Saguaro
11-02-2007, 10:55 AM
If you’ve ever wondered why your typical Ron Paul supporter only has a two word vocabulary, the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s computer forensics research department has your answer. Ron Paul’s online cult following has been shown to be at least partially manufactured. The research department analyzes hundreds of thousands of email messages per month. After getting bombarded by Ron Paul emails, the lab began examining their origin.
Researchers found that the emails were actually coming from different countries than their IPs indicated. For example, messages said to be from the US were actually coming from Korea. These messages were clearly not coming from Ron Paul’s official campaign, but rather illegitimate spam operations and botnets. Department Director Gary Warner said, “We’ve seen many previous e-mails reported as spam from other campaigns or parties, but when we’ve investigated them, they all were sent from the legitimate parties.”
Aside from the counterproductive efforts Paul’s online supporters may have already caused with their abrasive herd mentality, the spamming techniques of the Paulbots may prove to be just as harmful. Warner believes that deceptive sending practices such as these violate the CAN-SPAM Act and may actually get the Paul campaign into legal trouble.
http://www.kptv.com/politics/blog;bb/detail.html?bbPostId=CzBhsi93ZandcCzE5hO3Df3AuBCzA mTY5kVmFiUB8htoQT10XUf&bbParentWidgetId=B8291BccLhHQ6XXF1C9Mf77
Researchers found that the emails were actually coming from different countries than their IPs indicated. For example, messages said to be from the US were actually coming from Korea. These messages were clearly not coming from Ron Paul’s official campaign, but rather illegitimate spam operations and botnets. Department Director Gary Warner said, “We’ve seen many previous e-mails reported as spam from other campaigns or parties, but when we’ve investigated them, they all were sent from the legitimate parties.”
Aside from the counterproductive efforts Paul’s online supporters may have already caused with their abrasive herd mentality, the spamming techniques of the Paulbots may prove to be just as harmful. Warner believes that deceptive sending practices such as these violate the CAN-SPAM Act and may actually get the Paul campaign into legal trouble.
http://www.kptv.com/politics/blog;bb/detail.html?bbPostId=CzBhsi93ZandcCzE5hO3Df3AuBCzA mTY5kVmFiUB8htoQT10XUf&bbParentWidgetId=B8291BccLhHQ6XXF1C9Mf77