Blue Security / Blue Frog: An Antispam solution for FF/TB users

[mcsolas]

www.bluesecurity.com

Just came across a very interesting spam solution. Their site claims 150+K users already. On registration it logs you in and it shows you the details and to which agencies they are reporting spammers to.

They have special plugins for Firefox that work with webmail, and for thunderbird. Just installed the extension, but havent started using it yet.

Just wondering what others think of this product.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Aloha...

Has anyone else heard of this "Blue Frog" / "Blue Securities" thing??... It's supposed to be a sort of class action complaint to spam sites to invigle them to stop sending unsolicited e-mail...

http://www.bluesecurity.com/

Sounds good doesn't it??... Well I thought so too until I found that I was getting WAY more spam after I signed up with it...

It had me wondering if the whole thing was a scam or some type of spam mirror or something... Has anyone else come across them?? If so, did you get any favourable results??

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Anyone??... I'm waiting...

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Hey... I posted something about it a couple days ago... I started using it and found that now I seem to get more spam than before...

I'm beginning to wonder if the whole thing is some type of con

[mcsolas]

Hey... I posted something about it a couple days ago... I started using it and found that now I seem to get more spam than before...

I'm beginning to wonder if the whole thing is some type of con

Really? Yeah I have no idea how well it works just yet... Im using it. I figure I couldnt get any more spam than already. Hoping to find someone with some info on this ..

[Ingoal]

Off Topic:

I merged your two threads about this topic.

As for the blue frog thing: I have no intention to use it at this time, but I've seen ads for it all around the web...it even made it's way into wikipedia already...

[mcsolas]

Cool .. Im still hoping that someone comes up with some useful info on the subject.

So far, it seems I am already getting less...

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Good for you... it's made no difference to me, other than the fact that now after waiting 10-15 minutes for all my joyous spam to download, I have to wait another 10-15 minutes for all those messages to upload to Blue Frog.

[mcsolas]

Actually now I am not sure how much its helping. Still getting tons of spam.

It has made me take the time to start unsubscribing from newsletters and trying to cut it down from all angles.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

haha... Dude, you realise we're the only ones posting on this thread??...

I suppose if that Blue Frog thing really was worthwhile it'd probably be more popular a topic than this.

[mcsolas]

Lol .. yeah your right. I figured more people would chime in with a service boasting so many members, and the service seemed tailored around firefox / tb users ... of which I know there is a few of in here.

Ive forwarded a bunch and they have told me they sent about 10 unsubscribe requests on my behalf.

I give up. Just spam me

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

I give up. Just spam me

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Lovely... Now I'm starting to get these e-mails...
(And I quote)...

"He would have to cut down, have to duck some of the caps.He scratched it along the rough dark-brown strip on the back of the book a third time and a pale-yellow flame bloomed at the end of the paper stick..

Hey,

You are recieving this email because you are a member of BlueSecurity (http://www.bluesecurity.com).

You signed up because you were expecting to recieve a lesser amount of spam, unfortunately, due to the tactics used by BlueSecurity, you will end up recieving this message, or other nonsensical spams 20-40 times more than you would normally.

How do you make it stop?

Simple, in 48 hours, and every 48 hours thereafter, we will run our current list of BlueSecurity subscribers through BlueSecurity's database, if you arent there.. you wont get this again.

We have devised a method to retrieve your address from their database, so by signing up and remaining a BlueSecurity user not only are you opening yourself up for this, you are also potentially verifying your email address through them to even more spammers, and will end up getting up even more spam as an end-result.

By signing up for bluesecurity, you are doing the exact opposite of what you want, so delete your account, and you will stop recieving this.

Why are we doing this?

Its simple, we dont want to, but BlueSecurity is forcing us. We would much rather not waste our resources and send you these useless mails, but do not believe for one second that we will stop this tirade of emails if you choose to stay with BlueSecurity.
Just remember one thing when you read this, we didnt do this to you, BlueSecurity did.

If BlueSecurity decides to play fair, we will do the same.

We are quite sure you will think this will not continue, that we will not continue wasting our resources doing this, feel free to wait out the first 48, or the second, and see whether these stop, you will be quite suprised.

