First, it would probably be helpful to read at the information for spam victims. Go do that now, then come back.


You're back. So now you've seen an example of how to find information in the proxypot reports. If you're serious about building a case against one of those criminal spammers, you probably want more. Don't worry, there's more!

The publicly available proxypot reports are somewhat redacted, for at least 2 good reasons:

  1. To avoid disclosing the personal details of the intended recipients of intercepted spam, who are innocent victims.
  2. To avoid giving the spammers enough information about the proxypot that they can figure out where it is, and avoid it.
The complete reports contain copies of the actual spam messages. (Not all of them - there are way too many - but a representative sample.) To gain access to the complete reports, contact proxypot.org and we'll arrange a method for you to prove that you are one of the good guys, and then you will be given a password.

If you need even more information, like the raw, unprocessed logs of a particular incident, or if you want someone to testify on the truthfulness of the proxypot reports, contact the proxypot operator (whose name will hopefully be on the main page of the report). If that fails, or if you need an expert witness to interpret the facts, contact me. I wrote the thing.

The part in which the proxypot author begs for action

Please, prosecute these people. Every open proxy spammer is guilty of more than spam. They are breaking into vulnerable computers. That's what used to be vulgarly referred to as "hacking", and it's been illegal for a long time. You don't need the CAN-SPAM act or any other new legislation. Breaking into vulnerable proxy servers should be prosecuted regardless of whether not it was done for the purpose of sending spam. Get 'em! And sentence them hard. Sentence them like Mitnick. We need to see some heads on pikes to stop this mess.

proxypot.org