Site Navigation
Feedback: March 2003, Published: April 2003
There has been a considerable increase in the amount of spam in the previous month (March). Some of the low-lights are shown below. There also seems to be a tendancy for spammers to use TUCOWS, REGISTER.COM and NETWORK SOLUTIONS INC. TUCOWS declare that they will not supend sites that commision spam. They say that they will only take action against sites that are spam sources.
Spam Diaries:
- Paul Thomas -- Just send me money!
- New Porn Site
- Drop me a line sometime?
- mannis the manic EuroSpammer
- WizSystems
Message from Wayne Mansfield
This should have been in the previous feedback column. I have included it in this month's feedback, because I have just revamped the feedback column. It is now generated with a perl script that reads the selected items in my mutt mailbox. This was from Wayne Mansfield of T1 Direct Fame.
From: Wayne Mansfield Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 09:51:32 +1100 (EST) Gerry Loved your article. I am a fan of Aunty Jack ( isn't he great on Better Homes and Gardens now ). If I ever want to find out what I am doing I just check Mark Reynolds site. He must really get a life. Poor sole, spends hundreds of hour promoting the evils of SPAM and all that happens is the steady flow of new clients that approach our door. I think that is call the unexpected consequence. It has been fanastic for business. Your definition of mail, surprise surprise, Cat1 and Cat 2, addresses the areas that I believe are legimate business use email as a direct advertising medium. Keep up the good work. I will add a link to your site from various sites we manage. Your article is a fanatastic marketing tool for my business. Thanks again. Ed: Wayne, Thanks for your feedback. If your business is thriving, I can only say that you must know something I don't. I have worked in the IT sector for so long that when I started it wasn't even called the "IT sector". And in all that time, I have never seen times as grim as the present. Still as The Bard said, "it's an ill wind which blows no man to good." Of course, my article was written entirely from second hand accounts. I never saw Grahame Bond on the Channel 7 lifestyle program. The Aunty Jack reference sprang to mind from that earlier era when IT was called computer science. Gerry Patterson Gerry Of all the stuff written from an "Anti Spam" position, I believe yours was the most rounded in that it addresses a number of issues that most of the "anti team" can't see passed. One opinion I hadn't seen expressed was one in which you "wonder" why people such as myself are so reviled. If I have read correctly, you say it is because we have been painted as faceless soulless people - dehumanised, if think you say - and therefore it is easy for the protagonists to vilify people like me. By a strange co-incidence, I reached that same opinion a couple of months ago and have started returning all the calls from the PRESS and I believe we have achieved a turn in sentiment in the reporting of the issues. The articles that ran in The West, SMH and The Age that gave my point of view could have been written by me. I understand from the journalists involved they copped a fair amount of abuse from those people who disagreed with the opinion reported. As to doing well... we have created $multi-millions of business for our clients and ourselves in the last 2 years. Business is doing well - and so are our clients. Maybe it is a time when people in the IT business should re-evaluate the use of the technology and use it for more creative things than counting numbers etc. As to Aunty Jack... it brings back childhood memories of when I was working with IBM Super Computers that had their own air-conditioned room, fake lights to indicate activity and punch card entry. I must be as old as you??? Regards Wayne Mansfield Ed: I can only hope that Wayne has indeed changed his ways. If so, I would like to welcome him back to the human race.
A load of BS from BSA
The following (from Brian) left me somewhat speechless. This was posted on a SLUG mailing list.
