bemaNetwork ~ We are email

Email marketing has been a huge wave of advertising that started in the late 90’s , and continues today, but in less volume. When the first email marketing companies where starting like 24/7 Media , and Azoogle back in the late 90’s it was an infant of an idea during the end of the dotcom bubble. The smart planners that saw the end of the dotcom boom, wasted little time in strategy or marketability for what was soon to become an epidemic for internet users all over the world.

Some of the first emails being sent out in bulk by legitimate email marketing companies were directed at businesses, or direct to consumer much like they are today. The massive difference was that it was only a few companies out there who really had the lists, there had not been any selling or trading as of yet, and so no one seemed to mind getting a few emails here or there. In my opinion a big part of what started the whole who’s got my name tactic was co-registration web sites. These sites were among the first to “sell” names in real-time across internet transactions. A firm that owned the web site would be paid for each “lead” or email they delivered that the email marketing agencies did not already have. In the beginning this seemed fine, until the users started to complain about signing-up for one thing, and now getting something else. Then it was obvious that rules needed to be laid-out in some format, and shortly there-after the The DMA was put together.

The complaints however did not stop, and the ISPs would take some drastic measures to ensure that people did not send out BULK mail, they would kick them from services, they would lose domains, they might even get blacklisted by one of the first anti-spam organizations “SpamCop”, which at the time was laughed at by most marketers.

Still the problem was at the same time the legitimate guys were making a rise in the industry, the bad guys that normally kept busy writing viruses and propagating pornography saw the potential that email marketing had in promoting dirty, unlawful, and scam business ideas, even a way to spread trojan viruses, and other hoax issues.

So it would seem that the public was simply getting slammed by 2003 with so much SPAM as it was called in 2000-01, that the government decided to become a part of the situation and address the real issues that SPAM brought to our PCs, and our communities. The marketing companies held fast to the fact that people “Opt-In” to receive these emails, but it was assumed that the “bad guys” or “Spam gangs” as the world-wide organization called Spamhaus likes to refer to the top 200 or ROKSO list, that were sending all of the bad emails, and causing mass hysteria amongst email readers everywhere. In truth it was both parties at fault, and neither side was willing to do anything about it. Eventually the FTC created a series of laws that all digital marketing companies must abide by, and these laws were aptly named the CAN-SPAM ACT 2003. It was simple, give your users a way to remove, give them a secondary option to remove themselves, explain who you are and why you are sending them this email, and ensure that you include full email headers to state that you are really who you claim to be.

Right from the start this was still a faulty set of laws, anyone can get data from anywhere they want, they can sell, trade, and then do they have permission to send email to those people. According to Spamhaus.org and the “Definition of Spam” the answer is NO. If a user has not explicitly given the right to send UCE Unsolicited Commercial Email then you are a spammer if you send email to that recipient, regardless of what you may think. That is the way that Spamhaus, and many other anti-organizations view the “Definition of Spam”, as do we at bemaNetwork. One of the major complaints by so-called “legitimate” marketers was that it is unfair of someone to have traps in an email account, something that Spamhaus.org has pretty much cornered the industry on that. Spamhaus will simply ask, why are you mailing to a traps? Most ESPs don’t have answers for that , and quite frankly there is no good answer.

Spam traps are real email accounts never opted-in to anything , and are basically configured to capture, and forward intelligence information onto organizations like Spamhaus, and Spamcop so that they can see what traps are being , and with what. Needless to say marketers that had lists that had been passed around, sold and re-sold were being sold lists that were generated or stolen, and these almost always will contain a trap it’s the nature of that business. Some legitimate marketers may have been fooled once or twice by scam data, because according to US law it is not illegal to sell or trade personal information (of certain criteria) so long as written intent was done so before the trade or sale took place.

So what is a marketer to do then? Pack up and call it quits, is the answer that a lot of smaller email companies did like BlueMedia, Azoogle (not the affiliate Azoogleads), Target Email Direct, and others. Some of these firms were earning in the millions until the CAN-SPAM legislation, and once Spamhaus gained majority control over the world’s inboxes there was no place to go, if you were sending out mail in the millions per day bracket you only had a manner of time before you got caught, unless of course you were one of the few marketers that actually generated 1st party data.

