"Just zis Guy, you know?" <
[email protected]> writes:
> On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:50:16 GMT, [email protected] (Bill Z.)
> wrote:
>
> >My name *was* spelled out in my signature, which you even quoted - it
> >was backwards to reduce the chances of a dictionary attack on the part
> >of spammers who might know something about the internet service
> >provided by SBC (formerly PacBell).
>
> FOFLMAO! That cracks me up every time. The very idea that spammers
> are going to scarf the contents of Usenet messages, pick out names
> form sigs, reassemble them with domain names from headers and send
> spam! Like there aren't several dozen easier ways to get addies
> together! Bill, your paranoia is hilarious :-D
Your ignorance is really pathetic. Spammers do something quite
similar to that. I started getting spam within a week or so of
posting a usenet message after setting up an account with my ISP, and
I did not include my email address in any usable form in the message
nor give it to any web site. I did have a URL in the signature,
pointing to a GIF file containing my email address in non-linear text
so that even character recognition wouldn't work.
They may have known that pacbell initially set one's home page
to
http://home.pacbell.net/USER with
[email protected] being the
corresponding email address, or they could simply collect words
and try a dictionary attack on all of them - you hardly have to
pick up names specifically - you just look for the lack of
bounced messages to confirm what might be a legitimate one.
Since you are technically naive, try looking up the term
"dictionary attack" and see what it means, and you might consider
trying not to make a fool of yourself until you know something
about the field.
--
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB