[svfig-open] One Stop Shopping

[Kevin Appert]

Utterly amazing spam/scam?

        <Drew Dean <ddean at csl.sri.com>>
        Thu, 11 Sep 2003 17:03:37 -0700 (PDT)


        I've recently received 2 spams from the same people.  In one message,
        they offer: (1) heroin, (2) "Tomohawk" [sic] rockets, (3) cocaine,
        (4) (sex) slaves, (5) counterfeit currency, and (6) child pornography,
        among other commodities.  Their "special offers" are rather beyond 
belief,
        too.

        The mail itself appears to have been sent from Japan, based on 
Received:
        headers added by SRI's mailservers.  (Or they're perfect forgeries, 
which is
        extremely unlikely for reasons I won't go into here.)  The URL in the
        message goes to a Web site for which the whois database gives 
contact info
        in Thailand, but the server itself physically appears to be in 
Florida (at
        least according to traceroute).  (Why I am not surprised that these 
people
        are downstream from Global Crossing?)  Tracking down contact e-mail 
info
        takes a detour via Latin America, but would seem to eventually end 
up in
        Missouri, although with Arizona contact information.  There's a US 
toll-free
        number to call the spam-list manager, and a mailing address in Florida.

        Now, I can't imagine anyone actually responding to this: (1) it could
        be a sting operation, although that's kind of hard to imagine.  "Your
        Honor, I didn't really expect a missile, but I wanted to see what
        they'd send me instead...." (2) As you'd be committing a felony, you
        can't go to law enforcement if the deal goes wrong, hence the
        prevalence of violent crime among criminals.  However, this requires
        that you be able to find the other party....

        It's also worth noting that the price of illegal narcotics depends
        greatly on where you are in the world: smugglers demand risk pay.
        It's not at all clear where these people are offering delivery.

        Meta-RISK: How many e-mail filters will this message trip?

        Drew Dean, Computer Science Laboratory, SRI International

 From www.risks.org