Despite his legal problems, by the early spring of 2003, Richter appeared close to clawing his way out of spammer purgatory. It had been nearly six months since Richter's email ads landed in spam traps set up by Spamhaus and many other junk email opponents. Under the guidelines for Rosko, Richter and OptInRealBig had almost been spam-free long enough to qualify for removal from the blacklist.
"We have seen nothing implicating your outfit directly in many months," conceded spam fighter Adam Brower in a late-February 2003 posting to Nanae in response to Richter's request that a block of his company's Internet addresses be removed from the Spews blacklist.
"You've done a great job of restructuring your entire business model," chimed Karen Hoffmann, referring to Richter's efforts to send ads only to people who agreed to receive them. "Hang in there, Scott. Keep up the good work," she added.
But Richter's public plea on Nanae failed to convince the mysterious operators of Spews to take him off their blacklist. So Richter turned his attention to pressuring Shiksaa privately to change or expunge his Spamhaus Rokso record. Richter was especially incensed that his mother's contact information had been added to his Rokso listing.
Shiksaa explained that Spamhaus avoided listing relatives unless they were involved in the spammer's business. Shiksaa pointed out that the name and address of Richter's mother had appeared in a couple of Richter's corporate registrations, making her fair game. Junk emailers often listed relatives in their corporate documents and domain registrations to avoid detection when signing up for web hosting and other services.
Richter had all along denied that he was responsible for Waggoner getting her unlisted phone number. But in early March 2003, Richter proved he was willing to use her personal information as leverage. One evening he sent Shiksaa a teaser of an email. It arrived with the subject line "Quick Question" and appeared to be seeking her advice as an Internet sleuth:
Sorry to bother you. I know your busy but wanted to know if you had a link for searching for addresses in California. Wanted to find out info about an Address. Think its residential and in the Stanton area. Thanks Scott.
Half an hour later, a follow-up message arrived from Richter. This one simply said, "All I have to go on is this," and then listed the street address of her condominium in Stanton, California. Richter signed the message, "Thanks for assisting."
In the nearly four years that Shiksaa had been a spam fighter, she had always tried to protect her address from all but the most trusted spam fighters. She had made arrangements to list Adam Brower's contact information, not her own, in the registration record for her Chickenboner.com site. (She had originally used bogus contact information when she registered the site in 2000 but was forced to list valid information after spammers complained to the company hosting the site.) Similarly, in her Nanae postings, Shiksaa had never revealed so much as the town she lived in, although she made no secret of the fact that she was in southern California and even sometimes mentioned that she resided in Orange County.
The thought that Richter and other potentially vindictive spammers now had her home address was chilling. Fending off kooks by email, IM, and even telephone was something she had become quite adept at. But having them physically stalking her was not something she was prepared to face. Southern California was home to several notorious junk emailers, including some known for making threats of physical harm against anti-spammers. One of them, Rokso denizen Saied "Sam Al" Alzalzalah, lived about an hour north in Beverly Hills. Sam Al had repeatedly emailed violent threats to Spamhaus director Steve Linford. Once, Linford's girlfriend had answered the phone when Sam Al called, and the spammer told her to get out of the house because he was coming to shoot her. Linford shrugged off the threats, but he was a guy living in England, thousands of miles away from Sam Al.
Adding to Shiksaa's worries was her father, who was hospitalized in late January after fainting on a golf course. He was taken to a hospital emergency room, where doctors discovered he had an infection that required immediate treatment. He was home again after his hospital stay, but Shiksaa did not want him worrying about her safety. And yet she knew she should warn him to be extra vigilant now that their address was potentially in the hands of her enemies.
Shiksaa saw only one way out. On the morning of March 6, 2003, she contacted Richter over AIM.[3]
"Scotty, you up?" she asked.
"Yes," came his immediate response.
"My dad is still ill and he does not need to worry about me. I am composing a letter to Steve [Linford] and resigning. Not just Spamhaus, but spam fighting in general," said Shiksaa.
At that moment, she was ready to hang up her LART if it would protect her father from harassment. But even as she typed the words to Richter, she knew he probably saw it as a bluff. Could she really walk away so suddenly from Nanae, Spamhaus, and the last four years of her life?
"If you believe in what you do, you should continue your fight," said Richter. But, he added, if she truly intended to resign, she should first remove his mother's personal information from Rokso.
"You can take that up with Steve," she replied. Then she continued, "It's ironic, since I really wanted to help you and Bill [Waggoner]. So, you won."
Richter advised her to "only do what is right" in deciding whether to quit spam fighting and whether to leave his family information posted on Rokso.
Shiksaa repeated that she was not responsible for his Rokso record.
"Anyway," she said, "I never wished you any ill will. But my dad is sick and I can't have him upset."
Richter became philosophical. "Susan, when you are on your death bed, you have two choices..." he began. Then Richter switched gears somewhat. "I believe in karma. You can fix a lot of the damage you have been associated with. I would hope your dad wants you to do that and make him proud," he said.
"You may not believe this, but I really was on your side," Shiksaa admitted. "I wanted to help you go the right way. I never hated you or anything like that."
