News.admin.net-abuse.email
Encyclopedia
news.admin.net-abuse.email (sometimes abbreviated nanae or n.a.n-a.e, and often incorrectly spelled with a hyphen in "email") is a Usenet
newsgroup
devoted to discussion of the abuse of email systems, specifically through spam
and similar attacks. According to a timeline compiled by Keith Lynch, news.admin.net-abuse.email was the first widely available electronic forum for discussing spam.
Steve Linford
, the founder of The Spamhaus Project
, sometimes posts in the newsgroup.
Eventually, by mutual consent, it was also determined that the following were also "on-topic":
Later that month it went to vote and passed 451 to 28.
In September 2002 it was proposed that a subgroup, news.admin.net-abuse.email.blocklists, be created.
404-compliant
: A website that has been terminated by its hosting provider for terms of service violation is said to be "404-compliant", a reference to the 404 "not found" status code in HTTP and a parody of spammers claiming their spam is 301 compliant, referring to a bill that never made it into a law.
Auto-ignore: The automated response from an ISP's abuse desk, when it is believed that sending out the automated response is the only action the ISP will take.
Black hat: An ISP that enables spamming, for example a hosting provider that does not act upon spam complaints. Named after old westerns
where the bad guys often wore black hats. Compare white hat and gray hat.
Bulletproof
: Said when it's difficult to get an ISP to take action against spamming customers.
Cartooney : A fake lawsuit
with which a spammer tries to threaten an anti-spammer. It may also refer to the spammer's lawyer (whom is usually assumed not to exist). The word is a contraction of attorney and cartoon
. Also used when a listed entity threatens a blacklist
maintainer with legal action.
Cats and Coffee warning: A Cats and Coffee warning or C&C warning is a satirical warning that a usenet posting or other writing may contain humorous material. The C&C warning originated with the usenet group news.admin.net-abuse.email, but has spread to other groups. The warning is an admonition to the reader to secure liquid beverages (particularly hot ones) and cats in case uncontrollable laughter breaks out upon reading the article.
Chickenboner: A minor spammer. Named after a colorful and humorous description one participant made of spammers living in trailer
s and eating at Kentucky fried chicken.
Cut it out, Ron: A standard response to a posting that is suspected to be a troll
. Named after a regular poster who often wrote humorous trolls.
Frea Speach: Spammers claim the right to distribute unsolicited bulk mail as part of their right to free speech under the United States' Constitution. After one such person repeatedly mis-spelled it as "frea speach" , newsgroup participants who argued that the right to free speech refers to the right to not be censored by the U.S. Government and nothing to do with the right to employ the services of private individuals and organizations to distribute bulk mail, took to referring to this claimed right as "frea speach", deliberately mis-spelling it partly as a parody and partly to distinguish it from actual free speech rights.
Gray hat: An ISP whose stance in spam matters is somewhat ambiguous. It may terminate some spamming customers but not all of them. Compare black hat and white hat.
Hat check: A request to determine the reputation of a given ISP in spam matters. See also black-, gray- and white hat.
Joe job
: The act of sending out spam made to look like it came from a person or organization which the spammer dislikes. Spamhaus, SpamCop
and other anti-spam organizations are often the victims of these, as are some individual anti-spammers. Being Joe-jobbed is usually taken as a sign that the victim must have really hurt some spammer.
LART : A meme jokingly describing a blunt instrument used to metaphorically whack clue into a clueless person. Large mallet
s and anvil
s are popularly referred to.
Listwashing : The act of responding to complaints by removing the complainer's email address from the spammer's list, without taking any further actions against the spammer.
Lumber Cartel
: A tongue-in-cheeck conspiracy theory
that claimed anti-spammers were secretly paid agents of lumber companies.
Mainsleaze: Spam coming from a mainstream company.
Pink contract
: A contract for internet services or hosting that makes it difficult to impossible to terminate the contract for spamming.
Quirk Objection: 'Objection! Assumes X not found in evidence!' A humorous objection
, raised when the previous poster assumes the presence of something that has not yet been proven to exist. Not used to refer to things that have definitely been proven not to exist. Named after the regular poster 'Captain Gym Z. Quirk' who first raised this. Often shortened to ObQuirk!
Sock
: A poster whom is suspected to be someone else (usually a spammer) using a new name. Shortened from Sock Puppet.
Spamhaus : Originally, an ISP that has mostly or only spammers for customers. Nowadays, it usually refers to the blacklist by the same name.
Spamware
: Software that was written explicitly for the purpose of spamming, or has features that are mostly or only useful to spammers and other abusers. Also called 'ratware'.
TINLC: There is no Lumber Cartel
TINW: There is no We. The poster recognizes that NANE does not have a collective opinion.
