I have a nasty habit that is born out of my petty and self destructive instinct for revenge: I spam spammers.
I’ve (like many of you,) have been and still am subject to constant spam attack. But not just one ’style’, I actually get spammed on all fronts:
- Email spam.
- Blog spam.
- Forum spam.
… it seems that the spam world considers me to be a ’spam-licious’ target.
REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED WITH PHP
Being an ubernerd … I got me some options to reflect the pain back to my assailants: php mail() and a for loop!
Check it out:
$str = “Automated response From: Killersites.com - you (spammer@some_domain.com) have sent us spam messages … not nice.”;
for($i=0; $i < 250; $i++)
{
$did_send_mail = mail('spammer@some_domain.com','Automated Response From: Killersites.com System', $str);
}
-
Nothing special in the php code here. But it holds a special place in my heart.
Now whenever I see it as required, I fire off this script to the lil' bastard that spammed me. Their lucky I don't slap another zero or two in the loop count:
250 -> 2500 or even 25000!
DOES IT WORK
Well I tend to get much fewer repeat offenders since I’ve been doing this.
The only problem with that is the amount of work that goes in to find the true, valid email address of the people or website responsible. I’ve done similar things before but mostly went for the company the spammer represented and not the spammer.
Also it’s too easy to delete or set rules to block a single email address so you’ll need to expand on your PHP to spoof the from address and give them back some of their own.
I agree with everything you say. I figure I can at least get some of them!
… If I spend more than 2 minutes trying to nail these people, then the point is lost .. if you know what I mean.
That said, the key to dealing with comment spam is to delete them emmediately and to use automated plug-ins like Akismet. When spammers see that there spam gets deleted right away, they are less likely to want to spam.
A great book called ‘The Tipping Point’ goes into great detail about the psychology behind this.
The only problem with this is you might be spamming someones catch-all on their domain. Spammers know how to use code as well and can simply write a similar script with a spoofed domain. As a joke I once sent my father a bunch of email from bill.gates@microsoft.com. I tend to ignore spam unless it is REALLY annoying, then I will try to backtrack to the true addy and spam to death.
This is a very, very simple thing indeed. I never thought this to be a comprehensive solution … just a little jab back.
At the same time, some noobs might pick up some simple PHP.
You’re a total riot! I think that’s awesome. I’ve just come to accept it and auto delete most of it. Does anyone respond to spam positively any more? Is it just a kicks thing? I really don’t understand.
How is this little script applied? In the body of a reply email (to the actual sender, of course)?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Can I use it on pesky co-workers, too?
@ Thelma,
Just cut and past the script into a php page and change the email address to target - that spammers address.
This is much better (explatives deleted):
// Revenge E-Mails for Spammers
if (isset($_GET[’offender’]))
{
$to = $_GET[’offender’];
$subject = “You send spam”;
$body = “You spam my website. I *u*k with you a*sh*le.”;
$headers = “From: “.$to.”\n”;
// 250 should do it!
for($i=0; $i