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 12:22:45 +1100 (EST) From: Brian Robson Subject: BSA is a criminal organisation too Hi there, Here is a post just in from SLUG, where the BSA (funded mainly by M$) thinks OpenOffice is actually the same as MS Office and should not be distributed by servers. They are a disgrace, and should be unveiled for what they are, pawns of M$, and contributors to ongoing criminality (unfair competition and harrassment of competitors). Brian ================================================================ From: Ken Foskey To: chat slug Date: 28 Feb 2003 23:49:49 +1100 Maybe they are being a little more sneaky about how they claim this... read on start at the bottom for a quick idea. -----Forwarded Message----- > From: Louis Suarez-Potts <louis (at) openoffice.org> > To: dev (at) distribution.openoffice.org > Subject: [distro-dev] Re: [webmasters] Re: Fw: [NOC] Case ID 588853 - Notice of Claimed Infringement > Date: 27 Feb 2003 23:04:42 -0800 > > > Hi > We received this message from Christian Schild of Muenster. I immediately > contacted the BSA and clarified the situation; they apologized for the > misunderstanding. > -- > Quote: > Dear Mrs. Suarez-Potts, > > I apologize for the obvious mistake I made. > Apparently our system detects the OpenOffice files as MS Office programs and > alarms me, which in turn sends the notices. I failed my part by not > reassuring clearly enough which property was infringed and now that I am > aware of that fact we will try and fix the search terms of our system and of > course be more aware of the possible mistake. > > Thank you very much for your e-mail. > > Sincerely, > > Corinna Beck > > -- > > I would like to know if others on this list have experienced anything > similar. If you have, please let me know so we can more aggressively act on > this--eg, publicize the misunderstandings. > > Thanks > Louis > > on 2/26/03 11:47 PM, Christian Schild at schild (at) uni-muenster.de wrote: > > > > > Dear ladies and gentlemen, > > > > as I don't know a better email contact, I'm writing this to you. If you are > > not a good contact for belows issues, please reply or forward accordingly. > > > > We just got accused by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) of offering piracy > > software, namely OpenOffice-1.0.1. > > > > We (University of Muenster, Germany) run an IPv6-FTP-Server that mirrors a lot > > of stuff, including the Mandrake linux distribution. Part of this > > distribution are the two 'offending' rpm-files below. > > > > Is the BSA serious? As far as I know, OpenOffice has a GPL and is free for > > usage _and_ free for download. So I basically don't understand what BSA's > > accusations are based on. If you look closer to the mail below, my best guess > > is, that BSA scripts ran amok and detected OpenOffice as MS-Office, because > > it contains the string "Office". Has Microsoft a copyright for "Office" now? > > > > Generally I would have leaned back and said 'Nice joke, adjust your scripts', > > but as we are accused officially, I'm doing some research before I reply. > > Anyway, I think it's also important for you OpenOffice-Guys to know, that > > obviously someone is trying to remove your product from FTP-Servers. > > > > Regards, > > Christian Schild > > > > > >> From: "Copyright Europe" <copyright-europe@bsa.org> > >> To: "Abuse" <network (at) uni-muenster.de> > >> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 5:51 PM > >> Subject: [NOC] Case ID 588853 - Notice of Claimed Infringement > >> > >> > >> Wednesday, February 26, 2003 > >> > >> Westfaelische Wilhelms - Universitaet > >> Roentgenstr. 9-13 > >> Muenster, D-48149 DE DE > >> > >> > >> RE: Unauthorized Distribution of the following copyrighted computer > >> program(s): > >> > >> Microsoft Office > >> > >> Dear Sir/Madam: > >> > >> The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has determined that the connection > >> listed below, which appears to be using an Internet account under your > >> control, is operating an FTP server to offer unlicensed copies or is engaged > >> in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted computer programs > >> published by the BSA's member companies. > >> > >> Infringement Details: > >> ------------------------------ > >> First Found: 24 Nov 2002 15:31:40 EST (GMT -500) > >> Last Found: 24 Feb 2003 01:19:59 EST (GMT -500) > >> IP Address: 128.176.191.21 > >> IP Port: 21 > >> Protocol: FTP > >> FTP Login Name: anonymous > >> FTP Login Password: guest@nowhere.com > >> > >> > >> What was located as infringing content: > >> ------------------------------ > >> Filename: /mandrake_current/SRPMS/OpenOffice.org-1.0.1-9mdk.src.rpm > >> (199,643kb) > >> Filename: > >> /mandrake_current/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/OpenOffice.org-libs-1.0.1-9mdk.i586.rpm > >> (35,444kb) > >> > >> The above computer program(s) is/are being made available for copying, > >> through downloading, at the above location without authorization from the > >> copyright owner(s). > >> > >> Based upon BSA's representation of the copyright owners in anti-piracy > >> matters, we have a good faith belief that none of the materials or > >> activities listed above have been authorized by the rightholders, their > >> agents, or the law. BSA represents that the information in this > >> notification is accurate and states, under penalty of perjury, that it is > >> authorized to act in this matter on behalf of the copyright owners listed > >> above. > >> > >> We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you take > >> expeditious action to remove or disable access to the materials described > >> above, and thereby prevent the illegal reproduction and distribution of > >> pirated software via your company's network. As you know, illegal on-line > >> activities can result in 50 million people on the Internet accessing and > >> downloading a copyrighted product worldwide without authorization - a highly > >> damaging activity for the copyright holder. > >> > >> We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please advise us regarding > >> what actions you take. > >> > >> Please include the following CaseID in any response you send: Case ID 588853 > >> > >> Yours sincerely, > >> > >> > >> Corinna Beck > >> Business Software Alliance > >> 1150 18th St NW Suite 700 > >> Washington,DC 20036 > >> http://www.bsa.org > >> E-mail: copyright-europe@bsa.org > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe (at) distribution.openoffice.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help (at) distribution.openoffice.org > -- Thanks KenF OpenOffice.org developer -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug-chat Ed: BSA stands for Business Software Alliance. The BS Alliance certainly does seem to be in the business of BS. According to Brian much of the funding comes from Microsoft (why does this not surprise me?).