Whack-a-Mole: The act of repeatedly causing spammers' throwaway accounts and drop boxes to be terminated. Named after the Whack-A-Mole arcade game.
White hat: An ISP which takes spam complaints seriously and terminates offenders swiftly and with extreme prejudice. Named after old westerns
where the good guys usually wore white hats. Compare black hat and gray hat.
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
devoted to discussion of the abuse of email systems, specifically through spam
E-mail spam
Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
and similar attacks. According to a timeline compiled by Keith Lynch, news.admin.net-abuse.email was the first widely available electronic forum for discussing spam.
Steve Linford
Steve Linford
Steve Linford is a British anti-spam campaigner best known for founding The Spamhaus Project.-Biography:Linford was born in London, England in 1956. His family moved to Rome, Italy where Steve attended Rome's St. George's British International School...
, the founder of The Spamhaus Project
The Spamhaus Project
The Spamhaus Project is an international organisation to track e-mail spammers and spam-related activity. It is named for the anti-spam jargon term coined by Linford, spamhaus, a pseudo-German expression for an ISP or other firm which spams or willingly provides service to spammers.-Spamhaus...
, sometimes posts in the newsgroup.
Topics covered
In its original charter the following examples of "on-topic" areas were listed:- Chain letterChain letterA typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible...
s - DoS attacks
- Email address list
- Email bomb
- Email viruses
- Filtering software
- Large-scale mailings
- Listserv bombs
- Mailing list abuse
- Pyramid schemePyramid schemeA pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
s - Unsolicited email
Eventually, by mutual consent, it was also determined that the following were also "on-topic":
- Cats (on a superficial/anecdotal level)
History
The group was officially proposed (i.e. its RFD posted) by Tim Skirvin (tskirvin) on July 9, 1996 alongside a number of other groups in order to reduce the load on the two net abuse groups at that time, news.admin.net-abuse.announce and news.admin.net-abuse.misc.Later that month it went to vote and passed 451 to 28.
In September 2002 it was proposed that a subgroup, news.admin.net-abuse.email.blocklists, be created.
NANAEisms
Over time, some (more or less) NANAE-specific terms were coined:404-compliant
HTTP 404
The 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server could not find what was requested. A 404 error should not be confused with "server not found" or similar errors, in which a connection to the...
: A website that has been terminated by its hosting provider for terms of service violation is said to be "404-compliant", a reference to the 404 "not found" status code in HTTP and a parody of spammers claiming their spam is 301 compliant, referring to a bill that never made it into a law.
Auto-ignore: The automated response from an ISP's abuse desk, when it is believed that sending out the automated response is the only action the ISP will take.
Black hat: An ISP that enables spamming, for example a hosting provider that does not act upon spam complaints. Named after old westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
where the bad guys often wore black hats. Compare white hat and gray hat.
Bulletproof
Bulletproof hosting
Bulletproof hosting is a service provided by some domain hosting or web hosting firms that allows their customer considerable leniency in the kinds of material they may upload and distribute...
: Said when it's difficult to get an ISP to take action against spamming customers.
Cartooney : A fake lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
with which a spammer tries to threaten an anti-spammer. It may also refer to the spammer's lawyer (whom is usually assumed not to exist). The word is a contraction of attorney and cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
. Also used when a listed entity threatens a blacklist
Blacklist (computing)
In computing, a blacklist or block list is a basic access control mechanism that allows everyone access, except for the members of the black list . The opposite is a whitelist, which means allow nobody, except members of the white list...
maintainer with legal action.
Cats and Coffee warning: A Cats and Coffee warning or C&C warning is a satirical warning that a usenet posting or other writing may contain humorous material. The C&C warning originated with the usenet group news.admin.net-abuse.email, but has spread to other groups. The warning is an admonition to the reader to secure liquid beverages (particularly hot ones) and cats in case uncontrollable laughter breaks out upon reading the article.
Chickenboner: A minor spammer. Named after a colorful and humorous description one participant made of spammers living in trailer
Trailer (vehicle)
A trailer is generally an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle. Commonly, the term trailer refers to such vehicles used for transport of goods and materials....
s and eating at Kentucky fried chicken.
Cut it out, Ron: A standard response to a posting that is suspected to be a troll
Troll (Internet)
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response...
. Named after a regular poster who often wrote humorous trolls.
Frea Speach: Spammers claim the right to distribute unsolicited bulk mail as part of their right to free speech under the United States' Constitution. After one such person repeatedly mis-spelled it as "frea speach" , newsgroup participants who argued that the right to free speech refers to the right to not be censored by the U.S. Government and nothing to do with the right to employ the services of private individuals and organizations to distribute bulk mail, took to referring to this claimed right as "frea speach", deliberately mis-spelling it partly as a parody and partly to distinguish it from actual free speech rights.