So we see that the progression from a get rich-quick type idea turns into a get-kicked out of your ISP situation, but only for those that did not play by the rules. I keep saying rules so maybe I should explain a little more about what we find the rules are at least for a moral and ethical stand-point.

1. Generate your own subscribers
2. Never buy data
3. Never sell your data
4. Perform cleaning or hygiene at least 3 times per year on a list that is not very active
5. Never mail more than 1.5 Million emails per day (This is a lot really, I mean most big sites get millions of hits per day, but to send more than this simply makes you , and your operation look like a big spam operation. Throttle it down.)
6. Always make all removes easy to follow - And remove them … RIGHT AWAY
7. Never fake any information in your email broadcast
8. Protect your investment, secure your data
9. Don’t be deceptive, use good from lines and subject lines not sneaky ones

That’s it, if you can follow those rules you might be a legitimate mailer, if not well…we have a place for you too. Well two places actually the FBI’s most wanted list, and the ROKSO top 200 list from Spamhaus. The choice is yours, email marketing was once a very profitable business, and still is for those who follow the rules, but for those that cheat, steal, and fake your way to inboxes well good luck, it’s only a matter of time before someone finally reports you.

As taken from the e360insight.com press release, David Linhardt , as well as e360 is now selling what they are calling a Permission Verification Service. Apparently one of the most famous spammers feels that the biggest problem in the email business is verification. Yes we agree David, but why don’t you verify when they sign-up, and who’s list are you washing?

bemaNetwork has Data management, cleaning services, list hygiene etc…but these services are exclusive to sites/networks that have generated 1st party data , that means these are real subscribers not 3rd party data you bought off the internet, or from some guy you met at trade show. Seeing as I don’t see the fine line being drawn here I must assume that e360 would be willing to clean just about any list it was paid to clean. By all means, this is still a spam list people, and that is why open, and click rates, as well as delivery rates are falling through the floor.

Here is an excerpt from this ridiculous press release:

E360 Launches Permission Verification Services (PVS™) For Legitimate Email Marketers

The First Industry Solution That Addresses The Root Cause Of Consumer Complaints In Email Marketing.

Wheeling, IL — June 21, 2007 — e360Insight (e360) announced today the launch of Permission Verification Services (PVS™), a database certification solution for legitimate, permission-based email marketers. Read More…

Now that you have read that go and read this: Spamhaus’s thoughts on Mr. Linhardt, and his previous business practices.

SPAM, LIES AND FAKE REPORTERS
Steve Hardigree and Opt In Inc. (now Tera Media) Uncovered

Excerpted from: http://www.nukespam.org/OptInInc.html

Who is Steve Hardigree?

Those who have been involved in the world of permission based e-mail marketing, often used in conjunction with terms like opt-in, confirmed opt-in, double opt-in, opt-out etc., have no doubt come across the name of Opt In Inc. or the president of Opt In Inc., Charles “Steve” Hardigree. He is a somewhat well known figure and has been featured in many on-line pieces about spamming (the act of sending unsolicited opt-out e-mail) as well as more respectable publications about opt-in marketing. Note that his given name is actually Charles, but for some reason he goes with the name Steve in public.

Is he really a spammer?

It is no secret that Steve Hardigree has been involved in spamming before. This much he has admitted in a article titled Day in the life of a spammer. The piece covers Hardigree’s background and business, and establishes that it was he who set up eDirect, the most notorious of the Florida spamgangs. More recently Steve Hardigree has claimed to have given up his career in spamming with eDirect and moved to opt-in only with his new Opt In Inc. This page aims to debunk his claims of opt-in and show the world that Steve Hardigree has not changed his ways and is still capable of despicable attacks against those who dare criticize him. Added - bemaNetwork has traced his operations currently to an Orlando based compay, still with a Boca Raton Satelite office. They are called TeraMedia.

What about when says he does opt-in only?

