re:scam

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sudo

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#225705 1-Dec-2017 10:21

I saw this is making the rounds of the news aggregators; https://www.rescam.org/

Looks like a really good project from Netsafe. I hope it takes off.

My only concern is people using it for a different agenda.

e.g. some group has it in for a legitimate company, so they forward emails to re:scam en-masse.

I think there needs a mechanism to help legit sources be able to opt-out

MadEngineer

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#1911524 1-Dec-2017 10:26

I’ve forwarded maybe a dozen emails there from my gmail account. Haven’t had any responses from the spammers.

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Coil

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#1911541 1-Dec-2017 10:40

Haha classic!
This is great. Waste their time so it becomes a non profitable trade to be in.

davidcole

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#1911563 1-Dec-2017 11:10

Yeah I’ve been keeping track of the conversations that I’ve submitted. I can see the bot has replied, but seen ninrespnns d back from the scammers.

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dryburn

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#1911566 1-Dec-2017 11:35

brilliant , what if they have bot's talking to bots and then run into another issue of AI's creating their own language

davidcole

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#1911574 1-Dec-2017 11:44

We just have to careful that with the bots talking to bots, they don’t decide to turn on us.

frankv

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#1911651 1-Dec-2017 12:14

davidcole: We just have to careful that with the bots talking to bots, they don’t decide to turn on us.

Just keep them busy by talking to even more bots. ;)

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1911662 1-Dec-2017 12:35

MadEngineer: I’ve forwarded maybe a dozen emails there from my gmail account. Haven’t had any responses from the spammers.

Was that from your Inbox or Spam folder? I can't work out how to forward directly from Spam in GMail, don't want to mark spam as not spam just to be able to then send it on.......

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sudo

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1911680 1-Dec-2017 13:20

frankv:

davidcole: We just have to careful that with the bots talking to bots, they don’t decide to turn on us.

Just keep them busy by talking to even more bots. ;)

I just finished reading this book series.

https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1680680587

If only we could get one of the Bobs as the bot for re:scam

sidefx

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#1911690 1-Dec-2017 13:40

xontech:

MadEngineer: I’ve forwarded maybe a dozen emails there from my gmail account. Haven’t had any responses from the spammers.

Was that from your Inbox or Spam folder? I can't work out how to forward directly from Spam in GMail, don't want to mark spam as not spam just to be able to then send it on.......

Just tried this, forward seems to work fine from my spam folder in gmail (it prompts me about the fact it won't forward images but I assume the rescam thing doesn't need images?)

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Stu

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#1911691 1-Dec-2017 13:44

I wonder how many people don't know the difference between SPAM, and SCAM?

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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sidefx

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#1911693 1-Dec-2017 13:52

Stu: I wonder how many people don't know the difference between SPAM, and SCAM?

True that - I intentionally selected one that looked like a scam (apparently my amazon order that I never ordered has arrived and I just have to click a dodgy looking link to get it...)

It is a good point though because just forwarding all spam to rescam will just result in a huge increase in email traffic without much benefit since real spammers never really intend or allow for replies. It does also highlight a small problem with this approach since I'm guessing rescam relies on getting email responses...? But many phishing emails include links you need to click on to fall victim to them. I haven't actually read through the full rescam info so not sure exactly how it's doing it but if it's just a bot that replies to emails it might see fairly limited success... I just wanted to test how easy it was to forward from my gmail spam folder.

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1101

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#1911729 1-Dec-2017 15:44

what will it achieve...

absolutely nothing.
Its as worthwhile as trying to waste the time of telemarketers.

Maybee they will give up IF they dont get any sort of response . Lets not give them any indication that the scam emails are
getting through . Lets not reply to scammers . Thats the way to slow it down , if they dont get any sort of response they wont bother.

In the meantime another thousand scammers started up.....

2cents
:-)