[PLUG] Trying to ID a spammer...

Stuart Mathews smathews at pcez.com
Wed Jun 5 21:13:05 UTC 2002


I've been told that trying to identify spammers is a waste of
time.  Since losing my job at IBM, I have the time and wanted to
see what I could find about "inbox.org," who wants me to
refinance my house.

The spam is from rachel at inbox.org.  I suppose if you're going to
use phony names, "Rachel" is as good as any.  The offer is to
refi my house, has the usual opt-out info, and a disclaimer.

The disclaimer pronounces their right to spam me because they are
in compliance with some proposed legislation, but that if I am
not having any luck getting off their list I can contact the
"Abuse Control Center" in Canoga Park, CA.

The Center must have relocated, because a google search for the
phone# for the opt-out turned up something indicating the
so-called Abuse Control Center was in Irvine.

Trying to learn about inbox.org I ran;

$ whois "inbox.org"@whois.crsnic.net     ......which returned the
registrant as Anthony DiPierro, in Brewster, NY.

I ran a google search on DiPierro, found discussion threads he
contributed to a couple of years ago relating to C vs Perl stuff,
Free BSD vs Microsoft, and his email (anthony at inbox.org).
DiPierro at inbox.org appears to exist.  Looks like he registered
inbox.org through tucows.

I ran nslookup on inbox.org and found a matching IP address
(161.58.166.119), which I can ping.

But what now?  Is it possible that some spammer has cracked into
Anthony's machine and is using it as a base for their own
nefarious purposes, or is likly that Anthony is just a good old
New Jersey type trying to make a living by freeloading off the
Internet?


Stuart Mathews





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