Innocent Bystander - SpamCop Dictionary

Adapted from the Forum SpamCop Glossary

A

-

B

-

C

-

D

-

E

-

F

-

G

-

H

-

I

-

J

-

K

-

L

-

M

-

N

-

O

-

P

-

Q

-

R

-

S

-

T

-

U

-

V

-

W

-

X

-

Y

-

Z

Search beginning of word full word and in description

Innocent Bystander		An Innocent Bystander (IB) is a URL or URI that is present in spam but is not authorized for such use by its owner. Spammers will put 'innocent' URLs in their spam to make it look legitimate, for instance references to news articles or government web pages. Other examples include the mandatory advertising placed at the bottom of email messages in footers by free webmail companies and by antivirus software*. In the case of phishing email, nearly all links will be stolen from the Innocent Bystander. An attempted Report of a URL or URI that is marked as an Innocent Bystander will be met with "ISP does not wish to receive report regarding [the Innocent Bystander]" and possibly "ISP does not wish to receive reports regarding [the Innocent Bystander] - no date available". Please see Once I close a spammer's account, how can I prevent others reporting it? for how an ISP can mark a URL as an Innocent Bystander. *Opinion: It is understood that free webmail companies need to recoup their investments via footer advertising. However, paid antivirus software companies' and paid ISPs are attempting to double-dip (unless they make it very clear in advance to their customers that their prices are significantly lower due to their footer advertising schemes, and give their customers options to pay higher prices for advertising-free products).
Additional comments :

Additional Sources for Glossary Information
The SpamCop Glossary is being limited to terms used within the SpamCop Forums. The following additional links provide far more information which may both help to better explain terms defined in the SpamCop Glossary as well as many more terms not included here. They are listed in no particular order.

NetLingo - The Internet Dictionary
NetLingo contains thousands of definitions that easily explain the Internet and the online world of business, technology, and communication. Updated weekly with new terms, NetLingo is (currently) ranked #656 in Google's Top 1000 Web sites and reviewed in many publications.
Our mission is to educate and entertain you, and keep you up-to-date.

The Jargon File
The Jargon File is a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.

Wiktionary
Wiktionary is a sister project to Wikipedia intended to be a free wiki dictionary (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language.
Wiktionary serves to:

• explain the meanings of words, terms and abbreviations
• translate words from one language to another
• act as a thesaurus by showing synonyms

Contributors:
WB8TYW (aka John)
Wazoo
turetzsr (aka Steve T)
StevenUnderwood (aka Steven P. Underwood, DNRC)
qjvgpuryy (aka David)
Miss Betsy
Lking
Larry Kilgallen (ng member)
Jeff G.
Jank1887
dbiel