4 Aug 2002, 03:18 AM

Tsang, if it's not legal, it should be. I had a good laugh and glad it worked. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had that happen to me... but now I know what to do it it does... lol

Gazania · 4 Aug 2002, 03:22 AM

But it was the BEST LAUGH I had all day. You go, tsang!

lion · 4 Aug 2002, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tsang
I then put a weight on the enter key and went to dinner or took a bath...
Alas.
A filled form was thus sent every second, repeatedly.

Just pressing the enter key with the weight did that ?!?

I would think that once you put the weight on the enter key, it will count as one message, that's it.

Hmmm ... interesting. I have to try it.

mail2me · 16 Oct 2002, 12:27 PM

Let me tell a small story about how I closed my hotmail account which might be somewhat relevant. The newly introduced "Close account" button just wasn't working when I wanted to. I contacted their support using the online form. They did get back to me as usual. This time it took about 2-3 days IIRC unlike earlier when they surprised me by responding in less then 24 hours. However the response I got wasn't satifying to me. They asked me to leave it without logging in for 30 days. That is something that I just didn't want to do because I want any possible senders to know that my hotmail email address is not working anymore.

So how did I close my account? Well, actually it is still not closed officially. What I did was fill my mailbox with several messages with attachments but messages would still get through even though I had gone over quota upto 2.5MB. Since the Hotmail janitor deletes old messages to make room for new messages this was still a problem. How do I make sure that my account is always over quota for the next 30 days untill it is finally deleted? Simple solution. I subscribed to doznes of safelists. That did the trick. All my test messages got bounced thereafter.

I pity for the person who tries to get my old username for a brand new hotmail account. He will get something like 8000 safelist messages on a daily basis. Well at least they are not spam.

I am not very happy with what I did either, but there was no other way. They didn't co-operate to close my account manually.

classicalmusic · 16 Oct 2002, 12:39 PM

My record with hotmail is 676 copies of the same message over a 1-hour period. Another time, I received over 400 copies of another message again within an hour's time. Hotmail IS ABSOLUTELY ABYSMAL ...

**Gankaku** · 16 Oct 2002, 07:20 PM

Someone mentioned a comparison between Yahoo/Hotmail spam...

I've never ever used my hotmail account for anything and I get spammed relentlessly there.

I use my Yahoo account regularly and only see a few trickle in from time to time.

kander · 16 Oct 2002, 07:48 PM

Take a look and a chuckle at this: http://money.cnn.com/2002/10/14/tech...n.ap/index.htm

And especially the part: " Microsoft's newest MSN focuses on improving filtering of "spam," or junk e-mail, and beefs up its e-mail program, one of Microsoft's advantages over AOL, analysts said. " ROTFLOL! I wonder how they will make up for all these years of deliberately spamming us?

mail2me · 16 Oct 2002, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gankaku
Someone mentioned a comparison between Yahoo/Hotmail spam...

I've never ever used my hotmail account for anything and I get spammed relentlessly there.

I use my Yahoo account regularly and only see a few trickle in from time to time.

That is because hotmail is more popular. Spammers select the most popular domain when random generating emal addresses to reach a wider audience.

The other problem is that new hotmail accounts maybe using a previously discarded email address of someone else. Yahoo doesn't allow this, which is why a lot of us can't get the preffered usernames at Yahoo. I didn't see much of a difference in spam levels at both my hotmail and yahoo accounts. For me there is no difference between receiving 10 or 15 spams daily.

There are also those lucky ones that do get just one or two spam messages a week at hotmail.

Adam Lachlan · 17 Oct 2002, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tsang
I once had 242 identical mails in 2 hrs.
I decided to strike back.
I clicked the link, went to the page and found that I could have my debt reduced by filling out a form and pressing return, after which I would be taken back to the the same form that I could fill out.

Well, since I was so desparately eager to get rid of my debt,
I thought that filling just one form may not be too effective.
I filled that form with the sender's name and some obviously rediculous info.
I then put a weight on the enter key and went to dinner or took a bath...
Alas.
A filled form was thus sent every second, repeatedly.
Well, until the site was down and no longer accesible after about 30 minutes.
I did these steps a number of times for the next 2 days.
After 2 days, the website is never again in operation.
I have checked every month since then.

Is that illegal?

LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! Too funny! Thanks Tsang you made my day

**CyberSmurf** · 17 Oct 2002, 02:25 PM

I once had a spammer using my address as a return address. I knew this because of the bounces that were coming to my inbox.

I wouldn't want to be the recipient of someones misdirected vengence.

