Spam Vigilantes

A new wave of vigilantes are taking revenge against "phishing" style spammers.

"Phishing" is where the perpetrator sends out thousands or millions of messages in an effort to obtain the recipient's personal data. Often the message poses as being from the user's bank or other financial intuition.

It claims that the user needs to visit a website to confirm important information. Sometime the message will claim that a charge is about to be issued against their account, unless they follow certain steps to stop it.

The website is in fact run by the spam sender. Sometimes tricks are played to make the URL appear to point to the actual institution's website.

One the spammer has your personal data - they do with it as they please. Sometimes they'll just try to purchase a few things in your name. Other times they may try to commit full-blown identity theft.

Many junk mail filter programs can successfully detect such messages. Unfortunately they are sometimes difficult to distinguish from real messages from banks. On the other hand, if the data is really important, a bank won't send it to you over email. Email filter software is now widely deployed, and frequently blocks legitimate commercial email.

The vigilantes have been targeting the phony websites. If successful, they deface the site to indicate that the message the user received was fraudulent, and they should be more careful in the future.

The legality of such activities is questionable. However, it would seem unlikely anyone would take action against someone doing what is effectively a public service.

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