Submission Guidlines for PGTS
From: Ahmad Bilal Subject: Message from ahmad bilal Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 16:17:18 +1100 (EST) Dear Webmaster, Hello, your site is very good (gives a complete and good look for new users),i want to submit my article "JAVA BASED NETWORK MONITORING SYSTEM" can u please tell me its procedure,i will be very thankfull to u Ed: I haven't heard from Ahmad since. However submission guidelines are very simple (like everything else at this site): 1. Documents will only be published in HTML. You may submit other formats (e.g. MS-word). If they can be read by OpenOffice, then they will be converted to HTML. 2. Corrections and amendments are the responsibility of the author. 3. Essays that exhibit very bad taste, extremely poor grammar and/or spelling may be rejected entirely at the discretion of the editor. However, considerable latitude will be given to essays that are humourous, 4. As the author you have final right of refusal. You may request that an article be removed from this site at any time.
Error in login form
Subject: Error!!!! Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 00:16:57 -0500 From: Pandiru Nagaraju Dear sir/Madam, I got the following error when trying to search for a topic related to database cloning in oracle. This error is coming when I'm trying to create a new login account also. Please look into the issue. Time when this error occurred : 00:15 EST Day : Mar 21 Software error: cgipgsql F003: Missing mode Sincerely Nagraj ed: Oh dear ... If at first you do not succeed ... You must be a programmer. Several months ago I started converting my pages to be W3C compliant. I noticed that the validator complained about <form> ... </form> pairs. The only way to stop it complaining was to remove the </form> tag. Strange I thought. Still the forms seemed ok with w3m and lynx, so I went ahead and did it. Unfortunately MSIE (the most popular browser on the web) was not happy. I have put the pairs back. Lately it seems that the W3C validator is not complaining about (??) Could this be an undocumented feature?
pavuk - Site Download Robot
From: Frank Lynch Subject: Message from Frank Lynch Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 01:51:12 +1100 (EST) Dear Webmaster, Just want to alert you to a robot which spidered my site last night... Apparent purpose is for a user to make a local copy of content. (User downloaded >500 pages from my site, www.samueljohnson.com) Agent string: pavuk/0.9pl28 i586-pc-cygwin More about the agent at http://www.idata.sk/~ondrej/pavuk/about.html IP address of the user: 217.82.180.101 Are there other lists where I should submit this info? Ed: G'day Frank, I was just watching a broadcast from Washington -- quite close to where you are I suppose -- or lot closer than I am. I should be asleep right now -- still I will answer your e-mail before I go to bed. I have updated the details of the agent which visited my site: pavuk/0.9pl29b i686-pc-linux-gnu You can view these details at: http://www.pgts.com.au/cgi-bin/psql?robot_info=2260 I will add your agent string tommorrow (well actually later today) It looks as though your visitor was running Cygwin (my visitor was using Linux). This would seem to be some sort of crawling agent like MSIE Crawler ... The purpose being to crawl a site and then store the data for later off-line access. Sometimes the agents are not polite. I don't know of another list of robots and agents ... Dan Tobias (USA) has a list of browsers which is quite good (see my link page for his address). Thanks for your feedback Regards, Gerry Patterson From: Frank Lynch Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 11:19:00 -0500 Gerry, Actually I'm in Brooklyn NY, a good five hours + from DC, but ground zero is visible from here (or, the WTC -was-) Yes, I figured someone was making a local copy... I've also seen people -ignore- my robots.txt file when making a mirror for their hard drive. Quick question -- ever seen a robots.txt file like http://www.abc.org.uk/exclusions/lists/exclude_robots01022003.txt ? Not the usual format, and very extensive... Just curious. Get some sleep! Frank Ed: Frank, New day here ... I guess you will be going to bed soon. I haven't seen such a comprehensive exclusion list. And I would be sceptical about whether all those robots obeyed the exclusions. Generally if the robot's owner claim that they abide by /robots.txt they will. Courteous owners will have a webpage that explains who they are and notify that their robot abides by /robots.txt exclusion. Of course, for specific named exclusions, the name has to correspond to the name that tell you to use. Often the agents that crawl in order to create a mirror were intended to be used by people with a limited window of access to the Internet. A good example would be laptops. The user in question can therefore crawl sites that they are interested in, while connected and browse later at their leisure. A lot of these agents aren't very polite however, and some website owners get upset about them. Personally I don't mind -- I figure that if they are interested enough to download the info -- then they might read it while they are sitting on the bus or whatever. Of course, I might be unhappy if it got to a ridiculous level of numerous such agents hitting my site simultaneously from many different connections -- but that is more likely to be a malicous attack! The Pavuk agent seems to be fair dinkum -- he doesn't mention /robots.txt -- so he probably ignores it. If you know for sure that he ignores it, I can put a comment to that effect in my description. I see that there is an e-mail address for the Pavuk developer, so interested parties can send suggestions. Cheers, Gerry From: Frank Lynch Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 10:17:09 -0500 Gerry, FWIW Pavuk did -not- ask for my robots.txt file. Yeah, I know about the laptop thing, but one of the few rewards I get out of my site is counting traffic as a measure of usefulness. Which is why I don't like mirrors (a university in Japan has one online, and I have no idea how often it's used). I know I can't -really- rely on server logs because some ISPs have local caches of my site, but it's a small reward to know I get 4,000 visits a week. RE the exclusions list at that other page, I was more interested, I think, in the mechanics -- there doesn't seem to be a robots.txt file in their root directory Frank
Long list of unknown 'Konqueror' agents.
