Russian Anti-Spam Advisor Accused of Spamming 69
Keith noted that Krebs has an interesting story on a Russian businessman being accused of running a spam ring while serving as an anti-spam adviser to the Russian government. It's a strange tale including an investigation in 2007 that was abandoned when the chief investigator was actually hired to work for the spammer. Not suspicious at all, no way.
Okay from RTFA. (Score:1, Informative)
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In Russia, mostly the corruption is not just in the system.
If I was Russia's prime minister, I would hire a recent comp sci grad as my anti-spam adviser. You know, somebody fresh out of college, unburdened with superfluous knowledge; somebody who once read a book about spamming. This way my reputation as a thrifty and ethical bureaucrat would be safe with the Russian tabloids.
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If I was Russia's prime minister, I would ban everybody who ever was a member of CPSU or United Russia, or held any position in executive or legislative on any level (from municipal upward), and any close relatives (parents, siblings, spouses, children and grandchildren) regardless of party affiliation, from holding any position in the government, or being elected to any legislature. Preferably for life, though a limited but sufficiently long term for several electoral cycles (say, 30 years) might also do t
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Re:Why I am not surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
See, here's the difference: In America, the government guys are a bunch of crooks. In Russia, the crooks are a bunch of government guys.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Smirnoff#Russian_reversal
I'm pretty sure he decides how it's done. It's still so funny too. Noun verbs you is the amazing part that drives the line home. Without it, its nothing special. People usually omit the in america part. So what.
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It's true, but corruption still varies widely by country. For example, US scores #19 (higher means less corruption) in the Corruption Perceptions Index [wikipedia.org] - near UK and Japan - while Russia scores #146, near Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Philippines. To give more comparison points, #1 is New Zealand, and #180 is Somalia.
Of course, this is a perceptions index, so it's subjective feelings of the local population, which may not have a proper scale to graduate their experience against those in other countries. Still, it
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Modded off-topic? I thought it was informative.
Ah, Yes, Our Good Friend Pavel Vrublevsky (Score:4, Interesting)
If you used the illegitimate MP3 site allofmp3.com you may want to investigate whether or not your transaction went through Chronopay as they might have retained a copy of your records *cough* *cough*. Krebs outed this guy in the first report and Vrublevsky tried to play it off like someone higher was trying to drag his name through the mud for political reasons. I don't need anymore accusations: Vrublevsky's a crook.
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If you should chance to strike up a conversation with an articulate, English-speaking Russian in, say, the restaurant of one of the luxury hotels along Lake Geneva, and he is wearing a $3,000 suit and a pair of Gucci loafers, and he tells you that he is an executive of a Russian trading company and wants to talk to you about a joint venture, then there are four possibilities. He may be what he says he is. He may be a Russian intelligence officer working under commercial cover. He may be part of a Russian organized crime group. But the really interesting possibility is that he may be all three--and that none of those three institutions have any problem with the arrangement.
Things are different over there.
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Vrublevsky's a crook.
Anyone with a name like Vrublesvsky is either a criminal mastermind or a mad scientist.
There is no middle ground.
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They are pro choice. As long as they are the ones doing the choosing.
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You know what the difference is between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to things like this?
Democrats don't run their campaigns talking about how gays will ruin the sanctity of marriage.
I honestly don't care what politicians do behind closed doors. You want to cheat on your wife? You go right ahead, that's a problem between you and your family. But if you campaign by talking about how marriage must be protected because it is sacred, and then you violate that sanctity, it becomes my business.
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Democrats don't run their campaigns talking about how gays will ruin the sanctity of marriage.
Oh, young one, what you don't realize is they would if it were politically expedient. Who created the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy? Who has failed to reverse this policy? When people say the two parties are the same, it is mostly true (hey, McCain even had a healthcare plan that in many ways looked like what Obama ended up with).
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Oh, young one, what you don't realize is they would if it were politically expedient. Who created the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy? Who has failed to reverse this policy?
I know where you are going with this, and I completely agree...but again, Democrats don't try to convince me to vote based on whether I think gays will destroy marriage (newsflash: they won't). Republicans do.
When people say the two parties are the same, it is mostly true
I completely agree. That's why I'm registered Independent, and have been since I was 18.
hey, McCain even had a healthcare plan that in many ways looked like what Obama ended up with.
In much the same way, there are many things Obama has done that Bush also did...yet Dems hate Bush and Repubs hate Obama. ::shrug:: The public is fickle enough as it is, but when it comes to politics, they lose th
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Democrats don't try to convince me to vote based on whether I think gays will destroy marriage (newsflash: they won't). Republicans do.
If it's politically convenient, at some point they will. Just like some democrats have switched on abortion. Who would have ever guessed that one? Really there is no position either party holds that the other couldn't conceivably hold within five years, depending how the politics goes.
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So basically they can do whatever they like and it's okay with you, as long as they aren't being hypocritical? Yeah that makes sense. It's not like their character could effect their job or anything..
