For your convenience in reading: Subject lines are printed in RED and
Moderator replies when issued appear in BROWN.
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TD Extra News
For your convenience in reading: Subject lines are printed in RED and
Moderator replies when issued appear in BROWN.
Previous Issue (just one)
TD Extra News
TELECOM Digest Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:45:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 173
Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson
FTC, California Sue Spammers (Lisa Minter)
Bogus Blogs Snare Fresh Victims (Lisa Minter)
The Other Telecom Bidding War (Eric Friedebach)
Headsets For Cisco IP Phones (for-spam@mail.com)
Re: Recieve a Call in One Country; Transfer Over Internet (Scott Dorsey)
Re: Build UHF/VHF Tuners Into Cell Phones (Scott Dorsey)
Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud; Effect on Search Engines (S. Dorsey)
Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud; Effect on Search Engines (G. Skinner)
Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud; Effect on Search Engines (Sean Weintz)
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. Geoffrey Welsh
===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 16:12:20 EDT
Subject: FTC, California Sue Spammers
From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter20012yahoo.com>
FTC, California Sue Spammers
The Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General of California
have asked a U.S. District Court Judge to order a halt to an operation
that sent millions of illegal spam messages touting mortgage loans and
other products and services.
The agencies charge that the operation violates federal and state
laws, and have asked the court to freeze the defendant's assets
pending trial and order a permanent halt to the illegal spamming.
According to papers filed with the court, the defendants use
third-party affiliates or 'button pushers' to send spam hawking
mortgage loans and other products and services. Hyperlinks in the spam
take consumers to Web sites operated by the defendants. Consumers fill
in data and the information is passed along to lead companies and by
them to lenders.
One mortgage broker sought, and was given assurances by the defendants
that they were complying with provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act. In fact,
most of the 1.8 million e-mail messages sent to the FTC by the public
demonstrate that they were violating almost every provision of the
Act, the law enforcers allege.
The agencies charged that the defendants:
-- used false or misleading header information in the 'from' or
'reply to' lines.
-- used deceptive subject headings;
-- failed to notify consumers that they had a right to opt out of
receiving the e-mail;
-- did not provide an opt-out mechanism;
-- failed to honor opt-out requests by consumers;
-- failed to identify e-mail as an advertisement; and
-- did not provide a valid physical postal address.
Each is a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
Defendants named by the law enforcement agencies are Optin Global,
Inc., also doing business as Vision Media Limited Corp.; USA Lenders
Network, USA Lenders, and USA Debt Consolidation Service; Vision Media
Limited Corp.; Rick Yang, also known as Qing Kuang Yang; and Peonie
Pui Ting Chen.
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.
Also, please note that a new daily feature in Telecom Digest Extra
are reports from Consumer.com, dealing with Internet and Telecom
topics. Like our other news stories, this is refreshed daily; look
for their column each day in td-extra.
------------------------------
From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com>
Subject: Bogus Blogs Snare Fresh Victims
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 01:58:08 +0000
Since 'blogging' is the direction things are going on the net, I
thought it was important to pass along this warning:
** Bogus blogs snare fresh victims **
Users are being warned to watch out for bogus weblogs that hide
malicious programs on their pages.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/4441333.stm
Some blogs apparently are set up only for the purpose of luring guys
into read them, then sneaking a virus or worm onto the guy's computer
and turning it (computer) into a zombie.
------------------------------
From: Eric Friedebach <friedebach@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Other Telecom Bidding War
Date: 19 Apr 2005 15:54:10 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com
David M. Ewalt, 04.19.05, Forbes.com
NEW YORK - The takeover war over MCI may have dominated headlines the
past few weeks, as Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications
locked horns over the company. But in the background, an equally
fierce battle is raging over Adelphia Communications, which could
radically alter the marketplace, setting up one of the biggest
competitors in the telecommunications industry.
If nothing else, it's going to be a bigger deal. On April 19,
Cablevision, the sixth-largest cable operator, reportedly raised its
bid for Adelphia, to $17.1 billion, improving on a $16.5 billion bid
it sneaked into the bidding process last month. Its main competitor, a
joint bid between Comcast Cable and Time Warner, has dominated the
bidding since Adelphia went up for sale a year ago. Their latest offer
is reportedly worth $17.6 billion, but offers less in cash, and more
in what could be volatile stock.
In contrast, Verizon's latest bid for MCI, at $7.5 billion, is worth a
fraction of what is being offered for Adelphia.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/19/cx_de_0419adelphia.html
Eric Friedebach
/An Apollo Sandwich from Corky & Lenny's/
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If I am not mistaken, there is that one
stockholder, Slim (somebody) in Mexico who owns 13 percent of the
company, and the purchasers of MCI tried to (or were successful at)
cutting a different deal with him than with the other stockholders.
I thought that was illegal ... whatever was offered to one stockholder
had to be the same for _all_ stockholders; and the other stockholders
have been complaining mightily about Slim getting better terms. Does
anyone know more about this? PAT]
------------------------------
From: for-spam@mail.com
Subject: Headsets for Cisco IP Phones
Date: 19 Apr 2005 11:59:10 -0700
Hi,
Does anybody know any unexpensive headsets for Cisco IP phones? Looks
like only Plantronics and GN have something, but they charge you at
least a hundred for pretty ugly headset. I have seen on eBay some kind
of adapter to use regular cell phone headset. Has anybody tried it?
