Got this little missive in my email tonight:
Dear xxx@xxxx.com:
Bullet Proof server:
Clean IPs
1024MB RAM DDR
P4 3.2GHz CPU
72GB SCSI
Dedicated 100 M fiber
Unlimited Data Transfer
Linux/Windows/FreeBSD
Any software
Based in China
US$599.00/per month
You may use the server for:
Bulk Hosting
Direct Mailing
We also supply Target list according to your
order, and sending out your message for you.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Cheers!
Allen
Support Team
A couple of things popped out at me.
Allan was specific in mentioning "Clean IPs". The IP or Internet Protocol Address is one way that people have used to combat spam. Every computer has a unique Address and it is possible to compile a list of known "bad" ones and any communication from these are simply tossed in the 'ole bit bucket. There are even groups of people who maintain black-hole databases of known bad IP addresses and software available to look up each incoming communication.
By specifying that their IP range was "clean", they were saying that it wasn't in anyone's black-hole list (yet!).
Next, there is the whole "Direct Mailing" line along with the "We also supply Target list according to your order, and sending out your message for you."
I looked that Allen's return email address, saw that they had a very large range of IP addresses (65 thousand different IP Addresses - a CIDR Class 16 netblock) and baned the whole lot of them. A little bit more of China goes dark because of a few people spamming.
The funny thing is that Allen forged his email to look like it originated from another Internet Service Provider - a smaller one with only 512 IP Addresses (now banned as well). In reality it came from 222.47.101.107 which is owned by the China Railway Telecommunications Center. Running a personal business from work? The irony is that these addresses were already in my banned list. They had a big netblock too -- about 2 Million unique addresses. Some day's it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
