Strength In Numbers
If you want to weasel your way past domain-based e-mail filters, there's a
proven and easy way to do it... get yourself
a whole lotta domains!
Here is a
list of 50,000+ domains names
whose associated web sites all
bear some remarkable similarities to one another.
(For the convenience of the
reader, this list is being presented as a set of clickable links
to the corresponding web sites, and only those
domain names out of the total of more than 50,000+
which still appear to have functioning web sites as of
now (2/23/2008) are listed.)
Clone Wars
The home pages of all of these web sites contain some remarkably similar
(identical?) verbage about "cookies", but you'll have to scroll
down while looking at the various web site home pages to see that verbage.
Additionally, it may be noteworthy that the publically-accessible
WHOIS records associated with many/most of these 50,000+ domain names
indicate that the domain name registrants are using
rented mailboxes at numerous different
UPS Stores as their
physical "snail mail" contact addresses.
It may also be noteworthy that the contact phone numbers given in
many of the WHOIS records associated with these domains seem to be associated
with answering machines that have pre-recorded messages that simply ask you to
leave your e-mail address,
"...if you would like to be removed from our mailing list."
It's probably just a coincidence, but the home pages of
an awful lot of these 50,000+ web sites
apparently contain links to a couple of web sites that belong to
this major-league e-mail marketing company
located in New York.
Of course, that company is probably innocent of all wrongdoing in this case,
just as they claimed to be when they were
forced to pay a fine of $1.1 million dollars
to the New York State Attorney General for their alleged
improper sharing of a whole lot of peoople's e-mail addresses.
Mirror Mirror On The Wall
Here's another interesting connection... If you prepend the word ``mirror.''
(with a dot on the end) to many of the 50,000+ domain names mentioned above,
you'll find that
the resulting "mirror." domain names are associated with one particular web
server belonging to
this well known
Content Delivery Network.
Moral of the story: If you have Big Bucks, a whole lot of people and
companies will gladly step forward to assist you with whatever sorts
of underhanded activities you may wish to engage in on the Internet.
The Cover Story For The Cover Story
In addition to the list of 50,000+ domain names
mentioned above, here also is an
additional list of 77 domain names.
These specific domain names seem to be mentioned
frequently within the WHOIS records of many (most?) of the 50,000+ domain
names mentioned
above. Like the 50,000+ domain names described
above, the web sites associated with this latter group of 77 domains
also seem to be in some ways remarkably similar to one another,
although they are far more ornate and elaborate, most of them including
sophisticated Flash presentations.
Just as for the 50,000+ remarkably similar
domain names described above,
many (most?) of this
second set of 77 domains are associated with WHOIS contact data that
seems to provide only rented UPS mailboxes and telephone answering machines
as the contact points for the respective
domains.
If you really don't want anybody calling you up and giving you
a piece of their mind about your business practices, or if you really
just don't want to be found at all, then
renting a whole lot of UPS mailboxes and nondescript
unlisted telephone numbers is a sure-fire way to confuse your
friends and confound your enemies.
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