When Steve Hardigree speaks of opt-in what he actually means is more like targeted opt-out than real opt-in. Nobody knows why, but many prominent anti-spammers who would never in a million years opt-in to Steve Hardigree’s feeble sweepstake offers somehow started receiving confirmations of opting in to Opt In Inc.’s spam lists. It is possible someone forge subscribed them, but more likely explanation is that Opt In Inc. don’t care where the addresses come from as long as they can plausibly deny any connection to spamming by repeatedly claiming the recipient must have opted-in, yadda yadda yadda.Here is a sample spam sent by Opt In Inc.:

Return-Path: 

Received: from cac3.hub.mail.psi.ca ([154.11.168.213])

          by tomts6-srv.bellnexxia.net

          (InterMail vM.4.01.03.16 201-229-121-116-20010115) with

ESMTP

          id

<20011212043156.BFXT20994.tomts6-srv.bellnexxia.net@cac3.hub.mail.psi.ca>

          for ; Tue, 11 Dec 2001 23:31:56 -0500

Received: from mx1.smtp.psi.ca ([154.11.137.34])

by cac3.hub.mail.psi.ca with esmtp (Exim 2.05 #1)

id 16E10H-0007CS-00

for xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx; Tue, 11 Dec 2001 23:28:21 -0500

Received: from lsmail4.oii1.net ([65.212.106.123])

by mx1.smtp.psi.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.13 #3)

id 16DyrU-0005Y6-02

for xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx; Tue, 11 Dec 2001 21:11:09 -0500

Received: from lsmail1 (208.254.217.79) by lsmail4.oii1.net (LSMTP for

Windows NT v1.1b) with SMTP id <63.00000617@lsmail4.oii1.net>; Tue, 11

Dec 2001 19:17:36 -0500

Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 18:47:58 -0500

From: The Opt in Network 

Subject: Your confirmation, Xxxxx

To: xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

boundary=”06986E0E1E196312E032AFBC”

Message-Id: Dear xxxxx,

Within the last few weeks you received an introduction to your

membership in The Opt in Network.

We welcome you to The Opt in Network and promise to commit

ourselves to delivering you a highly rewarding online experience

with offers that include discounts, bargains, special offers, and

sweepstakes, along with entertainment, travel and financial

opportunities.

Let us extend a warm welcome by offering you a 3 day/2 night vacation

to either Las Vegas, NV, Orlando, FL, or Ft. Lauderdale, FL, at

one of the Ramada Inns or its affiliated properties. Click here to

cash

in your certificate and start planning your mini-vacation now.

http://www.opt-track.net/opt.asp?AD=5195&EM=83476171

With its millions of subscribers, The Opt in Network has strong

negotiating power.  That’s why only we can offer you exclusive deals

like this. When you receive mail from The Opt in Network, you know

it’s worth opening.

Again, welcome to The Opt in Network!

Warmest regards,

The Opt in Network

Subscriber Team

**********************************************************************

If for some reason you choose not to participate in The Opt in Network

and get free and heavily discounted offers, click here:

http://optweb1.oihost.net/cpa/remove.jsp?email=xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx

**********************************************************************

Many more can be found by browsing through the following links:

Opt In Inc. get involved with GreetKing
Spam complaints lodged against Opt In Inc.
Spamhaus Project ROKSO evidence file on Steve Hardigree

Needless the say, any company where Steve Hardigree is involved is rather badly mistrusted by the anti-spam community. However thanks to some good PR many publications have swallowed his stories and considered him as an honest opt-in player. Here is a list of various articles where he is mentioned:

Refusing to Remove me - The Customer Service Breakdown of an Email Marketing Company
Day in the Life of a Spammer
A Message from the Governor Breeds Political E-Mail Debate
Opt In Creates E-mail Unit

David Goldstein, the Freelance Reporter Extraordinaire

On 2002-01-25, after posting some rather inflamatory comments about Steve Hardigree’s Opt In Inc. I received a note from someone calling themselves David Goldstein:

X-Originating-IP: [24.51.216.130]

From: "David Goldstein" <goldsteindirect@hotmail.com>

To: toni@nukespam.org

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 09:19:37 -0600

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Jan 2002 15:19:38.0208 (UTC) FILETIME=[B414DE00:01C1A5B3]Toni,

I am a free-lance reporter for several large Direct Marketing publications.

I am currently working on a story of companies in the permission based email

industry. One of which is OPT IN INC. a company owned and operated by Steve

Hardigree.

