Brian Haberstroh: Difference between revisions
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Biography of a living person - we need inline citations for claims that he's a spammer |
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[[Category:Biography of living people|Brian Haberstroh]] |
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'''Brian Haberstroh''' is a [[spammer]] in [[New Hampshire]] who runs '''Distributed Mail Corporation''', which once distributed [[software]] used to forward spam for other companies. |
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==Technique== |
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Distributed Mail Corporation (DMC) prior to 2005, created a software application called "Virtual Mail Delivery Agent" ('''virtualMDA''') to end-users which sends permission-based email to addresses supplied by customers of DMC. |
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Users who sign up were told they will be paid $5 for installing virtualMDA and $1 for every CPU hour it is allowed to run. However, Haberstroh has stated the program's sending limit is 10,000 messages per day -- which modern computers would achieve in much less than one hour -- and the terms and conditions state that no money will be paid to a user until at least $50 has been earned. The website instucts users to check with their ISP's to ensure that virtualMDA can be used. |
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Moreover, the fee is based on true [[CPU time]], this being the time which the CPU actually spends on virtualMDA's processes; this is a fraction of the actual time for which the software is running, as it consumes only a small percentage of system resources. |
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Haberstroh admits this is a scheme to get emails past [[E-mail spam|spam]] filters, but insists virtualMDA is legal and in compliance with [[CAN-SPAM]], and that the advertisements sent by DMC's customers are not illicit or unsuitable for children. He claims [[Fortune 1000]] companies have licensed his service, though he has not named any of them apparently due to commercial confidentiality agreements. |
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Haberstroh also claims that all the recipients signed up to receive mail, yet [[Steve Linford]]'s antispam service, [[The Spamhaus Project]], has caught many messages from Haberstroh's system in "spam trap" mailboxes with unpublished addresses, indicating that in fact virtualMDA uses randomly-generated email addresses. Furthermore, when Linford tracked down several users, they claimed to know nothing of the software, indicating that it was installed as [[malware]]. Haberstroh denies Linfords accusations and has repeatedly attempted to have Linford's Spamhaus service correct incorrect data listed without success. |
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==Legal case== |
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In an ironic twist of fate, Haberstroh himself has sued one of the recipients of his messages, [[Jay Stuler]] of [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]], [[Ohio]]. Stuler complained to Haberstroh's ISP in [[2003]] after being inundated with spam from Haberstroh's companies, resulting in the companies' ISPs closing down Haberstroh's accounts. Haberstroh in turn sued him for Tortuous Interference with Contract and two counts of Defamation thereby causing "financial harm", as well as Stuler's allegedly [[libel|libelling]] him as a "criminal". |
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Stuler has created a [http://spamlawsuit.spamshield.org/ website] to appeal for donations in order to pay his legal fees in what he referred to as a "frivolous lawsuit designed to harass and intimidate". |
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The lawsuit known as Atriks, LLC, Distributed Mail Corporation and Brian Haberstroh v. Jay Stuler, Hillsborough County North Superior Court, Docket No. 04-C-718 has been resolved and judgment has been entered for the Plaintiffs. |
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==virtualMDA defunct?== |
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virtualMDA.com appears to be "not responding" as of June 2004, according to [http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/battles/spam_ajhgbbcfhj_j/ this article]. |
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==External links== |
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*[http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/19/2238208 Slashdot article on the court case] |
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*[http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=2738 HardwareGeeks article on the court case] |
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*[http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/listing.lasso?-op=cn&spammer=Brian%20Haberstroh%20/%20Atriks Spamhaus entry detailing his spamming in detail ] |
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[[Category:E-mail spammers|Haberstroh, Brian]] |
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