From: Paul Edwards
Subject: Message from Paul Edwards
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:24:14 +1100 (EST)
Dear Webmaster,
FYI - The long list of 'unknown' bots that have 'Konqueror' in the agent
string are actually early release candidate versions for the KDE browser
by that name.
Ed: Paul,
Can I ask if you know anything about these agents?
They have been identified as crawler suspects by the script that I have
written to monitor activity at the PGTS website. There are several
criteria which an agent must meet in order to qualify as a spider. Here
are the the criteria which these agents meet:
1. The agents always come from the same addresses within the same
subnet. These are: 64.156.198.74, 64.156.198.76, 64.156.198.77,
64.156.198.80, 64.156.198.85 According to whois this CIDR is owned
by Level 3 Communications, Inc (Broomfield Colorado)
2. They never fetch graphics - only HTML text.
3. They always fetch a small range of HTML pages. These are:
http://www.pgts.com.au/
http://www.pgts.com.au/cgi-bin/pgtsj?file=pgtsj0206a
http://www.pgts.com.au/cgi-bin/pgtsj?file=pgtsj0208d
http://www.pgts.com.au/cgi-bin/pgtsj?file=pgtsj0204a
http://www.pgts.com.au/download/humour/
http://www.pgts.com.au/gp_cv.html
4. They never included a referer string.
All of these criteria identify these agents as crawlers irregardless of
what the contents of the agent string. As it happens they tend to use
unique agent strings. Here are some examples:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312469)
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.0-rc1; i686 Linux; 20020116)
The Konqueror agent strings are unique. However I am not a 100% sure
about the MSIE agent strings. I need to investigate my historical logs
before I can say for sure. The Konqueror agent strings are automatically
put in the robots bucket because they only participate in robot-like
behaviour. The last few digits change randomly on the date string for
each successive batch of visits. I have no idea what they are doing or
why they are pretending to be MSIE and Konqueror.
If you have any information about these agents, I would appreciate it.
Thanks for your feedback,
Regards,
Gerry Patterson
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:50:02 -0800
Subject: Re: Message from Paul Edwards
Gerry,
I think I probably jumped the gun in my email. I commented as I did
because I believe the agent strings for konqueror are(were) legitimate
agent strings for earlier versions of Konqueror. However, I've found no
way to have Konqueror NOT populate the referer field when a referer
exists. Of course bookmarked pages & hand typed requests wouldn't have a
referer anyway. Not that it means much since our traffic is very light,
I found no examples of the suspect agent strings in our logs for the
past month. I don't suppose they requested robots.txt? You may very well
be correct that they are bots that are 'pretending' to be valid agents.
That seems very unfriendly to me.
Sorry I can't provide any information on these specific agents.
paul
Ed: I have included a suspicious robots file in the list of robots.
These strings are included in this file.
SPAM: Paul Thomas -- Just send me money!
Paul Thomas has spammed me a couple of times, now. I doubt that this outfit run a genuine search engine. It is just a scam. They have copied the data from an existing directory (probably ODP) and are asking to be paid for this plagiarism. It's hard to believe that they are actually making money out of this.