Steve is a well respected DM veteran in the Direct Marketing community

having been mention with strong regards for his advancements in the

permission marketing world.

After reviewing several of your articles in DejaGoo it appears that you feel

the contrary. Do you have any information that would assist me in providing

the DM community with information. Your name will remain anonymous.

If you prefer a phone call let me know. Otherwise please reply via email.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein

The IP address from where this was posted belongs to a cable modem provider who provides service in, among other places, Boca Raton, FL. The lie about Steve Hardigree being a respected veteran made me suspicious, but I decided to respond to this alleged reporter anyway:

From: "Toni Lassila" <toni@nukespam.org>

To: goldsteindirect@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002At 09:19 25.1.2002 -0600, David Goldstein wrote:

>I am a free-lance reporter for several large Direct Marketing publications.

>I am currently working on a story of companies in the permission based email

>industry. One of which is OPT IN INC. a company owned and operated by Steve

>Hardigree.

>

>Steve is a well respected DM veteran in the Direct Marketing community

>having been mention with strong regards for his advancements in the

>permission marketing world.

I trust you have already read the articles about him that appear on

the web. While Hardigree poses as an opt-in player, his idea of opt-in

is quite twisted. Apparently it consists of sending unsolicited offers

to join a sweepstake (he doesn't consider these spam). The most recent

Hardigree spammed business is BigIdeals.com/SweepsClub.com.

He consistently lies in his mailings about the recipient opting in.

I believe most of his opt-ins come from heavily cleaned spam lists

or customer opt-in lists that he is sending to. He then takes the addresses

from those customer lists and transfers them to his own lists, then sells

them on.

>After reviewing several of your articles in DejaGoo it appears that you feel

>the contrary. Do you have any information that would assist me in providing

>the DM community with information. Your name will remain anonymous.

I know of a recent case where a dot-com called WinDough.com outsourced

their e-mail marketing to eDirect (a joint Eddie Marin and Steve Hardigree

operation, look up the Florida Record of Corporations to verify). It

appears eDirect took their in-house list and sold it on for other clients

as a "verified opt-in list", resulting in much spam being sent to

WinDough.com customers. Last I heard, WinDough.com was looking to file suit.

You might want to ask the people at WinDough.com for details.

This doesn't seem to be an isolated case. There was also a strong suspicion

that BigMailBox (a freemail provider) had somehow given their subscriber

list to someone associated with eDirect, which caused addresses registered

in the BigMailBox forwarding system to receive spam from eDirect. BMB denied

anything to do with eDirect. Do a DejaGoogle search for BigMailBox for

details. Then there was the debacle with Juno, where Juno hired Hardigree to

do marketing for them and they ended up having to pull the campaign because

they discovered SH was spamming.

If you have time I will tap a few information sources for more concrete

evidence of Steve Hardigree's "opt-in" mailings to stolen lists.

To the best of my knowledge, all events described in my e-mail occurred as such. It seems as though “David Goldstein” didn’t agree with my evidence:

X-Originating-IP: [209.149.9.225]

From: "David Goldstein" <goldsteindirect@hotmail.com>

To: toni@nukespam.org

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 12:27:13 -0600

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Jan 2002 18:27:14.0214 (UTC) FILETIME=[E92F1460:01C1A5CD]Mr. Lassila,

With all due respect to you and your investigation we know for a fact that

Hardigree and/or his organization has nothing to do with eDirect.com, Inc.,

Windough.com, BigiDeals/SweepsClub, etc.. And please allow me time to

elaborate.

Based on my investigation Hardigree sold eDirect.com as well as eData.com to

a Hank Asher (former CEO of Database Technologies, - pulic company) in Dec.

of 1999. As a matter of fact, and you are welcomed to investigate public

records, Hardigree worked with Asher for three months and left because of

disagreements with Asher about how eDirect should position itself in the

Direct Marketing Community. Ultimately eDirect.com attempted to sue him and

a settlement was reached. The afformentioned companies you mentioned are

clients of eDirect not OPT IN INC.