Richter ignored her olive branch. "Then you have the power [to remove] what I asked on my record," he insisted.
Shiksaa fired right back. "You have the power to tell me where my info came from. I gave you my word that I would not tell a soul," she said.
Richter bristled. "I haven't posted your family info all over Nanae. That says a lot for me having class," he said. "[But] it doesn't stop you from blasting the world with my info...my damn mom's info for Christ's sake. You're worried about your info—imagine your dad's info all over Nanae for the trolls to use."
Shiksaa read that as a veiled threat, but she tried to remain calm.
"I'm sorry it came to this, Scott," she said.
Then Richter said something that puzzled her. "Leave it there," he said, suddenly feigning nonchalance about his Rokso record. "I'd rather make a site of antis' info and run it, maybe like a hobby for me. I need some thing to do," he added.
Shiksaa was startled by Richter's reply. She broke off the conversation at that point, after criticizing him for his decision to "cop an attitude."
The next morning, Richter sought her out over AIM. He revealed that he had gotten her street address from Steve Hardigree, head of Boca Raton-based Internet Media Group, Inc. Hardigree had been in the bulk email business since around 1996 and had been listed on Rokso from day one. Shiksaa knew Hardigree frequently did deals with Eddy Marin and other south Florida spam kings.[4]
"They're serving you for some crap...I'm sure that soon enough you will know what their suit is for," said Richter.
"Serving me for what?" asked Shiksaa. "Calling them spammers? They are spammers."
Richter said Hardigree had revealed his lawsuit plans on a secret Internet mailing list for an elite group of spammers. For years, spammers everywhere had been driven crazy with desire to unmask the mysterious operators of the Spews blacklist. Hardigree and his Boca Raton spamming buddies seemed to believe that she, Shiksaa, was behind Spews. Richter said he was planning to travel to south Florida late
r that month to meet with some of the men, and he'd try to get the details of their lawsuit plans.
"Can I see the letter? Please send me a copy," she asked.
"I would be killed for that in this industry," Richter replied. He added that he would continue to feed her information gleaned from the list.
"Why are you associating with a secret spammer cabal if you're cleaning up?" she asked.
"Because, thanks to Spamhaus and Spews, I'm forced to host with them and pay high rates not to get shut down."
Shiksaa paused before replying. "I have nothing to do with Spews, Scott, and anyone who thinks so is insane," she said.
"I know you're not Spews," said Richter. "I'm also confident that who is Spews and associated with it will be well known shortly."
The idea of being sued by spammers seemed ludicrous to Shiksaa. But while the threat of a lawsuit in and of itself didn't bother her, she did worry about the attention it would bring.
"I have had threats made against me, Scott," she told Richter.
"Yes, in Nanae maybe," he replied. "You cannot call someone every name in the book and not expect them to call it back."
"I have never advocated anyone doing anything abusive to a spammer," said Shiksaa.
"Ruining someone's life could be taken to heart I guess," he replied.
"Ruining? How the hell did I ruin anything? I posted information that is publicly available," said Shiksaa.
Richter contemplated her question a moment. "Let me ask you this," he said. "If someone hid and posted bad things about your dad's realty company, would you be pissed if he lost his license over it and had no business left?"
"That's apples and oranges, Scott. If he was violating a law or something, then he would deserve it," she replied.
Rather than continuing to debate the point, Richter returned to the subject of his Rokso record. He asked Shiksaa who was responsible for compiling it.
"I need to know. Whoever does it is obsessed with me. I'm worried that they're watching me like Karen [Hoffmann] used to do to [Thomas] Cowles. I mean, whoever is in charge of me has gone overboard," said Richter.
"Yeah, I feel the same way about me," she replied.
When their conversation was through, Shiksaa contacted the other members of the Spamhaus team. After explaining the situation, she was able to persuade them to remove references to Richter's mother from his Rokso listing. It would have been the perfect opportunity to announce to the group her plans to retire from spam fighting. But Shiksaa held back.
Instead, a few days later, Shiksaa announced on Nanae that rumor had it she would be the target of a lawsuit aimed at revealing her role in Spews. Shiksaa said she was flattered that Steve Hardigree thought she possessed the knowledge to run the blacklist. "Alas, I am not Spews," she wrote. Then Shiksaa added a comment directed at the Boca spammers.
"Gentlemen, wrap the tinfoil more tightly, please, because you are all becoming far too paranoid." (In Internet culture, those who act paranoid are often derided as believing that a tinfoil hat can ward off mind-control rays.)
Two weeks passed, and no news on the legal front for Shiksaa. But then a strange note appeared partway into a Nanae discussion about Spamhaus. The "From" line said the posting was from "Susan Gunn" at email address [email protected]. To the few anti-spammers who recognized her legal name, the message's content clearly wasn't from Shiksaa.
"The fun has started," said the note. "The fallout will be long and hard. Iraq may not be the main stage any longer. Antispews.org will dominate soon!"
The anonymous "Spambusta1" appeared again later, posting another message on Nanae using an AOL account. Again, the "From" line listed Shiksaa's real name, Susan Gunn. The post's subject line read "Shiksaa Tells All about Spamhaus to BB." The acronym at the end apparently referred to Bulk Barn, the spammer site.