From postmaster@topsitez.us Tue Mar 4 07:16:47 2003 Return-Path: <postmaster@topsitez.us> Received: from topsites2 (12-234-207-37.client.attbi.com [12.234.207.37]) by pgts04.xxxx.com.au (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h23KG8O41358; Tue, 4 Mar 2003 07:16:10 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from postmaster@topsitez.us) Message-Id: <200303032016.h23KG8O41358@pgts04.xxxx.com.au> Received: from topsites2 (localhost) by topsites2 (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.1b) with SMTP id <0.0014E1A9@topsites2>; Mon, 3 Mar 2003 5:20:57 -0800 Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 05:19:12 -0700 From: "Paul Thomas" <postmaster@topsitez.us> Subject: PGTS Pty Ltd - Programing to support Oracle, Linux, Unix and Perl. System Administration. Surrey Hills, Victoria. http://www.pgts.com.au/ To: Reply-To: <sales@topsitez.us> Organization: topsitez.us MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_000B_01C238C5.A7241DF0" X-Priority: 1 (Highest) X-MSMail-Priority: High Importance: High Precedence: bulk Content-Length: 8765 Lines: 119 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01C238C5.A7241DF0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Could you please be so kind as to renew your TopSites-us directory listing by Monday, March 10 so we can continue to show it to our millions of users? For information on renewing please go to: http://topsitez.us/renew-tab.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au If you cannot access our site, just let me know you want to renew by email. Your listing only cost $5 a month. If you have a question, please go to: http://topsitez.us/faq/index.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au&op=cat&c=1 If you cannot find your answer there, please let me know. I will be happy to help in any way I can. If you do not want to renew, there is no need to write; we will cancel your listing automatically. Kind Regards, Paul Thomas To remove your address from our mailing list and cancel your listing in the directory please UNSUBSCRIBE at: http://topsitez.us/cancel.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au YOUR LISTING PGTS Pty Ltd Programing to support Oracle, Linux, Unix and Perl. System Administration. Surrey Hills, Victoria. http://www.pgts.com.au/ Your category: http://topsitez.us/category-tab.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au REACH A MILLION Here is what you get: 1. We will continue to list your site in the TopSites directories. 2. We will show your listing more than a million times a year (guaranteed). 3. Your listing will popup at Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, Lycos, and Altavista (whenever our TopSites for Internet Explorer users search for your keywords). 4. We will even display your listing on your competitors sites (whenever our TopSites for Internet Explorer users click on a hyperlink containing your keywords). Let us introduce you (a million times!) People often ask, "How can you guarantee to show my listing a million times? What if I am in an unpopular category?" It does not matter! Why? TopSites for Internet Explorer--our patent pending tool--continually displays renewed TopSites-us listings on our users PCs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We display TopSites-us listings more than 42 million times in an hour. That is why we can guarantee to show your listing more than a million times a year. Save $40,000 in advertising It would cost you up to $40,000 to display your listing a million times at sites like MSN and Altavista. Googles charges up to $200,000 depending on your category. At TopSites we charge $5 a month! You are on top at Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, Lycos, and Altavista Whenever our TopSites for Internet Explorer users search for one of your keywords at any major search engine, you will appear on top. How? A special window opens that only displays renewed TopSites listings. Want to see this marketing magic for yourself? For pictures and download instructions go to: http://topsitez.us/guarantee-tab.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au Even your competitors promote you When our TopSites for Internet Explorer users click on a hyperlink at any website in the world, we display relevant TopSites listings. You can expect to see your company advertised even on your competitors websites! Save $100 re-listing fee Please do not let your listing expire. Our editors listed you as one of the top websites in your category without charge. If your listing expires, however, you may need to pay a $100 editorial review fee to get listed again. It can take a month for our editors to authorize a listing. And they may not re-list you if there are too many listings in your category. Only TopSites-us gives you: * Massive Reach: We display our listings billions of times a year. We guarantee to show your listing more than a million times a year. * Cost-Effectiveness: This is the least expensive advertising you will ever buy. You want to bring lots of potential customers to your site in a cost-effective way. TopSites-us does exactly that! * Highly Targeted Leads: TopSites-us reaches customers when they are searching for what you are selling. That means high sales and low costs. More visitors become customers! * Highest Return on Investment: Independent research confirms that you get the highest ROI from online listings like TopSites-us. E-mail, banners and other forms of online advertising all have a lower ROI. And unlike direct mail, you pay nothing for mailing lists, printing or postage. No media buy returns better results than TopSites-us. * No-Risk: Cancel your listing any time for any reason--no questions asked! * Hassle-Free: Change your listing anytime or even move it to a different category--for free--and your changes will instantly appear in the directory "TopSites-us is the least expensive way I have found to bring buyers to my site. I have tried other online advertising companies and you beat everyone!" --P.A., President, Go Software (g-o.us) "TopSites-us makes my online marketing easy. I can change my message 24 hours a day so it is always