Hardigree runs a successful company - OPT IN INC - that generates over 10

million a year in revenues. Furthermore, we know that he manages data on

behalf of 40+ database clients worldwide and has always mailed his

promotions with valid headers, remove options, etc. He has over 1000 direct

marketing clients and the respect of many people. I read your claims below

and wonder how you draw such conclusions and slander him in the newsgroups.

Hardigree, despite allegations posted in Deja, is perhaps not the story I am

looking for. Perhaps your organization and others like it should be

exploited. It appears you hit easy targets who don't necessarily abide by

your philosophies.

Mr. Hardigree has agreed to do a story with us and will allow us to speak

with his customers and employees and discuss his business principals. Mr.

Lassila I would like to speak with you personally. Do you have a number that

I may contact you at?

Would you be willing to do this? I assure you that this article will receive

international exposure.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein

At this point it was obvious that either this “reporter” had been bought or that I was discussing with Steve Hardigree himself. I declined to take it any further and told him to leave me out of any “articles”:

From: "Toni Lassila" <toni@nukespam.org>

To: goldsteindirect@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002At 12:27 25.1.2002 -0600, David Goldstein wrote:

>Hardigree runs a successful company - OPT IN INC - that generates over 10

>million a year in revenues. Furthermore, we know that he manages data on

>behalf of 40+ database clients worldwide and has always mailed his

>promotions with valid headers, remove options, etc. He has over 1000 direct

>marketing clients and the respect of many people. I read your claims below

>and wonder how you draw such conclusions and slander him in the newsgroups.

If Steve Hardigree wasn't a spammer, he would know that having valid

headers and remove options doesn't make him any less of a spammer.

And having the respect of spammers doesn't move me at all.

This matter is finished. Don't bother me again. You do NOT have permission

to mention my name or make any reference to me in any article, anywhere,

anytime. I do not want to have anything to do with your type of people.

This really annoyed him so he started the name calling:

X-Originating-IP: [209.149.9.225]

From: "David Goldstein" <goldsteindirect@hotmail.com>

To: toni@nukespam.org

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 15:51:35 -0600

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Jan 2002 21:51:35.0472 (UTC) FILETIME=[75769300:01C1A5EA]Congratulations Jerk! You will be mentioned in four different puclications

as well as several internet forums. These articles will are scheduled to be

ran in Feb, March, and April. Your name will be included, I assure you!

We have documented several other idiots like yourself from several so-called

internet police organizations. Including the so-called lumber cartel. Please

pass this on to your friends.

Again congratulations on making an ASS of yourself!

If you would like to sue us I would be more than happy to provide our

corporate information.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein

Now, assume for a split second that “David Goldstein” is a real reporter. Would any respectable reporter launch an attack against someone, announcing he was going to write a defamatory piece about them without identifying his contact information or the paper he is writing for and get away with it?

It is pretty clear David Goldstein is in fact not a reporter of any kind, but either Steve Hardigree or someone involved with his spamming operation. There are at least two David Goldsteins in Florida, the other one in Boca Raton, FL, so it’s always possible an actual David Goldstein actually exists.

I then decided to call his bluff:

From: "Toni Lassila" <toni@nukespam.org>

To: goldsteindirect@hotmail.com

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2002At 15:51 25.1.2002 -0600, you wrote:

>If you would like to sue us I would be more than happy to provide our

>corporate information.

OK, provide your corporate information.

Not surprisingly, he continued the name calling and refused to give out his contact information:

X-Originating-IP: [24.51.216.130]

From: "David Goldstein" <goldsteindirect@hotmail.com>

To: toni@nukespam.org

Subject: RE: OPT IN INC.

Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 13:42:45 -0600

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 26 Jan 2002 19:42:45.0387 (UTC) FILETIME=[A062F5B0:01C1A6A1]Tony (AKA JERK) I will be happy to provide you with my information. But I do

believe I ask you for yours first. It appears that you and your lumber

cartel cons fly in stealth mode.

Additionally, when you (AKA JERK) post in Deja I notice that you only

included select portions of the email I sent you. Why not the entire

message? Makes me wonder about your intentions.

Ironically you have assisted us in changing the focus of our story. So

again, congratulations on making an ASS of yourself.

And by the way idiots like you improve Hardigree's image.. Don't you get it?