If you have another email under the protection of bluesecurity, and have not recieved this there, do not worry, you will soon enough.

We mightve had your email addresses before in our lists, but now, we are targetting YOU, because YOU are a bluesecurity user.

You might also notice, that the BlueSecurity site(http://www.bluesecurity.com) is down..

Just remove yourself from BlueSecurity, and make it easier on you.

Lanny Mccall

She put the board in front of him, "See how well it fits?She walked across the floor toward the stairs, her head turned slightly, and he realized she was — or might be — looking at the can-littered table."

The funny part is I started receiving these AFTER I discontinued my Blue Frog account... so what they are saying above there is rubbish.

[mcsolas]

I got these messages this morning.. lots of them. Then in the 2nd round, I saw it was the same, except a short claim that "look blue securities site is even down" .. and it was ( because of a DDoS attack )

A bit worried .. got a lot of spam but then it stopped real quick too.

Its a bit odd to get threats from a spammer... kind of an unusual tactic.

Yielding some interesting banter on the blogwires...
http://technorati.com/search/%22Blue%20Security%22

Edit: Their site is back online with an interesting message.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

I don't know... If it was having that much of an effect to inveigle spammers to try a DoS attack on the site maybe it IS worth it??

What do you think??

[mcsolas]

I dont think doing something like this is going to have 'positive repurcussions' in the spamming community. Its quite possible that it will solidify people behind this or a similar anti-spam solution.

Blue Frog, for better or worse, definitely has gotten spammers attention.

The one thing I learned in searching around is that blue might be going after the spammers in a pretty belligerant way. But then again, we are dealing with spammer here. Feeding off the bottom of the food chain right next to the politicians and lawyers.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

I got this on the 7th May 2006...

Dear Blue Frog Member,

As a follow-up to our previous emails, and, as promised, we are stepping up in the fight against Blue Security.

The Blue Frog member email database has been compromised, and is currently being distributed worldwide to spammers and to the public. Attached to this email, you will find a zip file of the Blue Frog database, which includes your own personal or business email address(es). If you have not uninstalled Blue Frog yet, we highly suggest you do so now in order to avoid your involvement in this war any further.

Leaving your email address on the Blue Frog list is a risky choice, as we will uphold our promise not only to increase your spam by 20 times the amount you are receiving now, but to continue to make this list publically available as well. Also, as the Blue Frog member database is updated, we will find more creative ways in which to use it, and frequently release it to whomever we wish.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

I have a weird idea... tell me if you think it'd work... I want to wait until they supposedly start to send hordes of spam and then re-name my e-mail account. That should mean that for every item of spam they send they'll get a return to sender message. Hopefully that should f*ck 'em up at least a little.

[Hal9k]

This whole DOS thing was on Slashdot last week actually.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/04/131226

:S

[mcsolas]

Yeah I keep getting those messages. I just keep marking them as spam in thunderbird then reporting the spam to blue.

The problem now is that all my email reports come back saying there is a dns problem.

Still not sure they have everything worked out.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

Okay, now this is scary... Now I'm getting those mailer daemon error messages... you know the ones that say things like "Your message could not be sent and has been returned"...

These are of course in response to e-mails I haven't sent in the first place. When I look at the attached message it's the same ads and stuff that I was getting spammed with some months ago.

This leads me to now believe that spam is being sent using my address...

Now this is getting personal.

Has this same thing been happening to any one else??

[dave owen]

"Blue Security calls it quits after attack by renegade spammer"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05...ecurity_folds/

To be honest I think this whole strategy was ill-conceived. As much as I love the idea of sticking it to the spammers, they are the lowest and dirtiest fighters on the planet. Innocent victims are inevitable, as is fallout for the rest of the Internet. And worst of all.... when the spammers win it just gives would-be spammers everywhere more bravado.

[Shaun(OfTheDead)]

"Blue Security calls it quits after attack by renegade spammer"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05...ecurity_folds/

Wow... it's big of them to accept defeat from that point of view, but still...

Argh!!... now I'm on a whole new bunch of spam lists for nothing...