up-to-date. And everyone who sees it is a pre-qualified prospect." --N.B., CEO, My News (my-news.org) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Can I change my listing? You can change your listing now or later. You can rewrite the headline and description before renewing. You can change the URL too—even to another website. Once we receive payment, we will send you instructions on how to change your listing whenever you like. (There is no charge to do this.) Can I change my category? Can I list my site in additional categories? Can I list other sites too? You can list as many sites in as many categories as you like. Each listing costs only $5 per month per category. Just go to www.topsitez.us. Click on the category links until you find the one you want (or search on your keywords). Click on the Add My Site link. Then type your listing. If your old listing was in the wrong category, you can click unsubscribe to cancel it. How much does a listing cost? Can I renew for free? It costs $5 a month to list your site in TopSites. We no longer offer any free listings. We will bill you $60 for 12 months. There are no additional costs. You can change your listing as often as you like for free. You can cancel your listing anytime and we will refund your remaining money. How do I pay? You can pay with a U.S. check, money order or bank draft. Or you can pay by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card. Simply select the option you prefer on the renewal form. (Unfortunately, we cannot cash overseas checks at this time.) Who listed us? When did our listing start? We do not know. Sorry. We only began to track listing contacts and dates this year. How much did we pay to be listed? Originally you could not buy a listing--you had to wait for our editors to select you as one of the top sites in your category. Do we have a contract with you? We do not ask our customers to sign contracts for a $5 a month service. Can you call me and tell me more? We are happy to answer all your questions by email but we do not contact our customer by phone at this time. Sorry. Can I still renew after your deadline? We give our customers a month to renew so do not worry too much about the deadline. How do I see my listing? I could not find it when I searched. You can go to www.topsitez.us and click on the categories until you get to /Top/Computers/Consultants/Unix_Systems/Linux/Oceania. You can also see it at www.topsitez.us by entering two or more keywords from your listing into our search form. Since we have more than three million listings, you probably will not find your listing by searching on only one word. And you definitely will not find it if you search on words that are not in your listing. What keywords display my listing? How do I change them? Every word in your listing is a keyword. Anytime someone searches on two or more words in your listing, we will display it. The only way to change your keywords is to change the headline or description of your listing. How many search engines will we be listed at? You listing will appear at all search engines in Internet Explorers Search window whenever our TopSites for Internet Explorer users do a search. How much traffic did you send us last year? We do not know. Sorry. We are working on adding this feature. ..for more answers go to: http://topsitez.us/faq/index.htm?id=611582&d=pgts.com.au&op=cat&c=1 Ed: For a more recent offering from Paul see: May Feedback
SPAM: New Porn Site
This site had a rather short life. It was taken down a couple of days after I received this.
From postmaster@gesund-fit-shop.de Thu Mar 6 07:45:17 2003 Return-Path: <postmaster@gesund-fit-shop.de> Received: from post.webmailer.de (natsmtp00.webmailer.de [192.67.198.74]) by pgts04.xxxx.com.au (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h25KjFO45074 for <gerry@xxxx.com.au>; Thu, 6 Mar 2003 07:45:15 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from postmaster@gesund-fit-shop.de) Received: from chroot.webmailer.de (hotswap.store [192.168.12.25]) by post.webmailer.de (8.12.8/8.8.7) with ESMTP id h25KjcQW022788; Wed, 5 Mar 2003 21:45:38 +0100 (MET) Received: (from Unknown UID 104802@localhost) by chroot.webmailer.de (8.9.3/8.8.7) id VAA24786; Wed, 5 Mar 2003 21:45:33 +0100 (MET) Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 21:45:33 +0100 (MET) Message-Id: <200303052045.VAA24786@chroot.webmailer.de> To: 0je@7o87.com From: 1zl6@ckm9q.com (1zl6@ckm9q.com) Subject: Just turned 18...NOW im legal Status: RO Content-Length: 763 Lines: 30 PLEASE LET ME SUCK YOUR COCK!!!! <A href="http://161.58.163.88/sites/hotties/index.php?advertid=3">IM AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW</a> If the above link comes through wrong please copy and paste this link into your browser: http://161.58.163.88/sites/hotties/index.php?advertid=3 If you wish to be rem0ved the link is at the bottom of the advertised website. yfs98 Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by 1zl6@ckm9q.com (1zl6@ckm9q.com) on Wednesday, March 5, 2003 at 21:45:33 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPAM: Drop me a line sometime?
Another desperate spammer implores me to send him some snail mail. Why doesn't he want me to e-mail him?
From HomeWorkersAssociation359@yahoo.com Sun Mar 9 22:54:54 2003
Return-Path: <HomeWorkersAssociation359@yahoo.com>
Received: from mail.transonline.com.cn ([202.106.186.194])
by pgts04.xxxx.com.au (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h29BsjO53063
for <gerry@xxxx.com.au>; Sun, 9 Mar 2003 22:54:47 +1100 (EST)
(envelope-from HomeWorkersAssociation359@yahoo.com)
Received: from smtp0115.mail.yahoo.com (unknown [208.179.231.6])
by mail.transonline.com.cn (Bluemail) with ESMTP
id DB48CE4354; Sat, 8 Mar 2003 22:24:03 +0800 (CST)
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 15:23:16 GMT
From: "Lothiraya" <HomeWorkersAssociation359@yahoo.com>
X-Priority: 3
To: gerry@expressfueltax.com
Subject: >>>WORK AT HOME...START TODAY...MAKE BIG $$$
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-Id: <20030308142403.DB48CE4354@mail.transonline.com.cn>
Status: RO
Content-Length: 6947
Lines: 189
GET STARTED WORKING FROM HOME TODAY!
