Help Documents: PEP

Glossary

404

Web servers return certain numeric result codes when responding to requests. 404 happens to be the error code that means the requested file does not exist.

When you manage to get a spammer's web site shut down for abuse, it's said to have been 404'd.

ADDRESS HARVESTER

An address harvester is a spammer tool that has no legitimate use. It is software that can scan through web pages, mailing list archives, newsgroup postings, bulletin boards, chat rooms, etc. and extract any and all e-mail addresses that it finds. The spammer then adds these addresses to his list of victims.

This is the reason you'll see people posting with a "munged" address, like "you@christian.net.nospam". Beware that address harvesters are getting smarter and can often strip out the obvious things like "nospam" (among others).

AUP

Acronym for Acceptable Use Policy (aka: terms of service agreement). Every responsible ISP has one that prohibits it's customers from participating in network abuse such as spamming.

BULLET PROOF

A spammer's term for an ISP that refuses to disconnect spammers.

C & C

Coffee & Cats - it refers to an incident where something a person said in a newsgroup article caused a reader to laugh hard enough to spill their coffee on their cat, leading to mayhem. It's used in message subjects as a warning to readers that the message contains humorous content.

CANTER AND SIEGAL

These are a pair of lawyers from Phoenix who gained world-wide noteriety for spamming Usenet newsgroups with ads for their green card services in 1994.

CARTOONEY

Derived from the word "attorney". Refers to a spammer's lawyers (real or imagined) that threaten lawsuits. These are often a source of great amusement.

DNSbl

Acronym for Domain Name Service Blacklist or DNS Blacklist. These are databases that contain IP addresses of known spammers, spamhausen, rogue networks, etc. that can be used by ISPs to block incoming mail. The DNS part comes from the fact that you perform lookups on these databases via the DNS system.

There are many different blacklists out there, all with different pros and cons. Some are very effective but also block a lot of legitimate mail, while others are a lot safer but stop very little spam.

DSN

Acronym for Delivery Status Notification, which is usually an e-mail error message.

DOUBLE OPT-IN

Spammer speak. Spammers use this phrase to describe regular "opt-in" mailing lists. They seem to think that a mailing list that doesn't require confirmation is "opt-in", and by requiring a confirmation it's "double opt-in". If you see a site that advertises "double opt-in" mailing lists it's probably run by spammers.

HAT COLOUR

From the westerns where the good guys wore white and the bad guys wore black. It refers to an ISP's stance on spam. They are said to be a "black hat" if they permit spamming, a "white hat" if they take action to stop/prevent spamming, or a "grey hat" if they are somewhere in the middle.

JOE JOB

When a spammer forges someone else's name and e-mail address to make them look like the spammer.

The term comes from an incident where a an ISP known as JOES.COM had a customer that spammed. The ISP terminated his account and the spammer retaliated by sending even more spam from another service, forging it to look like it came from the JOES.COM administrator. JOES.COM was inundated with thousands of complaints from recipients of the spam and eventually they had to shut down.

LART

Acronym for Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool, meaning to adjust the attitude of a spammer by bringing them to the attention of their ISP.

To LART someone is to file complaints against them.

LISTWASHING

When you complain about a mailing list that you never signed up for in the first place, and the admins simply remove you from the list rather than terminating the list entirely, they are "listwashers".

MMF

Acronym for Make Money Fast. Refers to any type of spam that promises to make you wealthy, but originally it referred to the title of a specific pyramid scheme.

MUNGE

To modify your e-mail address in a way that makes them useless if harvested. This is becoming less and less practical as address harvesters get smarter.

MURK

Any disclaimer on a spam that refers to "Bill S. 1618" which supposedly makes spam legal. The term comes from the name of the senator who proposed the bill, Frank Murkowski. That bill was never passed and even if it had it would not have any legal clout outside of the US.

PEP

PEP stands for Personal Email Processing. It is "mail delivery agent", a program that delivers e-mail to a person's mailbox, optionally checking it against user-supplied filter rules.

OPT-IN

A mailing list that a member must deliberately sign up for is an "opt-in" list. Such a list must require a confirmation from a person prior to adding them to the list.

OPT-OUT

A mailing list that signs you up without your permission or confirmation is an "opt-out" list. Such a list will soon find itself blacklisted.

PINK CONTRACT

Any contract between an ISP and a customer that allows the customer to spam or commit any other form of net abuse.

RULE #N

As in "rule #1" or "rule #2", etc. These are references to the following "Rules about Spam":

1. Spammers lie.
2. If a spammer appears to be telling the truth, refer to rule #1.
3. Spammers are stupid.

Note: we didn't make these up.

SPAM

SPAM spelled with capital letters is a trademark of Hormel Foods and refers to a canned luncheon meat product.

When spelled in lower case letters, "spam" refers to junk e-mail. Some folks restrict the meaning of "spam" to include only unwanted commercial e-mail. Others insist that it must be unwanted bulk mail.

We define "spam" as any unwanted e-mail at all.

The term "spam" is thought to originate with a Monty Python skit where a restaurant serves SPAM with every dish. When the waitress describes the options she uses the word "spam" several times, and each time she does a group of Vikings start singing about "Spam, spam, spam, wonderful spam!"

So the term "spam" has come to mean something that interrupts and annoys. Quite suitable I think.

SPAMHAUS

An ISP or other connected server that exists primarily for the purpose of sending out spam.

THROW-AWAY ACCOUNT

A temporary account used for spamming and which is then cancelled or abandoned.

TOS

Acronym for Terms Of Service (see AUP). It also refers to terminating a user's account for violating the TOS (as in "TOSsing" the user, or "being TOSsed").

UBE

Acronym for Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (aka: spam)

UCE

Acronym for Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (aka: spam)