Last night I received about 800-1000 bounced messages from my email account. I ran a number of scans, but it looks like all of the messages were spoofed and nothing was sent from my computer. This is the third time this domain name has been hit.

Not really anything I can do on my end, but I noticed there have been entries of my domain in a spammer blacklist. So there are repercussions. I have to submit a report to two of the lists and explain that I have never sent any unsolicited commerical email to get them removed.

Hopefully these spam cartels can take each other out.

In the second paragraph, shouldn't the hyperlink at "botnet" go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet ?

Spam is another complacency issue, but complicated by obfuscation. So, first, a clarification:

UBE -- Unsolicited Bulk E-mail -- is more than one substantially the same missive sent to one or more addressees, without the express informed consent of the holder of that/those target INBOXes. That for which you gave informed consent is not spam, even if you don't want it any more. The bulk mail for which you did not give informed consent is spam, even if it is now interesting, and you might have given consent if given the opportunity.

It is really that simple.

The content: Analysis of the content of a suspected spam is only useful in determining whether it is from someone to whom you gave informed consent, and whether it matches the informed consent you gave. It doesn't matter if it is a religious message, a political message, an offer of a product or service, a pump-n-dump stock "tip" or some phish attempting to steal your private information. It doesn't even matter if it has a virus or spyware payload. It matters if you gave informed consent for it.

The spammer is the person who is supposed to be in control of the system which sent spam to you. There may be another spammer actually controlling that machine as a "bot", but it is the person who is supposed to be in control of that machine who is the spammer. It may be a "granny" who thinks she only sends mail to keep up with grandkids photos. It may be your auditor, software supplier, or even your Internet Service Provider (ISP). It may be due to badly designed and/or set up mail software (bounces of messages you did not send), or some run-away webmail interface.

With spam levels reaching the high-80s% to 99% of all e-Mail sent, people are actually withdrawing from any participation in e-Mail, because of it. Spam is killing the "killer-app" of the internet. Spam makes Sorbanes-Oxley compliance more difficult, and costs both business and private users more in both out-of-pocket and time costs.

Roger Ebert's "Boulder Pledge" has been largely consigned to history, and the AGIS IDP (Internet Death Penalty) along with it. Spammers, today, are often considered "too big to block", and those watchmen (and ladies) trying to identify the spammers to provide warning, are often under attack.

The only spam blocking that has ever worked well is blocking the sender of it. ISPs could cut off infected "bots" if the legitimate mail they carry, and indeed, their very business depended upon them eliminating the spam leaving their networks. The "IDP" above means shunning networks that spew spam or other abuse -- refusing their traffic of any kind. When enacted and broadly followed, it puts financial pressure on the spammer. It lasts until that spammer is no longer present on the internet from that address range, unless the reaction by the spam spewer is immediate. When enacted against an Internet Service Provider, that provider no longer has that service to sell. And, when it is their own spam, they no longer have that pipeline to send it to you. Without the IDP, there is no significant pressure on the ISP (or other entity) to stop the spam.

So, how does YOUR connectivity stack up?

At http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/index.lasso is one of the references on the internet where you can look up your ISP to see how spammy they are. How bad is your ISP? Are you supporting a spammer with your business? Worse, is your ISP in the top ten spammers on the internet: http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/networks.lasso

Does your ISP support the worst spamgangs in the world? Like those in Brian's article above? Check http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/spammers.lasso

Or are you complacent about spam? Somebody else's problem? Do you realize how much safer your e-Mail would be, if a grassroots cleanup took the worst spammers off the internet? Are you part of that grassroots?

seems washington post has some botnets on its system my firewall currently is blocking outgoing to 12.129.147.65 .. this prior to my visiting the site... goggle got me here
firewall is zonealarm pro security suite aren't bots just soooo much fun

good luck on the tracking down of said botnet