Three websites that spotlighted a Massachusetts spammer's bizarre quest for time-travel technology have been hit with an avalanche of what appear to be retaliatory messages.
In what spam fighters term a "Joe-job" attack, late last month someone forged the sites' domains as the return addresses on a recent flurry of junk e-mails advertising antispam software. As a result, the innocent sites have been inundated with hundreds of thousands of error messages and complaints about the spam.
Among the targets of the Joe-job attack were Interesting-People.org, the home of a mailing list moderated by Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor David Farber. Starting Oct. 20, the site was slammed with hundreds of thousands of "bounce" messages from all over the Internet.
According to Farber's Internet service provider, eList eXpress, the onslaught of automated messages was generated when a spammer sent junk e-mails bearing Farber's return address to nondeliverable addresses.
Similarly, after someone sent the same spams forging Inertramblings.com as the return address, webmaster Sean Sosik-Hamor received over 350,000 bounce messages. The operator of Lindqvist.com, Niklas Lindqvist, who was the third victim, reported receiving 30,000 such bounces in six hours.
While spammers commonly forge bogus "from" lines in their ads to avoid detection, the choice of the victim sites appears to be malicious. All three recently published hyperlinks to an August report by Wired News that revealed Robert "Robby" Todino of Woburn as the source of millions of bulk e-mails since 2001 seeking far-fetched devices such as a dimensional warp generator.
The spam that generated all the recent trouble appears to be connected to Todino. The messages, which bore subject lines such as "Stop Spam in Its Tracks" or "Say Goodbye to Junk Email," advertised a website, Quickeasysolution.com, as the source of an antispam software program.
According to domain-registration records (registration required), John Miller of 4 Oak Street in Woburn, Massachusetts, registered Quickeasysolution.com on Oct. 12. Messages left on the voicemail of the mobile-phone number listed in the record were not returned.
Domain registrations for several sites previously operated by Todino listed the same fictitious street address. In an August telephone interview, Todino, 22, said he was planning to market an antispam product by e-mail. Messages left this week on a voicemail for a previously working phone number for Todino went unanswered.
Experts warn that the Quickeasysolution.com site is a scam. A form for ordering the software is designed to collect visitors' credit cards and other personal details without delivering the advertised software, according to Daniël W. Crompton, an Amsterdam-based programmer who examined the site. Crompton's analysis was confirmed by Dan Clements, operator of the Card Cops service, which helps consumers track and uncover credit-card fraud.
In August 2001 the Massachusetts attorney general ordered Todino to stop sending fraudulent spams advertising "free government grants" and "detective software." State officials had no immediate comment on the latest spamming incident.
Steve Linford, head of the Spamhaus antispam site, said junk e-mailers commonly target Joe-job attacks at people who complain about spam.
"They'll intentionally place their enemies' addresses in the 'from' line. It's 100 percent malicious," said Linford.
Farber said the Joe job on his Interesting-People.org domain had the effect of a denial-of-service attack. Since law enforcement has proven ineffective in combating such attacks, Farber said e-mail systems must be hardened against fraudulent use.
"At some point in the game, we need to have things like authenticated headers. We have to stop this trivial ability to forge headers," said Farber.
Indeed, because of the difficulties with tracking e-mails and website owners, it's possible that Todino is himself the victim of an elaborate Joe job. But Inert Rambling's Sosik-Hamor says Todino's unwillingness to comment on the incident suggests he is responsible, and that disturbs Sosik-Hamor.
In a message on his site, Sosik-Hamor said he had previously been a fan of the strange messages about time travel. "I've thought that the author was pretty cool. A few fries short of a Happy Meal, but cool.... Now I feel almost betrayed by Robert," he wrote.
Todino's father, Robert Todino Sr., previously told Wired News that his son has psychological problems and earnestly believes in the possibility of time travel.
Todino's strange time-travel spams have intrigued Internet users for years. GrooveLily, a New York jazz-rock trio, recently released an album with a tune dedicated to the author of the messages.