More to come, I assure you!

David Goldstein

For those uninitiated amongst the anti-spam community, the Lumber Cartel is a non-existant organization once rumoured to exist by some spammers that allegedly was funding all anti-spam efforts in order to stop e-mail marketing and move all e-mail marketers back to traditional junk mailing. It was picked up as an in-joke and is commonly used by anti-spammers in a humoristic context. I have a mention of it in my .sig, but apparently Steve Haridgree and his pack of reporters have no sense of humour when it comes to spam.

After this I decided to ignore “David Goldstein” and instead write this page as a information source for those who would do business with Steve Hardigree, or any of the following companies where he is involved:

Steve Hardigree Operations

We have one to add to this list as well

Tera Media
http://teramedia.com - Click here for how to get in contact with these Jerks.

Opt In Inc.
http://www.optininc.com/
14000 Military Trail, Suite 103
Delray Beach, FL 33428
Electronic Sweepstakes Co.
http://www.esweeps.com/
2101 NW Corporate Blvd., Suite 102
Boca Raton, FL 33431
MailRewards Inc.
21869 Palm Grass Dr.
Boca Raton, FL 33428
IMG Direct
14000 Military Trail, Suite 112
Delray Beach, FL 33484

Net Neutrality as demonstrated by this powerful, and yet somewhat entertaining video presentation. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Seems that iPhone users have been the victim of some spam, not just any old spam though. This stuff was designed to hack into the phone, and with a single click gives hackers access to pretty much anything you wouldn’t want them to have.

Hackers send a message to an iPhone users handset, once the message is opened, it will usually contain a URL stating “Click this, it’s really great!”. If the users takes the bait and clicks, while the user is active, and still online the hacker no has control, and can access most of the phones features, and information.

Apple currently has no comment other than the fact that they are aware of an issue, and they are working on a solution. Apparently security was not a big deal when creating the new iPhone, I assumed it would take longer to crack this new “nut”.

Also in related news, a few non-related “so-called” Hacking Organizations have come public in stating that they have been successful in hacking the bootloader, as well as the file system of the iPhone. While we don’t think these issues are directly related it is possible that some of these hackers work together, and were able to create the vulnerability with this new information.

So much like the panic with sidekick back when Paris got her’s hacked into, this too seems to be a similar case. So iPhone users be wary of unknown emails, and other such strange messages, as they may be an attempt to check out your photos, and other personal information.

Once again at bemaNetwork we ask our readers, fans, enemies, and contributors to send in the funniest, zaniest, most ridiculous examples of email spam that they can find.

The spam that you send us is going to be displayed for the world to see on our site(s), forum(s), and blog, as well as seen on many of our etwork of partners.

So send us that spam guys! You never know, you might win something.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Include only a snapshot of the “SPAM”, do not include full HTML/Headers or anything else.
2. Tell us when you received the message.
3. What type of email account it was received at (webmail, stand-alone).
4. Was the email account protected from SPAM?
5. Was this email with a major ISP, or a Free online account like yahoo.com?
6. What ISP (Internet Service Provider), or ESP (Email Service Provider) was it?
7. Also include your Full Name (not displayed), NickName, and best email to contact you at.

We got a very entertaining letter form a sweet young lady in Birmingham, AL, and she writes:

“Dear bema,

I get so many spam emails everyday, but I am avid user of myspace.com, as well as facebook, deviantart, and other user-profile, and friend sites. I need to know how I can stop the spam because I often delete real love letters from guys that are trying to actually talk to me, HELP ME, what can i do?

Sincerely,
SpamTroubledGirl”

Well for starters, we asked about twenty questions, which she was more than able to answer quite quickly in fact, her ISP is COMCAST, she spends about 10 hrs a day using the internet, she has no firewall protective software, and that adds a lot of friends that she later discovers are really websites phishing for her account.

There was no quick way to get her out of the mess she was in, but we had a plan. First we told her to make a note of all of her friends that really were “real” people not bot accounts, then we told her to make sure she saved her profiles etc…, and then to cancel the accounts, but warn her real friends first of both the new name she was going to get, and that the ones she had were going to turned off. Once completing that, and after a few days of putting everything back together, she was back in business on her favorite sites again. We also suggested that she take better care of what she clicks on, and to get a good free firewall program like ZoneAlarm.