In the message body, the author wrote, "To all the ones who have suffered damage from Spamhaus and Spews, this is your information that you paid for by joining BB." Then Spambusta1 listed Shiksaa's real name, along with the street address of her condo in Stanton. The message also included information copied from the State of California Department of Real Estate site. It was her father's broker license, listing their condominium complex's street address as his main office, along with other data about his realty companies. Below that, Spambusta1 offered this explanation:
Susan was very easy, and others who participate in Spews have even been easier. We will release that information shortly so that all may file for damages against them. Please use this information correctly; we only list it for research purposes about anti-spammers as Spamhaus does about spammers. All we feel is that the playing field should be played evenly now.
Shiksaa was mortified to see her father's name on Nanae. He didn't even own a computer, let alone work as an anti-spammer. She wasn't sure what Spambusta1 hoped to accomplish by posting her dad's real estate broker information. There was nothing embarrassing about the record, contrary to what Richter had implied in their recent chat.
Spambusta1 may have hoped the posting would finally drive Shiksaa out of the ranks of anti-spammers. But it had the opposite effect. After reading and rereading the message, she was more determined than ever to fight back. She hadn't wanted to dignify Spambusta1's posting with a response, but she couldn't resist. Around noon on March 30, she posted a reply:
I happen to be very proud of my father. Not only was he his sole support by the time he was ten, he served his country at a great sacrifice to himself. He and his crew were shot down, and my dad refused to bail out until his whole crew was safely out of the aircraft. He also spent nearly two years in different POW camps, suffering numerous injuries. And he's presently recovering from major surgery...so if any one of you motherfuckers disturbs him in any way whatsoever, you will be answering to me and the police.
Spambusta1's original message drew more than 400 replies over the course of several days. Most were from anti-spammers ridiculing the author's investigative skills. (Spamhaus's Steve Linford said—incorrectly—that the home address posted for Shiksaa was actually an office building.) But a couple responses also appeared from people cheering Spambusta1's work. "It's about time someone outed this cunt," wrote an anonymous person who used a Yahoo! return address. The message, from someone listing his name as "Give Us An Out," continued:
It is only the beginning. It would not surprise me at all if cunt Shiksaa begins to suffer some incredible bad luck. She has done a lot of aggressive shit to some people. Some of those people may wish to return the favor in their own special way. As far as her Dad goes...Fuck'em!!! Having a daughter like Shiksaa is worth killing yourself over.
Spambusta1 was back the next day, ready to rebut Linford with threats to publish photographs of Shiksaa's condominium. "It is a very nice Condo. Nice dead end street. Did any one notice the brown van? We moved it today per direct orders as we are staking out a member of Spews currently and will begin with the posting of information on who is behind them next," he wrote.
Shiksaa and her supporters tried to determine who was behind the postings. Short of getting a subpoena for AOL, there was no way to unmask Spambusta1 directly from the Internet protocol address listed in his messages. Studying the language of the messages for telltale characteristics was unproductive as well. Shiksaa knew it probably was the work of Hardigree, Marin, or the group of south Florida spammers she began to refer to as The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight. But it could just as well have been any of the dozens of spammers she had tangled with over the years.
Richter tried to distance himself from the postings. In a note on Nanae, he admitted that at times he "might not see eye-to-eye with Susan, but I try and have some class." Richter claimed that people close to him knew he wasn't a violent person. Then he added a note addressed to what he called "high-deployment mailers," chiding them not to resort to the same tactics anti-spammers used to harm them. Richter concluded his posting by saying he hoped Spambusta1 wasn't somebody he knew.
Tha
t Friday evening, Spambusta1 was back on Nanae with news that he had created a site at the Tripod home page service. The site was entitled "Shiksaa Shakedown" and included three photographs of the outside of her condominium. One showed the gray gatehouse, with its locked, eight-foot fence, at the entrance to the complex. Another was taken a few steps from her garage door. The third was shot from the ground just below the deck outside her second-story bedroom window. Someone had doctored each of the photos with digital image-editing software. The picture of the condominium complex entrance included the words, "The Gates of Hell?" The shot of her garage was altered so the white door appeared to be covered with graffiti, above which were the words "Does this say Shiksa?" On the photograph of her deck, someone had circled some drink cans on the railing and a table, and added the word, "Beer?"
But what bothered Shiksaa the most about the Shakedown site weren't the photos. It was the publication of her latest unlisted phone number. Since Bill Waggoner had called her in December on her old unpublished number, she had been extremely circumspect about the new one. She knew someone must have tricked or paid off an employee at the phone company to get the number. She downloaded a copy of the Shakedown site to her computer for use in the police report she would file Monday.
But the online attacks on Shiksaa continued that weekend. An unidentified person began pumping out emails to people all over the Internet in an effort to Joe-job her. The messages were spoofed to appear as though she had forwarded them from her AOL account. They carried the subject line, "How to Boycott America, the Global Bully" and encouraged support for a boycott organized by activists running a site called AdBusters.org. The boycott was aimed at undercutting America's role in the world by weakening its major corporations.
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