And locking your car, taking the keys, setting the alarm or whatever doesn't guarantee someone won't load it into a soundproof truck. BUT IT HELPS! And having run an ISP for 13 years now I'm here to tell you what I say HELPS. I'm not just making this stuff up, I'm telling you what I know from experience. Spammers et al look for easy marks they don't have to compound their crimes with. As to CyberCafes, I don't know anything about those, never used one, never thought about it, surprised they'd be popular with spammers. -b On September 11, 2002 at 14:12 brad.knowles@skynet.be (Brad Knowles) wrote:
At 2:37 PM -0400 2002/09/10, Barry Shein wrote:
A) Make a clear policy as part of the terms & conditions, including a significant clean-up fee + direct charges (e.g., if they ask you or prompt a legal question they can pay the legal fee for you to get it answered.)
That's nice to have, but hard to enforce. That is, unless you ask for a large up-front cash deposit.
B) KNOW WHO THE HELL YOU'RE GIVING ACCOUNTS TO so that (A) works. Get a credit card or verify the phone number and other info (e.g., call them back, insist on calling them back.)
Do you know how many credit cards are out there? Do you know how many of them are fake or stolen? You can't even get a decent charge that you can reliably apply to them, because the bank at the other end will refuse payment from a non-existent or closed account.
C) Use (B) to enforce (A).
Doesn't work. See above.
The problem in 99% of the cases is either (B) or ISPs who just don't care at all.
CyberCafe's can't use (B), even if it did work. That would violate their basic premise.
-- Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
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