This message contains valuable information about our
organization and qualified specialists who have
extensive knowledge and experience in WORKING
FROM HOME.
We have spent the last decade researching home employment options
available to the public. After spending thousands of hours in research, we can
confidently promise you that NO ONE has better information on this subject.
---WORK IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME---
***WIDE SELECTION OF JOBS...TOP PAY***
--REAL JOBS WITH REAL COMPANIES--
Plus receive your very own "Computer Cash Disk" FREE!
Every day thousands of people just like you are getting
started working at home in fields of computer work, sewing,
assembling products, crafts, typing, transcribing, mystery shopping,
getting paid for their opinion, telephone work and much more!
WHO ARE HOME WORKERS?
They are regular, ordinary people who earn an excellent
living working at their own pace and make their own hours.
They are fortunate people who have found an easier way
to make a living. They had absolutely no prior experience
in this field. They earn a good weekly income in the comfort
of their own home and you can be next!
Companies all over the United States want to hire you as an
independent home-worker. You are a valuable person to
these companies because you will actually be saving them
a great amount of money.
These companies want to expand their business, but do not
want to hire more office people. If they hired more office
employees, they would have to supervise them, rent more
office space, pay more taxes and insurance, all involving
more paperwork. It is much easier for them to set it up so
you can earn an excellent income working in the comfort of
your own home.
-------------------LIVE ANYWHERE--------------------
You can live anywhere and work for most of these companies.
The companies themselves can be located anywhere.
For computer work, the companies provide you with
assignments, usually data entry or similar tasks. You
then complete the project and get paid for each task.
You receive step by step instructions to make it easier
for you and to insure you successfully complete the job.
After you're finished, you ship the completed assignments
back to the company at no charge to yourself. Upon receiving
your assignments, the company will then mail you a check
along with more assignments. It's that easy!
All the other home-based work (sewing, merchandising, surveys,
product assembly, typing, telephone work, transcribing, and mystery shopping)
are done in a similar way. After contacting the companies you will
be given step by step instructions and information on what you
need to do. Upon completion of the task, they mail you a check.
You have the potential to work for nearly every company in our
guide. The only jobs that require equipment is computer work
(computer needed), typing (typewriter or computer). All other
work requires no equipment of your own.
$$$EARN EXTRA INCOME AT HOME$$$
All business can be done by mail , phone, or online. You can START
THE SAME DAY you receive "The Guide to Genuine Home
Employment."
*****ONLY REAL COMPANIES OFFERING REAL JOBS!*****
The companies in our guide are legitimate and really need
home workers. There is over two hundred of the top companies
included in our guide offering an opportunity for you to make
extra income at home. Unlike other insulting booklets or lists you
may see, our guide only includes up to date information of
companies who pay top dollar for your services and will hire you.
WITHOUT CHARGING YOU FEES TO WORK FOR THEM,
GUARANTEED!
**UPDATE.....Now our guide explains and goes into detail
about each company and what they have to offer you!
You are guaranteed to find home based work in our guide.
No problem!
**UPDATE.....Our new edition offers an entirely new category
of work. It reveals a new, unique way to get paid for your opinion
online. Just surf to the proper website and get paid to fill out opinion
surveys! What could be easier!
We urge you to consider this extraordinary opportunity. Don't delay
or you could miss out! This is like no other offer you've ever seen.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
This is an opportunity to become an independent
HOME WORKER. Remember, this is NOT a get-rich-
quick-scheme. It is an easy way for you to earn money
while filling the needs of a company who needs
you. This makes it easy to work at your OWN
PACE and in the comfort of YOUR HOME.
***HERE'S HOW TO GET STARTED IMMEDIATELY***
Print the form below, fill in your information and mail it to us,
along with the small one time fee for the guide. We will ship
the "Guide To Genuine Home Employment" out the same
day we receive your reply form!
Order within 15 days and the complete, updated, sure-fire,
Genuine Home Employment Guide is yours for the special low
price of just $29.95! That's over 27% off our normal price of
$39.95.
**Don't delay one more minute, START NOW!!!**
**FREE BONUS....."COMPUTER CASH DISK" (MAC & IBM
compatible) 167 business reports. Tips, tricks and secrets on starting
and operating a successful home based business and how to avoid
dishonest marketing offers. Comes with full reproduction rights!
READ THEM, SELL THEM AND BANK THE MONEY. Never pay
us any royalties. Sells for $69.00, but it's worth a whole lot more than
that. Get yours today...FREE!
>>>FULL 60 DAY RISK FREE MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE!
