Example of why it's so hard to stop spam/phishing

[MyNameHere]

One ISP recently responded to a phishing spam I reported via SpamCop:

Quoting abuse[at]colocall.net:

Hello,

Customer has been warned.

Feeling frisky, I responded:

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 07:48:09AM -0400, MyNameHere wrote:

Customer should be arrested. This activity is illegal.

To which the ISP admin responded:

ЗдравÑтвуйте!

I'm not a cop. I'm system administrator.

Customer's server internet access will be closed tomorrow if phishing scam

exists.

:sigh:

[Telarin]

Wow, I can't believe you actually got a response from a Russian ISP at all...

[Farelf]

Not sure of the legal and cultural context in that country - possibly the aggrieved party has to be the complainant (not the mental picture 'we' might have of things there admittedly but our perceptions would be largely uninformed), and in most places there would have to be actual loss to give it legs (even if 'intent' might/could be enough in theory), the website host not having evidence of the all the other bits that make it a crime in progress. Anyway, at least (s)he is responding - and polite, Здравствуйте! indeed (thank goodness for BabelFish).

[MyNameHere]

I had no idea it was a Russian ISP when I replied. However, it makes sense that most of our spam and even phishing comes from other countries than the U.S.

This was a very targeted phishing scam--focused on a local credit union in the U.S.

But with the web, I suppose you can select and attack targets anywhere.

What a system!