Seems like reasonable solution. Any experience?
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I got a couple of those adapters to
use a Plantronix headset with my Nokia cell phone from Mike Sandman.
http://sandman.com PAT]
------------------------------
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Subject: Re: Recieve a Call in One Country and Transfer it Over Internet
Date: 19 Apr 2005 16:18:27 -0400
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)
In article <telecom24.170.7@telecom-digest.org>, Stiki
<stiki101@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to recieve a call in one country and transfer it over
> internet (using something like Skype) to another country. Is that
> possible?
Yes. Is it legal? Maybe.
--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
------------------------------
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Subject: Re: Build UHF/VHF Tuners Into Cell Phones
Date: 19 Apr 2005 16:24:43 -0400
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)
In article <telecom24.172.3@telecom-digest.org>, <sm5w2@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> More and more stories in the media about TV being distributed to cell
> phones via some sort of internet or data connection.
> Why don't they just build VHF/UHF tuners into these phones so that you
> can watch local TV off-air FOR FREE! AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! WITH NO
> MOTION OR COMPRESSION ARTEFACTS!
> Radio Shack sells a palm-sized color LCD TV for about $100. Why can't
> they build that functionality into a cell phone?
Because there is no money in selling the hardware. The money is in
selling the programming. The whole point of the TV distribution to
cellphone thing is that the cellphone companies charge for the
programming. Giving the user a facility to watch TV that they aren't
paying for is a losing proposition.
--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
------------------------------
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines
Date: 19 Apr 2005 16:25:27 -0400
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)
In article <telecom24.172.5@telecom-digest.org>. TELECOM Digest Editor
noted in response to Greg Skinner <gds@best.com>:
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As for myself, I cannot really picture
>> 'five hundred thousand zombie computers scattered across three
>> continents'. If so, under whose coordination? A gang of crackers all
>> working in concert to cheat some advertiser's competitor, by running
>> up his advertising bill? Seems sort of improbable to me. PAT]
> It's not so hard to imagine if you consider the way viruses are spread
> to launch spam, DDoS attacks, etc. The virus authors or cracker-gangs
> aren't necessarily working to cheat competitors; they're just being
> disruptive.
Five thousand zombie computers scattered across three continents?
We call that Roadrunner.
--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Five _hundred_ thousand, not five
thousand. PAT]
------------------------------
Date: 19 Apr 2005 21:03:36 -0000
From: Greg Skinner <gds@best.com>
Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines
Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com) wrote:
> In article <telecom24.171.17@telecom-digest.org>, <gds@best.com>
> wrote:
>> I guess I don't understand the general tone of your response. It
>> seems you are agreeing with me that PPC is a poor business model.
> It is what the *advertising buyers* have *demanded*. This wasn't some
> bright idea dreamed up by the folks selling ad space. Fixed pricing
> is much simpler for _them_ to deal with.
Hmmm ... in my experience fighting click fraud, I got the impression
that the buyers were dissatisfied with PPC, and wanted to pay fixed
fees. But perhaps that's because relative to its competitors, they
got virtually no conversions via the publisher. Perhaps PPC works
well for a much more trafficked publisher. But this doesn't bode well
for small publishers who want to sell via PPC.
>> The advertisers can use information that comes from companies such
>> as Nielsen NetRatings to estimate how many people use a search
>> engine, and what queries they submit to it, to determine a fair bid
>> for an ad buy.
> *snicker*
> Nielsen NetRatings lacks -- by several orders of magnitude -- having
> enough reporting sources to produce estimates that are within a factor
> of _ten_ to _fifty_ for all the various 'keywords' that the
> search-engines selectively sell ad-space for.
Fair enough, but that's not a flaw in the methodology. I would expect
that as the Internet matures as an advertising medium, it will be
necessary for the ratings services to get more survey participants.
Certainly, the advertisers will demand this, as they become more savvy
about the value of their buys.
Anyway, thanks for your feedback. If anyone else knows of any
technical work (even open-source work) along these lines, please let
me know.
--gregbo
------------------------------
From: T. Sean Weintz <strap@hanh-ct.org>
Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:30:52 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As for myself, I cannot really picture
> 'five hundred thousand zombie computers scattered across three
> continents'. If so, under whose coordination? A gang of crackers all
> working in concert to cheat some advertiser's competitor, by running
> up his advertising bill? Seems sort of improbable to me. PAT]
There are easily that many zombies available out there. Doesn't need
any real coordination at all to use them -- there are automated
scripts available to find and use them.
I figure probably 1 in 50 home users' PC is "zombified" without them
knowing it.
Anyway, my point is one bright 13 yr old could do the whole operation
alone.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess not everyone takes the trouble,
as I do, to automatically run Grisoft AVG in the early morning hours
on my machines, and Ad Aware and Spybot Smash and Destroy once per
week or so. PAT]
------------------------------
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