Test our material out for a free trial period and if it isn't everything
we said it is, just send it back and we will gladly refund your
money. We've helped thousands of people like yourself get started
working at home over the last eight years. You can be the next!
THINK WHAT AN EXTRA INCOME COULD DO FOR YOU!
LET US HEAR FROM YOU TODAY!
THIS COULD EASILY CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER!
DON'T LET THIS EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY
PASS!!
THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROFITABLE
AND EASY.
ACT NOW!!!
HERE'S HOW TO GET STARTED......
Send Check or Money Order for $29.95 and the
completed order form below to us at:
Cybernet HWA
PO Box 914
North Branford, CT 06471
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EZ ORDER FORM
_____ Yes! I am interested in a REAL home job. I
am ordering within 15 days. Here is my $29.95. Please
rush me my package today including "The Guide to
Genuine Home Employment" and your "Free Computer
Cash Disk"!!
(Please PRINT all information CLEARLY)
NAME___________________________________________
ADDRESS _______________________________________
CITY __________________________________________
STATE ____________________ ZIP _______________
EMAIL ______________________@__________________
PHONE ( ) _____________________________
SPAM: mannis the manic EuroSpammer
This is one of the most aggressive spammers I have encountered. I have only shown one of his messages here. He spammed me with three different topics on the one day. This spammer seems to be european in origin. For some reason he prefers the domain of firemail.de.
From mannis@firemail.de Wed Mar 12 13:45:20 2003 Return-Path: <mannis@firemail.de> Received: from server1 (pD9E3927B.dip.t-dialin.net [217.227.146.123]) by pgts04.xxxx.com.au (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h2C2jIO57979 for <info@xxxx.com.au>; Wed, 12 Mar 2003 13:45:19 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from mannis@firemail.de) Received: from mail pickup service by server1 with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Wed, 12 Mar 2003 02:45:23 +0100 From: mannis@firemail.de To: info@xxxx.com.au Subject: ADV: Your Domain (URL) Sticker Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 12:14:15 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Unsent: 1 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: <053362345010c33SERVER1@server1> Content-Length: 524 Lines: 19 Promote your URL 365 days a year! We can print Domain (URL) - Stickers for your Car Click on link: http://%32%312.184.71.246 Regards Sticker Team To unsubscribe click on link below http://%32%312.184.71.246/email/robinson.asp?mode=pgts.com.au
SPAM: WizSystems
This would appear to be another of the "Pay for Listing" scams. The headers are almost ok. However, the source IP gives it away. This spam appears to have been commissioned by wizsystems.com. The suspicious host p1j2m3a4.pdhost.com is also involved in the food chain.
From sender@wizsystems.com Mon Mar 31 21:47:07 2003 Return-Path: <sender@wizsystems.com> Received: from localhost.localdomain ([218.246.33.40]) by pgts04.xxxx.com.au (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h2VBl1b14419 for <webmaster@xxxx.com.au>; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 21:47:02 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from sender@wizsystems.com) Received: from () by (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h2VBjqo22831 for <webmaster@xxxx.com.au>; Mon, 31 Mar 2003 19:45:56 +0800 Message-ID: <1924CR1000000230@p1j2m3a4.pdhost.com> Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 19:42:08 +0800 (CST) From: Julie Scott <sender@wizsystems.com> Reply-To: Julie Scott <julie_scott@wizsystems.com> To: webmaster@xxxx.com.au Subject: www.pgts.com.au Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=1291723.1049110928625.JavaMail.SYSTEM.emaserver2 X-EMA-CID: 10450271 X-EMA-LID: X-EMA-PC: 0f443a1e15000 Status: RO Content-Length: 1627 Lines: 45 --1291723.1049110928625.JavaMail.SYSTEM.emaserver2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, Move www.pgts.com.au to WizSystems today! Are you having trouble with your hosting provider too? If you are, I suggest you take a look at the hosting services provided by Wizsystems, one of the fastest growing hosting companies on the internet. Unbeatable Service: 1. Dedicated 24/7 support to all customers 365 days a year. Via phone, chat, email and through our online knowledge base. 2. Get the help you need when you need it - no questions asked. 3. Specialized provider of high-quality, reliable and scalable hosting solutions. 4. Catering specifically for small to medium sized businesses world wide. Sign Up Now! Start benefiting from an improved, reliable hosting service. Pricing Plans - click at the link below: http://p1j2m3a4.pdhost.com/pdsvr/www/r?1000000230.1924.13.jFJwlGnj+n5$z3 Best regards Julie Scott WizSystems Sales Support Email: julie_scott@wizsystems.com http://www.wizsystems.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This offer is brought to you by WizSystems. We respect your privacy. If you do not wish to receive future mailings from us, please go to the link below: http://p1j2m3a4.pdhost.com/pdsvr/www/r?1000000230.1924.1.+z7KACNhARjsdY