In late November, 2001, Christina Sweeten made this objection to the presence of hardleydangerous.com in the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains. That entry exists because of this unsolicited bulk email. (Both Ms.Sweeten complaint and the unsolicited bulk email are from dccm logdir files. See also the DCC documentation.) Please consider the plausibility of Ms.Sweeten's defense of her unsolicited bulk email sent to "MOTORCYCLE DEALERS" at the domain contact for Rhyolite.com in light of the nature of Rhyolite Software evident on the rhyolite.com main page.
The whois data for hardleydangerous.com as of late 2001 is implies that Ms. Sweeten was the domain contact for hardleydangerous.com when the spam was sent. The coincidence between Ms. Sweeten's address and the alpha13138.kingwoodcable.com source of the spam because it makes it seem less likely that a third party sent it. However, given Ms. Sweeten's subsequent telephone calls, that question seems moot.
On January 8, 2002 at about 16:53, I received a telephone call from a lady identifying herself as Christina Sweeten. Actually, she made three telephone calls. During the first call she got so carried away and wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise that I told her to contact my lawyers and hung up.
She immediately called again and was at first calm. Throughout all three phone calls she repeatedly asked why I am trying to hurt her personally and denied that I had received any spam from her. She said that she or her employer have many thousands of customers and insisted I had signed up for her mailing at a trade show. I responded that I had not and that knew of her only from her unsolicited bulk email. I have never been to a motorcycle trade show and have not been to a computer trade show for years. She grew more excited and told me that I'm a "terrorist" and "don't care about America." She was unable to understand or care that I consider unsolicited bulk email is theft of my network bandwidth, computer resources and personal time. Near the end of the second call, she demanded to know who I really am. She didn't give me an opportunity to talk about my life's story, but decided that I work for one of her competitors. That strange idea seemed to satisfy her even as it so agitated her that she hung up.
Seconds later she called a third time to demand if I "have a life." She wanted to know if I do the same for other, worse spammers. I said I do and tried to tell her about the many entries in my list of unwelcome domains, but she didn't care. Finally, she informed me that my web pages are libelous and that I'd be hearing from the police. When I told her that I couldn't talk to her any more but that lawyers must be involved because of the implicit threat to sue in her libel charge, she hung up for the last time.
That is a fair account of our conversations made minutes after they ended. I know I've missed many of our comments, because she was speaking quickly and I was trying to get words in edgewise. Throughout the three phone calls, neither of us used any unprintable language. The only threat I recall was her statement about the police. During the second call she wanted to know if I put "everything" on these WWW pages. She didn't seem amused when I answered yes and that I'd appreciate it if she would put her comments in writing so that I could post them. She did not seem happy when I agreed with her guess that I might publish my recollections of our conversation.
A Google query finds a few references to Ms. Sweeten's organziation. Some seem to be advertisements for Ms. Sweeten's goods in places where they may well be appropriate.
I don't understand the language on the PolSpam.org main page. Using their query system to discover why they have a listing for email@hardleydangerous.com produces headers that differ from mine but have interesting similarities. I hope PolSpam.org does not mind my reproducing their headers here:
Return-Path: >xxxxxxxxx@tau.ceti.com.pl>
Delivered-To: xxxxxxxxx@localhost
Received: (qmail 568 invoked from network); 10 Oct 2001 04:00:27 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO localhost) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 10 Oct 2001 04:00:27 -0000
Delivered-To: xxxxxxxxx@aba.krakow.pl
Received: from aba.krakow.pl [217.96.88.194]
by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.9.3)
for xxxxxxxxx@localhost (single-drop); Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:00:27 +0200 (CEST)
Received: (qmail 4604 invoked from network); 9 Oct 2001 16:21:34 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO devel.ipsec.pl) (10.1.1.120)
by 10.1.1.241 with SMTP; 9 Oct 2001 16:21:34 -0000
Received: (qmail 22472 invoked from network); 9 Oct 2001 16:21:22 -0000
Received: from tau.ceti.com.pl (195.116.211.2)
by gwdmz.aba.krakow.pl with SMTP; 9 Oct 2001 16:21:22 -0000
Received: by tau.ceti.com.pl (Postfix, from userid 502)
id 73490F3BD5; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 18:21:16 +0200 (CEST)
Delivered-To: xxxxxxxxx@ceti.com.pl
Received: from alfa.ceti.com.pl (alfa.ceti.pl [195.116.211.3])
by tau.ceti.com.pl (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0D21F38A0
for >xxxxxxxxx@ceti.pl>; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 18:21:15 +0200 (CEST)
Received: from hppav (alpha13138.kingwoodcable.com [208.223.13.138])
by alfa.ceti.com.pl (Postfix) with SMTP id 764DC110E2
for >xxxxxxxxx@ceti.pl>; Tue, 9 Oct 2001 18:20:33 +0200 (CEST)
From: "Hardley Dangerous Illusions" >email@hardleydangerous.com>
To: >xxxxxxxxx@ceti.pl>
Subject: MOTORCYCLE DEALERS: Your Customers are Asking for Peel & Stick Bullet Holes...
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 11:20:19
Message-Id: >20011009162033.764DC110E2@alfa.ceti.com.pl>
Sender: xxxxxxxxx@tau.ceti.com.pl
Another Google query finds other reports of Ms. Sweeten's bulk mail, such as this one (or with headers) related to the HLD Filter. In that case it appears that Ms. Sweeten sent her bulk mai to a mailing list devoted to filtering spam. This copy is in the famous Coderpunks mailing list where it seems inappropriate.
Only Ms. Sweeten can know why she sent her unsolicited bulk mail where she did. Perhaps she bought one of those lists of 30,000,000 supposedly willing targets. Maybe she used the common software designed to "scrape" addresses from web sites and domain name contact lists. It is also possible that someone with a grudge against her gave her addresses associated with people known to not just hit delete when they receive spam. Whatever the other facts, Ms. Sweeten failed to get permission for her advertising from at least some of her targets before contributing to the noise in their mailboxes. She sent unsolicited bulk mail that reached some targets postage due.
Other questions are answered in the list of objections about entries in the Rhyolite Software list of unwelcome domains.
Organization:
YoYo Balloons, Etc.
John Pause
P.O. Box 2440
Andrews, NC 28901
US
Phone: 828-321-5313
Fax..: 828-321-8697
Email: cmsweeten@yahoo.com
Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com
Domain Name: HARDLEYDANGEROUS.COM
Created on..............: Fri, Jun 23, 2000
Expires on..............: Mon, Jun 23, 2003
Record last updated on..: Thu, Sep 27, 2001
Administrative Contact:
Hardley Dangerous Illusions
Christina Sweeten
23854 Hwy 59 #352
Kingwood, TX 77339
US
Phone: 888-271-3250
Fax..: 888-236-0395
Email: cmsweeten@yahoo.com
Technical Contact:
Hardley Dangerous Illusions
Christina Sweeten
23854 Hwy 59 #352
Kingwood, TX 77339
US
Phone: 888-271-3250
Fax..: 888-236-0395
Email: cmsweeten@yahoo.com
Zone Contact:
YoYo Balloons, Etc.
John Pause
P.O. Box 2440
Andrews, NC 28901
US
Phone: 828-321-5313
Fax..: 828-321-8697
Email: cmsweeten@yahoo.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.ADDR.COM 209.249.147.233
NS2.ADDR.COM 209.249.147.237
Contact vjs@rhyolite.com but not this spam trap.
