At 20:21 7/8/98 -0400, you wrote:

Incredibly two-faced response. How do you determine the user's ISP? Check WhoIs. But...OOOPPSS!...the information in WhoIs is phoney, and we don't do anything about that. Sorry, guess you're just screwed.

There are many other ways to track a spammer. - Do nslookup on the IP that originated the spam (sometimes this takes a bit of detective work to find what IP actually originated the spam). - Traceroute to the originating IP. Email the ISP that is directly upstream. - Look in the Whois information for contact emails and nameservers - if these are for the upstream ISP, or some ISP other than the spammer, report it to them. - If they are advertising a web page, track the web page host, and their upstream, and report it to them. - If the spammer is stupid enough to use their real names, include their phone numbers and addresses in the complaint. Or call them up yourself and tell them what you think. Order pizzas with triple anchovies and pineapple, and no cheese. Order 50 pink flamingos on their front lawn, with a sign saying "Congratulations on your graduation from kindergarten !!" :) The above few lines *were* in jest. I probably would not include the sign. :)

What do spammers and nails have in common? They're both intended for hammering.

Amen. ************************************************** Andrea Di Lecce Rogers@Home Network Operations 1 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, M4Y 2Y5 **************************************************