This tactic is extremely well known by spammers. Either sending from the blocks or hosting questionable client web (usually spammed URLs). There really isn't much else people try with this stuff. Yes, the space quickly goes on *BLs. They don't care; they get more and leave you holding the poop. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 8, 2012, at 19:10, George Michaelson <ggm@apnic.net> wrote:
On 09/03/2012, at 1:03 PM, Jon Lewis wrote:
On Fri, 9 Mar 2012, George Michaelson wrote:
The value proposition is gaming google page rank, by using widely spread and legitimately routed IPs to force your paying customers page rank high, by hits and references. This is a very high value business: one customer paying you big bucks, to have their web high in google pagerank. Not attacking a million mailboxes.
If that's all they want, why not get dedi/vp/cloud servers distributed all around the globe and use those for hosting the sites used to drive up page rank?
because by renting others space, they get the benefit of hiding in their otherwise normal traffic? plausible denyability?
I don't know. I used over-pejorative language. this is probably not ALL they want to do, but I don't think the primary driver is spam, because spam generates a lower income stream, and has higher risks of being RBL or otherwise blocked, and can be achieved quickly by use of unrouted space.
Also, what makes you think they aren't renting VPS? Or (for that matter) founding Virtual Hosting companies, and acquiring address for this purpose?
Surely a wise strategy in this space is to have many strategies?
-G
PS same: since this goes to address policy, I need to declare that I work for an RIR but I am posting in a personal capacity and nothing I say is a reflection of any RIR address policy. I work in the research department, not in registry/allocations