>-----Original Message----- >From: Ian FREISLICH [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 5:12 AM >To: Jeff Chan >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; users@spamassassin.apache.org >Subject: Re: very interesting article on refi spam > > >Jeff Chan wrote: >> On Wednesday, October 27, 2004, 12:16:24 AM, Justin Mason wrote: >> > >http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118164,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp >> >> > 'In an effort to understand the sordid world of mortgage spam, I >> > responded to several of the many such messages that >flood my inbox. I >> > discovered that clicking and responding to these messages led to >> > callbacks from well-known lenders like Ameriquest and >Quicken Loans >> > (formerly owned by Intuit, but now a separate firm), as >well as dozens >> > of smaller legitimate companies. >> >> > What's more, most of these reputable firms had no idea >they were tied to >> > this growing influx of mortgage spam. When I followed >the spam trail, I >> > found the tracks sometimes led to legitimate lenders.' >> >> > --j. >> >> They're probably third party or affiliate referrals. Presumably >> the referrers get some kind of finder's fee (i.e. money) for >> bringing the prospective business in. The actual lenders >> probably don't even know they have scumbags feeding them leads. >> >> What should happen is that the lenders should get informed >> about their referrers being bad so they can stop payments >> to them. Reminding the lenders that most of the spammers >> are committing felonies in sending their spam will probably >> do the trick. Few legitimate companies want to be associated >> with crime or criminals. > > 'Stephen Messer, LinkShare chairman and CEO, says his network > does not have a problem with rogue affiliates... "The problem > of spam is bigger than LinkShare," Messer says. He blames > the scourge of mortgage spam on lax enforcement of existing > antispam and fraud laws.' > >That's like watching a gang of crooks break into your neighbour's >house, not calling the police and then lamenting that crime is >such a problem and that the police do nothing the catch the bad >guys. There can be no enforcement without reports and it follows >(IMHO) that this company and chairman are as a consequence as rotten >as the people with whom they do business. A fish rots from the >head, so to speak. >
Or like a pawn shop hiring theifs to steal PS2s from homes. Then they have plausible deniability of where the PS2s came from. I'm sure the mortgage companies had a clue how these leads were being harvested. --Chris
