How do you feel about this?

[CyberFreak]

I just came across this on another forum and don't really know how to feel about it.

Basically a user received the following email from someone:

Delete This Account! I Am A Forum Spammer!

This email address was created solely to register automatically at thousands of forums for the purposes of spamming forums like yours. I have taken it over and created this autoresponder. Remove this account and any other account registered with this email address!

You should also consider making the password requirements for your forum much more stringent.

Sincerely,

Random Digilante


http://randomdigilante.blogspot.com/

If you have a look at the blog you will see that this is a spammers email that has been taken over by someone and whenever this email is used to signup at a forum, an emails get sent back to the forum owner alerting them that this user is a spammer and it also stops the spammer logging into their account and causes the spammer a problem. While it is good to cause the spammer a bit of pain, I think that maybe it is not good to do and is basically making the user just as bad as the spammer.

What are your opinions on it?

 

[StripesAndFins]

I think it would be like a warning. It would be a good thing to get that, but if it was real, that would be bad

 

[Ascent]

I'd just ignore it. If I get spammed, I simply clean it up like any other spamming situation.

 

[CyberFreak]

I am referring towards this person guessing the passwords of the email accounts of the spammers and setting up the auto responder rather then the spam itself.

 

[MissTake]

It's interesting, on one hand you have someone who is trying to fight his own war on spammers and appears to be winning but on the other he's actually hacking and doing the same naughty deeds that the spammer is, two wrongs don't make a right and all that!

I've seen first hand how these so called spambots can bring down the biggest forum within seconds and can replicate and create new accounts like lightening. It can take hours or days to clear everything and make a site secure again so I understand the frustration, I'm not sure how ethical the fight back is though?

 

[Fergal]

I've received a couple of similar emails from members at my business forum. I've deleted their accounts, when I received the messages. I'm surprised that this guy goes to such efforts to try and defeat spammers one by one. It's not something that I would do myself and taking over email accounts is not something that I would recommend that anyone do. It would be better if people could defeat spammers by more legitimate means.

On the other hand, I hate what spammers can do to a forum (my experience is that nothing attracts spammers quite like a business forum) and I'd by lying if said there wasn't a part of me that admires what he's doing and hopes that he blocks as many spammers as possible.

Many people believe that the end justifies the means, but I don't agree with that myself and it is very difficult to justify hijacking anyone's email account in this manner, even if the email does belong to a spammer.

 

[CyberFreak]

That is kinda how i feel about it. In one way it is good to see the spammers getting some inconvenience but equally it is not really the best way to go about it.

I hate spammers with a passion. Human or bots. I have wasted so much time sorting them out over the years it is beyond a joke.

 

[kasem]

how do you know it's one guy? it might be many people working as a team to defeat spammers.

 

[AnAccount]

You got to admit, that is a tad creepy. Someone who is working against spammers yet is a spammer his/her self? That does not sound right at all for some reason.

 

[CyberFreak]

how do you know it's one guy? it might be many people working as a team to defeat spammers.

If you read his blog, you will see he always says "I" and not "we" or "us" 😉

Whether it is one person or a group, the question about how you feel about it is the same?