| Let's stop spam! | ||||||||||||||||||
>>> DO NOT FALL FOR THE ENDADS SCAM Internet users are being drowned by the sheer volume of spam. It is now estimated that one email in two is spam, it's a problem that is costing businesses billions. Read on to find how, with just a few clicks of a mouse I discovered who was behind Endads, one of the most disgusting spam-scams, and which credit card processing company is helping Endads perpetrate its scheme.
If we really want to stop spam, it shouldn't be that hard. All we have to do is stop credit card processors from offering merchant account to companies and individuals using unsolicited mail to market their products or services.
I was spurred to write this by the Messenger popup spam-scam perpetrated by people like Endads, which inundates your PC with grey popups offering you software to stop... grey popups. While upgrading my computer recently, I had to disable my firewall. IMMEDIATELY, I received a Messenger spam - a grey pop-up box. Apparently it's a "feature" of Windows NT and 2000 Professional that allows anyone to send you one of these, targetting by IP address. Its message was very simple. It told me that to eliminate annoying Messenger popups such as itself, I could go to www.endads.com, and buy some software for $25. It's a kind of variant on the old protection racket: pay for protection or suffer my violence - as honourable as shitting on someone's doorstep, and then selling them a shovel.
>>> DO NOT FALL FOR THE ENDADS SCAM
I did a bit of digging on the web, and quickly found out who is behind Endads. Feel free to email him and tell him what you think (though I wouldn't hold much hope for a response):
Registrant:
EndAds
PO BOX 22271
San Diego, Ca 92192
US
Domain name: ENDADS.COM
Administrative Contact:
Williams, John aslk12@hotmail.com
PO BOX 22271
San Diego, Ca 92192
US
858-455-1092
Technical Contact:
Williams, John aslk12@hotmail.com
PO BOX 22271
San Diego, Ca 92192
US
858-455-1092
EndAds refund policy is particularly disgusting (www.endads.com): "To obtain a refund we will run tests on your computer from our servers. Refunds will ONLY be given for defective software within 2 days." In other words, if you fall for the pitch, and are insane enough to give your money to Endads, there is no guarantee that it works, or even exists. Any problems with the software, and you cannot even get a refund without first allowing EndAds (a proven spam-scammer) to take over your computer. And you have all of two days to do it, or they wash their hands of you. Does this refund policy make Endads the most unscrupulous software vendor in the world??? Email them now and tell them what you think: tech@EndAds.com.
The most important way to protect yourself from spam is NEVER TO REPLY to it. Almost without exception, products and services offered via spam are fraudulent. Your penis will NOT grow. You will NOT get a better deal on your mortgage. You will NOT get to see Britney Spears's pussy. You will NOT receive millions of dollars for allowing a corrupt Nigerian / Ugandan / Balkan / EU politician to use your bank account to make illegal transfers. If no one ever bought from spam-scammers, they would all crawl off and die of hunger, which would be a fate too good for them. Even when spammers claim you can opt out of further mailings, they are lying. They are checking to see if your email address is valid, and if it is, then they will use it and sell it ruthlessly. These are not normal business-people, who care about their reputation and repeat custom. They are scammers; lying about removing your email address is just one more tool in their shitty armoury.
Luckily, it's very easy to protect yourself from the Endads/Messenger Popup spam-scams: get yourself a firewall. ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm is free for personal use and easy to install. Just visit www.zonelabs.com and download the free version of ZoneAlarm. It works, and you will never have to deal with scum like Mr John Williams and EndAds. Please note. I have NO CONNECTION with ZoneLabs - I just use ZoneAlarm and it works really well for me. I most CERTAINLY have no connection with Endads.
The Endads/Messenger popup, of course is only one form of spam-scam. Email spam is the bane of my life. 90% of my mail is now spam, and if I didn't use a spam-filter I wouldn't be able to use email. There are no email filters that remove all spam, but I can vouch that IHateSpam ($19.95 from Sunbelt Software, www.ihatespam.net) removes 70-80% of incoming spam. Occasionally it dumps a real message, but it's usually one I don't really want anyway, like a demand for money from my alma mater, Harvard Business School. You can My only problem now is when I travel and use web-based mail. After 2 days on the road I have ten pages of emails, with one or two vital messages interspersed. I'm off to Bolivia shortly for three weeks. I expect to come back to a spamundation (Yup 2500 spams - I'm off to take a shower). Please note. I have NO CONNECTION with Sunbelt Software - I just use IHateSpam and it works OK for me.
If the powers-that-be really want to stop spam-scams like EndAds, they need to deny them access to the financial services they require to operate. It would be easy to shut down EndAds. After all, they need credit card processing in order to function. Here's the company that is providing credit card processing to EndAds:
E-Commerce Exchange And, as it says on their website, E-Commerce Exchange is a registered ISO/MSP of the following FDIC insured banks: JP Morgan Chase Bank, Hicksville, NY. Stopping spam is not rocket science: spammers have to reveal their identity in order to receive payment. If 1/100th of the effort that has gone into (unsuccessfully) stopping money-laundering went into stopping spammers, it would be a non-problem. Next time you meet some e-policy Tsar wringing his or her hands and saying there's nothing they can do about spam, tell them to stop the credit card industry processing payments to companies who employ spam. The financial services industry has no interest in cutting off service to spammers - but then it had no interest in stopping money-laundering either. It has to be forced by legislation. So start pushing for it now!
And while on the subject of spam, download the new beta version of the Googlebar from toolbar.google.com to stop unwanted popups too! The new version of the bar doesn't just save you time by allowing you to search the web from wherever you are, rather than by first clicking to Google. It also stops annoying unsolicited popups while you surf. I've had mine for a day and, as it proudly tells me, it has already stopped 47 of the vicious timewasters. Hopefully Google's latest gizmo will spell the end of daft advertisers paying good money to cynical website-owners to annoy their readers with pop-up ads that every experienced surfer nukes before they have even loaded. So there you go folks, that's what I have to say on Endads, spam and popups. Hope it helps!
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