Gray hat: An ISP whose stance in spam matters is somewhat ambiguous. It may terminate some spamming customers but not all of them. Compare black hat and white hat.
Hat check: A request to determine the reputation of a given ISP in spam matters. See also black-, gray- and white hat.
Joe job
Joe job
A joe job is a spamming technique that sends out unsolicited e-mails using spoofed sender data. Early joe jobs aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the apparent sender or inducing the recipients to take action against him , but they are now typically used by commercial spammers to conceal the true...
: The act of sending out spam made to look like it came from a person or organization which the spammer dislikes. Spamhaus, SpamCop
SpamCop
SpamCop is a free spam reporting service, allowing recipients of unsolicited bulk email and unsolicited commercial email to report offenders to the senders' Internet Service Providers , and sometimes their web hosts...
and other anti-spam organizations are often the victims of these, as are some individual anti-spammers. Being Joe-jobbed is usually taken as a sign that the victim must have really hurt some spammer.
LART : A meme jokingly describing a blunt instrument used to metaphorically whack clue into a clueless person. Large mallet
Mallet
A mallet is a kind of hammer, usually of rubber,or sometimes wood smaller than a maul or beetle and usually with a relatively large head.-Tools:Tool mallets come in different types, the most common of which are:...
s and anvil
Anvil
An anvil is a basic tool, a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The inertia of the anvil allows the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool...
s are popularly referred to.
- An acronym for Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool
Listwashing : The act of responding to complaints by removing the complainer's email address from the spammer's list, without taking any further actions against the spammer.
Lumber Cartel
Lumber Cartel
The Lumber Cartel was a facetious conspiracy theory popularized on USENET that claimed anti-spammers were secretly paid agents of lumber companies.In November 1997, a participant on news.admin.net-abuse.email posted an essay to the newsgroup...
: A tongue-in-cheeck conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
that claimed anti-spammers were secretly paid agents of lumber companies.
Mainsleaze: Spam coming from a mainstream company.
Pink contract
Pink contract
A pink contract is an agreement between an email spammer and the spammer's Internet service provider. The contract exempts the spammer from the provider's terms of service, which typically prohibit spamming...
: A contract for internet services or hosting that makes it difficult to impossible to terminate the contract for spamming.
Quirk Objection: 'Objection! Assumes X not found in evidence!' A humorous objection
Objection (law)
In the law of the United States of America, an objection is a formal protest raised in court during a trial to disallow a witness's testimony or other evidence which would be in violation of the rules of evidence or other procedural law...
, raised when the previous poster assumes the presence of something that has not yet been proven to exist. Not used to refer to things that have definitely been proven not to exist. Named after the regular poster 'Captain Gym Z. Quirk' who first raised this. Often shortened to ObQuirk!
Sock
Sockpuppet (Internet)
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another...
: A poster whom is suspected to be someone else (usually a spammer) using a new name. Shortened from Sock Puppet.
Spamhaus : Originally, an ISP that has mostly or only spammers for customers. Nowadays, it usually refers to the blacklist by the same name.
Spamware
Spamware
Spamware is software designed by or for spammers. Spamware varies widely, but may include the ability to import thousands of addresses, to generate random addresses, to insert fraudulent headers into messages, to use dozens or hundreds of mail servers simultaneously, and to make use of open relays....
: Software that was written explicitly for the purpose of spamming, or has features that are mostly or only useful to spammers and other abusers. Also called 'ratware'.
TINLC: There is no Lumber Cartel
Lumber Cartel
The Lumber Cartel was a facetious conspiracy theory popularized on USENET that claimed anti-spammers were secretly paid agents of lumber companies.In November 1997, a participant on news.admin.net-abuse.email posted an essay to the newsgroup...
TINW: There is no We. The poster recognizes that NANE does not have a collective opinion.
Whack-a-Mole: The act of repeatedly causing spammers' throwaway accounts and drop boxes to be terminated. Named after the Whack-A-Mole arcade game.
White hat: An ISP which takes spam complaints seriously and terminates offenders swiftly and with extreme prejudice. Named after old westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
where the good guys usually wore white hats. Compare black hat and gray hat.
External links
- News.admin.net-abuse.email
- NANAE.org
- [news:news.admin.net-abuse.email News.admin.net-abuse.email] via NNTP
- News.admin.net-abuse.email via Google GroupsGoogle GroupsGoogle Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. The service was started in 1995 as Deja News, and was transitioned to Google Groups after a February 2001 buyout....
- The rules of spam by the Rules Keeper (backup copy)