etee's Blog

For quite some time now, we have heard the sad tales of the problems with our education system. Drop-out rates are far too high, little Johnnie not only can't read, he doesn't have a clue about how to fill out a job application, the public skoolyard is turning into a war zone, and more drugs are sold each day in the bathrooms than in the local Walgreens! Various politicians, advocacy groups, and busybodies have their own thoughts on how to handle the crisis: most of them have more to do with laying the blame on their opposition than on actually finding a solution, unfortunately.

Follow up:

And, if by some chance a child manages to graduate high skool, then what about college? The costs are spiraling almost as fast as those of prescription drugs, and now that states are taking a 'zero tolerance' line on drinking alcohol before reaching the age of 21, the frat houses are having a difficult time finding new pledges to haze initiate. How can we provide little Johnnie with the funds to party hearty get his degree? What does the overworked 9-to-fiver do, when that next promotion requires a degree, but he is currently spending all his spare time trying to catch up on the work email?

Well, some enterprising soul has decided to try a novel approach: let's spam a couple o'million people with offers for college degrees!

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for... the spam:

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Return-Path: [TiffanySmith@teacher.com]
Received: from psmtp.com (exprod5mx19.psmtp.com [64.75.1.159])

by [my.smtp.server] (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g4D8eDQ30364
for [me]@[my.domain]; Mon, 13 May 2002 03:40:14 -0500

Received: from source ([212.177.180.40]) by exprod5mx19.postini.com ([64.75.1.251]) with SMTP;
Mon, 13 May 2002 01:40:18 PDT

Received: (qmail 6222 invoked from network); 7 May 2002 13:30:57 -0000
Received: from www.strudel.ws (HELO mx1.mail.Yahoo.com) (192.117.122.38)

by ns.quartoflegreo.com with SMTP; 7 May 2002 13:30:57 -0000
Message-ID: [000030940964$000049b9$000066eb@mx1.mail.Yahoo.com]

To: [Undisclosed.Recipients]
From: TiffanySmith@teacher.com

Subject: Earn Your University Degree Today31428
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 08:36:45 -1000

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;

charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


Obtain a Bachelor's, Master's, MBA, or PhD based on your present knowledge

and life experience.


No required tests, classes, or books. Confidentiality assured.


Join our fully recognized Degree Program.


Are you a truly qualified professional in your field but lack the
appropriate, recognized documentation to achieve your goals?


Or are you venturing into a new field and need a boost to get your foot in

the door so you can prove your capabilities?


Call us for information that can change your life and help you to achieve
your goals!!!




1-212-937-2149


(24 hours a day)


CALL NOW TO RECEIVE YOUR DIPLOMA WITHIN 30 DAYS!!!

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All I can say is, Where to begin? Well, how about the alleged sender, 'TiffanySmith[at]teacher.com'? Somehow, I can just see Teacher Smith in her little red skoolhouse, writing 'rithmetic problems on the blackboard, while her students are busy making paper airplanes and her PC is busy sending out a gazillion email spams in the corner. Anyway, that vision is a work of fiction, just as the email address is. Even though teacher.com exists, the email address doesn't:

RCPT TO:<TiffanySmith@teacher.com>
550 5.1.1 <TiffanySmith@teacher.com>... User unknown

I checked out their web site, and it appears to be a Web-based information resource for teachers. They do offer a free '@teacher.com' email address through iName, so maybe TiffanySmith was a legit email addy, at one time. But, it doesn't appear that "degree by mail - no work involved" programs are a part of their repertoire. In fact, I'll bet they would not be happy to hear that someone used their good name to send out this type of spam: what do you think?

Let's now look at the headers. The email originates from www.strudel.ws (192.117.122.38). Interesting, this machine claims to be mx1.mail.Yahoo.com. Interestingly, the IP address is assigned to 'Actcom - Active Communications Ltd.' in Israel, but the TLD (.ws) is assigned to Western Samoa. However, the TLD is administered by this site, who apparently got the rights to manage the .ws TLD, and is marketing it as ''WebSite''. Part of their spiel promises 'privacy' to people who register domains with them - except under "extreme conditions" like a legal issue or a trademark dispute, or if they are ordered to disclose the information by a court of law. Or, as I did, you lookup the domain name and click the "More Information on..." link, which in the case of strudel.ws reports the registrant's name as one "jonathan rabinowitz". But, no phone number or address or anything else like that, so I guess they do provide some level of privacy. Also, interestingly enough, while the ".ws" TLD is being marketted as a place for ''WebSites'' attempts to connect to the website at www.strudel.ws return a "-403 Forbidden" error. Further investigation shows the server to be running IIS 5.0, with the ''directory listing'' feature turned off. Hopefully, it has been inoculated against CodeRed/Nimda, too. The last thing we need is another Nimda-fied IIS box on the 'Net.

The email then passes on to ns.quartoflegreo.com (212.177.180.40). My guess is that this may have been an open relay back when the email was sent. A quick rbl check shows this to be the case: the IP is listed in the relays.osirusoft.com zone. OK, so the spammer scum bounced a spew off an open relay: nothing new or particularly original about this. Oh, yes, and BTW this isn't the first spam run done by this d00d, as a Google Groups search on the phone number shows (Thanks, S6, for the search. I'll have to remember that, next time.)

Now, on to the payload of the spam: the message itself. First of all, the spammer was thoughtful enough to send it out in plain text, so I didn't have to cut out all the HTML-crap before skewering it. Skinning HTML-spam can cause me to become really testy. So, what about the content?

Obtain a Bachelor's, Master's, MBA, or PhD based on your present knowledge and life experience. I have actually heard of programs where you can get college credit for life experience. A full PhD, though, sounds like a bit much. I can see it now: "Hi, I'm OJ Simpson, and with my 'life experience' I got my Law Degree! You Can, Too!!!"

No required tests, classes, or books. Confidentiality assured. But, most of those programs I mentioned above do require some demonstration / application of said 'life experience' (as in a test). And, what is this about 'confidentiality'? If I get a degree, don't I want to, like, use it for something? Like, showing it to a prospective employer? Maybe by 'confidentiality' they mean 'when someone tries to verify the degree, we will have skipped town, so we won't be able to talk to them.'

Join our fully recognized Degree Program. By whom? Oh, maybe this isn't a complete sentence, yet. Let's see if I can reword and finish it: ''Join out Degree Program, fully recognized as a fraud by the Attorneys General of 49 out of the 50 States (sorry, Tennessee!)''

Are you a truly qualified professional in your field but lack the appropriate, recognized documentation to achieve your goals? Hello, I am from Arthur Anderson, and I am here to audit your books...

Or are you venturing into a new field and need a boost to get your foot in the door so you can prove your capabilities? Yeah, I have just decided to take up brain surgery, but I didn't have time for that pesky thing called medical school...

Call us for information that can change your life and help you to achieve your goals!!! So, I got this here degree thing, it is 100% LEAGEL!!! and all. Mr. spammer scum, can I operate on your brain, please? I promise to try not to break it... oooh, it feels all slimy and squishy and stuff... OOPS! I dropped it on the floor! Then I DROPPED IT AGAIN! and I STEPPED ON IT! Oh no, the DOG ATE IT! And the CAT hocked up a HAIRBALL into the brain cavity!!! Oh well, nobody'll notice the difference...

As you can guess, I am not overly impressed by this offer. It looks to me like just another one of the 'buy a degree from the university we run in our garage' outfits that is quite the salvation of those who find they need a sheepskin, but don't want to spend the time or effort raising the sheep. I don't know how much these 'degrees' they offer cost, but I suspect the money would be better spent getting a real education.