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So basically they can do whatever they like and it's okay with you, as long as they aren't being hypocritical? Yeah that makes sense
They can do whatever they want in their personal lives. I consider personal life and professional life as completely separate. Failing one doesn't automatically mean you fail the other. The guy has been reelected for multiple elections, so obviously his constituents liked the job he was doing. Had this personal life problem not come to the surface, he likely would have won again, considering he just won the primary.
It's not like their character could effect their job or anything..
I've known people who, on the weekend, snort coke, drink themselves silly, or any number
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He valued families so much he wanted two of them.
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corrupt government adviser spams you!
If corrupt government adviser spams you, then absolute corrupt government adviser spams you absolutely.
not news (Score:1)
Too obvious (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, anti-spam advisor spams you!
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See, the whole point of the "In Soviet Russia" joke is to flip reality around into something nonsensical.
It doesn't work right if reality is already flipped around into something nonsensical.
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Not quite. The canonical In Soviet Russia joke is "In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, the Party can always find you!" It makes sense both ways.
shocking! (Score:2, Funny)
In Soviet Russia.... oh wait. Someone else beat me to it. Damn.
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What's this? A corrupt Russian official? Say it ain't so!
That's no particularly Russian "virtue".
Just remember the lead investigator in the case against The Pirate Bay, who ended up working for the MAFIA.
not all bad (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone who has successfully operated a spam business will understand spam a lot better than someone who has not.
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Just so I understand. That would be like Jimbo Wales insisting to remove porn from Wikipedia?
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Not really, in Russia these sorts of arrangements just mean the spammer keeps on spamming while influencing government spam policy. It's how it's done over there.
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Exactly, it's the "poacher turned gamekeeper" argument, and such gamekeepers tend to be harsher than average, just like ex-smokers are usually the most anti-smoking.
That is what a spammer does best... (Score:3, Insightful)
As much as some people like to think otherwise the simple truth of spam is that spammers send spam to make money. And this guy was just taking it to another level; he was working to improve the rate at which his spam gets through. This really shouldn't surprise anyone who has one iota of sense regarding how spam works and why it actually exists.
Hell we could actually call this "a victory for western capitalism in Russia". Alternately you could say he is just a newer iteration of Viktor Bout [wikipedia.org].
I'm only shocked because... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm only shocked because... (Score:5, Funny)
how can you beat a successful spammer?
Oh, let me count the ways: I could beat him with a crowbar, I could beat him with a bat; I could beat him with a nine iron and I would beat him 'till he cracks!
Remember IronPort? They tried that (Score:3, Informative)
IronPort [ironport.com] used to play both sides of the street back in 2002. They sold rackmount "spam filter" boxes, and they also sold, er, "email delivery appliances". [ironport.com] These included mechanisms for using hundreds of different IP addresses, to avoid triggering spam filters. IronPort was also behind "Bonded Spammer" [usatoday.com], a scheme where they paid ISPs to whitelist their spam. They even bought SpamCop and built Bonded Spammer into it.
Cisco finally bought IronPort, and they got out of the spamming business. Bonded Spammer lives on as ReturnPath [returnpath.net]. If you have anything to do with mail processing, it's worth understanding how to identify ReturnPath email (the IP address is tagged in DNS) so it can be moved to the "bulk" folder. If you use SpamAssassin, it comes with a big negative value for ReturnPath emails to get them through filters. Change that to +2 or so; if somebody paid to use ReturnPath, they're a bulk sender.
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I'm sorry, but I don't see how the ReturnPath program is for spammers. I've gone through the process for real companies (i.e. not spammers) sending newsletters and transactional email. The complaint rates you have to maintain to keep their service are extremely low. I don't see how a spammer could maintain those complaint rates and keep using their service.
Just because somebody is a bulk sender doesn't mean it's spam. I really doubt you'd consider this website a source of spam, but it would be considered a
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If a "newsletter" needs help to get through a spam filter, it's spam. If you want to distribute updates to real "subscribers", use an RSS feed. The user then has total control over their subscription. But most "newsletter" spammers don't want that.
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I'm sorry, but you're completely off tune with reality. The majority of the people in this world aren't computer savvy and would struggle with RSS feeds. They signed up for updates from the companies, because they wanted them in email. Something even the most computer inept people can use now. One company I work with just sent out an email to their investors, guess what it's a newsletter.
If you were to go create something that got mild success in it's first month say you got 20k users and you're sending em
Anti Spam Research Group head is a spammer, too (Score:1)
John Levine is an owner/direcot of Whitehat. Whitehat is a spam company. Levine is head of the ISOC Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Anti Spam Research Group (ASRG)
http://www.iadl.org/whitehat/whitehat-story.html [iadl.org]
http://www.av8.net/IETF-watch/People/JohnLevine/index.html [av8.net]
Other owner/directors of Whitehat include Rodney Joffe and Paul Vixie (or MAPS fame)
http://www.iadl.org/vixie/index.html [iadl.org]
http://www.iadl.org/maps/maps-story.html [iadl.org]
http://www.iadl.org/RodneyJoffe/rodneyjoffe.html [iadl.org]
Vixie's ISC (root server F oper