3 Aug 2002, 08:34 AM	#1
polo Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 60	8000 spams in 24 hrs:Hotmail http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=660 I've had personally not 8000 but 500 of the same spam message in more than 1 Hotmail account. I'm curious if Yahoo users have ever had the same spam spamming your account like this? I hear of some people saying Yahoo is just as bad as Hotmail (personally find that hard to believe as I've never had any experience of that. AFAIK even if spammers try to spam your account Yahoo DO something about it) Or any other service -- do you get 100-8000 spams of the same spam?

3 Aug 2002, 02:19 PM	#2
tsang Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Washington DC Posts: 252	fighting back against spam I once had 242 identical mails in 2 hrs. I decided to strike back. I clicked the link, went to the page and found that I could have my debt reduced by filling out a form and pressing return, after which I would be taken back to the the same form that I could fill out. Well, since I was so desparately eager to get rid of my debt, I thought that filling just one form may not be too effective. I filled that form with the sender's name and some obviously rediculous info. I then put a weight on the enter key and went to dinner or took a bath... Alas. A filled form was thus sent every second, repeatedly. Well, until the site was down and no longer accesible after about 30 minutes. I did these steps a number of times for the next 2 days. After 2 days, the website is never again in operation. I have checked every month since then. Is that illegal? Last edited by tsang : 3 Aug 2002 at 02:22 PM.

4 Aug 2002, 03:22 AM	#7
Gazania Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 181	Tsang ... Maybe it is, maybe it isn't But it was the BEST LAUGH I had all day. You go, tsang!

3 Aug 2002, 02:34 PM	#3
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	How about this?: http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...pacific.net.au

3 Aug 2002, 08:10 PM	#4
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,265	tsang I got quite a chuckle out of that one! hee hee

4 Aug 2002, 02:02 AM	#5
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	tsang, I never thought that reading of a DoS attack (Denial of Spam, in this case) would give me a laugh...

4 Aug 2002, 03:18 AM	#6
sillyshorty Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Phoenix, Az Posts: 51	Tsang, if it's not legal, it should be. I had a good laugh and glad it worked. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had that happen to me... but now I know what to do it it does... lol

16 Oct 2002, 12:27 PM	#9
mail2me Master of the @ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: California, USA Posts: 1,597	Let me tell a small story about how I closed my hotmail account which might be somewhat relevant. The newly introduced "Close account" button just wasn't working when I wanted to. I contacted their support using the online form. They did get back to me as usual. This time it took about 2-3 days IIRC unlike earlier when they surprised me by responding in less then 24 hours. However the response I got wasn't satifying to me. They asked me to leave it without logging in for 30 days. That is something that I just didn't want to do because I want any possible senders to know that my hotmail email address is not working anymore. So how did I close my account? Well, actually it is still not closed officially. What I did was fill my mailbox with several messages with attachments but messages would still get through even though I had gone over quota upto 2.5MB. Since the Hotmail janitor deletes old messages to make room for new messages this was still a problem. How do I make sure that my account is always over quota for the next 30 days untill it is finally deleted? Simple solution. I subscribed to doznes of safelists. That did the trick. All my test messages got bounced thereafter. I pity for the person who tries to get my old username for a brand new hotmail account. He will get something like 8000 safelist messages on a daily basis. Well at least they are not spam. I am not very happy with what I did either, but there was no other way. They didn't co-operate to close my account manually.

16 Oct 2002, 12:39 PM	#10
classicalmusic Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 130	My record with hotmail is 676 copies of the same message over a 1-hour period. Another time, I received over 400 copies of another message again within an hour's time. Hotmail IS ABSOLUTELY ABYSMAL ...

16 Oct 2002, 07:20 PM	#11
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,265	Someone mentioned a comparison between Yahoo/Hotmail spam... I've never ever used my hotmail account for anything and I get spammed relentlessly there. I use my Yahoo account regularly and only see a few trickle in from time to time.

16 Oct 2002, 07:48 PM	#12
kander The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 4,112	Take a look and a chuckle at this: http://money.cnn.com/2002/10/14/tech...n.ap/index.htm And especially the part: " Microsoft's newest MSN focuses on improving filtering of "spam," or junk e-mail, and beefs up its e-mail program, one of Microsoft's advantages over AOL, analysts said. " ROTFLOL! I wonder how they will make up for all these years of deliberately spamming us?

17 Oct 2002, 02:25 PM	#15
CyberSmurf Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: British Columbia Posts: 4,011	I once had a spammer using my address as a return address. I knew this because of the bounces that were coming to my inbox. I wouldn't want to be the recipient of someones misdirected vengence.