lynx-dev Details on the yacht club spammers and the Lynx-Dev list

[Fiber McGee]

Hello, folks.  I'm one of the Lynx-Dev list administrators.  I'm writing 
this note to explain the recent junk e-mail that was posted to this mail 
list, plugging two yacht clubs.
The Lynx-Dev mail list makes it relatively easy for people to sign up.  It 
made it very easy for an abuser who used an address at "uniwebs.com" to 
join the list.  Once they were added, they enjoyed the same posting rights 
as any other person who receives the list messages.
We've removed the address from the list.  At this time, we have not changed 
the list policy to require new readers to be approved.  I'd like to think 
that "joining solely to spam" is aberrant behavior that won't be 
repeated.  This may prove to be naive, since spammers care for nothing but 
getting their worthless garbage in front of as many people as possible, and 
don't care how many rules and taboos they have to break to do it.
If you'd like to express your opinion on this abuse of the project's list, 
here's some contact info on the spammers and the organizations on whose 
behalf the messages were sent:

Ray Hallman, registrant of "hallmans.org" and "marylandyachtclubs.com"
E-mail address: address@hidden
USPS address: Ray Hallman
10931 Battersea Lane
Columbia, MD
21044
USA
Phone: (410) 730-3003

The Maryland Yacht Club
E-mail address: address@hidden
Phone: (410) 255-4444

Uniwebs
E-mail address: address@hidden OR address@hidden
USPS address:  John R. Hallman
UniWebs Corporation
8630-M Guilford Road #111
Columbia , MD 21046
Phone: (301) 596-3003

Smart Servers (registrant of the IP space used by Uniwebs)
E-mail: address@hidden OR address@hidden
Postal: 3670 Dutch Village Road
Suite 52
Halifax, NS B3N 2Z5
CA
Phone: (902) 457-3849

Uunet Canada (upstream network service provider to Smart Servers)
Postal: UUNET Canada Inc.
20 Bay Street
Suite 1910
Toronto, ON M5J 2N8
CA
Phone: (888) 689-5565
E-mail: address@hidden OR address@hidden

Please don't curse, scream and yell at these people, no matter how much you 
feel that they deserve a good chewing out.  Let them know that a public 
mail list has been intentionally abused on their behalf.  Tell them that 
this is inappropriate, and not good public relations.
I'd like to ask everyone's cooperation in keeping discussion of this off of 
the list as much as possible.  I'll be happy to discuss this off-line with 
any interested parties.  Remember what we're here for, folks...  The 
browser, and those who use it.



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