Hammer A Spammer - "SPAM Vampire"

[Bolivar]

Hammer A Spammer - "SPAM Vampire"

My internet host called me this morning and ask if I was running anything last night that did a lot of down loads.

I said "Yes, I've been running a program called Spam Vampire"

He asked me not to run it.   I said ok, BUT email the reason why it is not good to run the program over night so I can post it.   Here is his email.



Bolivar,

Running the Spam Vampire website is definitely not a good idea for a few reasons.

The main purpose of Spam Vampire is to put spammers out of business by creating huge bandwidth costs for them.  The reality of the situation, however, is that the bandwidth must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is your ISP.  This raises our cost of doing business just as much as it does the spammers, which can in turn raise the price of your broadband service.  Spam Vampire also ends up doing the exact same thing as most viruses, completely filling up an internet connection with data so that no one else would be able to utilize that connection.

I know you are frustrated by spammers, but this method will end up costing much more for the internet providers than for the spammers.

Respectfully,
David Stanfill
Technical Response Team
Wilkshire Communications Inc.

[Brent]

>The main purpose of Spam Vampire is to put spammers out of
>business by creating huge bandwidth costs for them.  

Correct.

>The reality of the situation, however, is that the bandwidth must
>come from somewhere, and that somewhere is your ISP.

Also correct.


>This raises our cost of doing business just as much as it does the
>spammers, which can in turn raise the price of your broadband
>service.

I'd disagree on this, but I don't run an ISP so I can't speak with authority.
The costs of the bandwidth are passed on to the spammer, not us, and not the ISP. The ISP charges the spammer an arm and a leg for excess bandwidth usage, not you or I.



>Spam Vampire also ends up doing the exact same thing
>as most viruses, completely filling up an internet connection
>with data so that no one else would be able to utilize that
>connection.

Also disagree with this, viruses do not "fill up a connection", they compromise your PC. They may seek other hosts, but rarely do they make the connection unusable with traffic.


>
>I know you are frustrated by spammers, but this method will
>end up costing much more for the internet providers than for
>the spammers.

Actually, since the ISPs charge the spammer for the bandwidht, they'll end up making money.

With that said, I'll add a few points:

1) Running SV for a few hours at a modest setting (5 to 10) will suck a certain amount of bandwidth from a spammer.

2) If 1000 of us did it, the spammer's site would go down in a few hours, maybe a day.

3) If your ISP objects, you may want to restrict SV usage to short periods, or discontinue it altogether, but I think that by acting in concert we can crush spammers without affecting ISPs or regular (legal) users. Again, just imagine if 1000 of us ran SV for an hour or two a day....the effect would be pure death for spammers.

Thanks Bolivar! (Turning down my SV a bit right now, lol.....)