It has been 1 week since she has been back online, and this was the newest, and last message we received from her:

“Dear bema guys,

I cannot thank you enough , even though it was tough, and a bit of work I was able to rid myself of all of the spam I was getting at my accounts, my emails associated with my accounts doesn’t get bombarded, and I using a fire wall that you’all suggested. Thank you so much, no I can read my love letters again. LOL :)”

All we have to say is “You are welcome”.

For those of you using, myspace, facebook, stickcam, or any other profile based site. Be cautious about who you accept as a friend, who you give out your email address to, etc. In a lot of cases spammers use myspace and other related sites to spam it’s users with junk. No one official has yet to comment but a rumored 1 million + accounts are possibly compromised, and transmit nothing but garbage, and spam all day.

If you get a lot junk everyday we highly suggest you turn off your account, and switch to a new one, being sure to tell everyone that you trust, other than that happy surfing “You crazy kids!”

bemaNetwork is back on the article writing, as we are finally finished with our largest collaborative project to-date. Our BiNDEX / BIBLe systems are now fully integrated into over 150 ISPs in the USA as well as internationally. Although our systems contain a smaller number of banned IP space than some of the lists that have been in existence, we feel that the addition of this service integrated and running on some very major ISPs should see a decrease in FRAUD attempts, Phishing, Bank, Lottery, and eBay type scams, as well as limited amounts of Zombie SPAM as well.

During this period we had hoped to have more contributors available to write more content for us, but it seems that was not the case, and just to let everyone know we are still around we decided to spend some time bringing our community back. So here we are, and don’t forget we are still looking for some good people to contribute to our community, and our work. Everyone at the network will be trying to add something to our blog at least once a day Mon-Fri from now on, when we can of course.

Thanks to those of you that kept waiting for us to start writing, and all those who sent us emails, and related information whilst we were hard at work. Thank you.

Last week America (most of us) celebrated our independance, or The 4th of July as most Americans have come to know it. This is a great holiday, where little kids blow their hands off, and stick firecrackers in frog’s butts. Instead this year for many it was a day that was filled with more of the low-life spam that we get every other day of the year, but this time it was as if someone set a bomb off in my Inbox.

The shear number of spam messages on a supposed holiday was astounding, we received at 5 different mail boxes over 1,080 pieces of spam in one 24 hour period starting at 12:01 AM July 4th 2007.

That’s an amazing 200 + pieces per address! To think we could have been setting off fireworks instead, meanwhile my Inbox got a fireworks display of it’s own.

So how much 4th spam did you get? Tell us, and send us the spam you got. We love reading other peoples junk mail!

After last week of bemaNetwork taking a short break from our busy work, we returned to our desks this week to find over 405 spam comments in our blog. Of course we have lots of spam filtering, and since all comments are moderated no harm was done.

It is very evident however that people think this type of tactic will in turn make them money, or perhaps it does on some small scale already.

All of the comments are the same, they are one , or two words at the most, and they are always linked to something else. Either pornography, spyware sites, scam sites, phishing sites, and all other places you really don’t want to visit.

Bottom line people, stop spamming blogs! All you do is make it easier for us to catch you. In fact, for that matter please go right ahead. We record every attempt, and send the abuse remarks directly to the ISPs, and even we know that a large number of these are “bots” built to distribute junk to pretty much any form they can submit to, but we can at least make you have to move your “bots” to another raided network. These spammers are rats, and eventually they will run out of rat holes to hide in.

It’s a sad day when you can’t even have a form on your site without the thought of “Well what if someone tries to spam me with my own website?” that’s just sad, and stupid. Let’s help put a stop to these people, and we can do it together. Any spam, junk, phishing attempt you get, if you run a blog/forum, or whatever report it. Report every bit that does not appear to be a legitimate comment.

Eventually we will get rid of this junk for good, and perhaps these guys can even spend some time behind bars.

Until then we highly recommend that you use whatever spam filtering, blocking, junking systems that your email, and blog have available to them. Always stay sharp, and never trust odd emails, if it’s too good to be true…it usually is.