I am starting this thread to document complaints to Google to resolve
the tsunami of Usenet spam originating with their servers. The spam
flood attack has persisted for a very long time.

Since 8/31 the last 10000 messages I polled from Usenet group
'sci.crypt' are mostly automated spam originating with google path
headers.

Only 44 messages were found that are not spam. This means that roughly
99.56% of all messages in the group are spam originating with google
servers.

I suggest others file abuse complaints with Google, then post copies of
those complaints as follow-ups to this thread in the group:

news.admin.net-abuse.usenet.

This way we can document efforts to request Google cease enabling the spam abuse.

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From: "sybershock.com" <admin@sybershock.com>
To: network-abuse@google.com
Cc: abuse@google.com, abusecomplaints@markmonitor.com
Subject: Usenet Abuse Complaint - Spam Denial of Service Attack
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 15:29:59 -0500

Since 8/31 the last 10000 messages I polled from Usenet group
'sci.crypt' are mostly automated spam originating with google path
headers.

Only 44 messages were found that are not spam. This means that roughly
99.56% of all messages in the group are spam originating with google
servers.

This flood attack has persisted for months.

Please put an end to this flood attack.

Google groups users have been running a long-term spam flood attack on
newsgroup 'sci.crypt' for a long time. This spam flood is causing a
sustained denial of service attack on the group. The google groups
service is enabling a months-long denial of service attack to persist.

The attackers are flooding thousands of spam messages into the
newsgroup. In the last two weeks it appears they spammers have flooded
at least 10,000 messages into the newsgroup.

This spam attack of thousands of spam messages has rendered the Usenet
group unusable. It is not feasible to filter out these many spam
messages by sender names. The nymshifters just keep nymshifting and
their flood continues unabated. This is just so far beyond ridiculous
that I have no words for it.

The messages are for illegal pharmaceutical sales and bitcoin scams,
illegal blackhat services and similar garbage. They are not legitimate
messages. They are not 'protected speech'.

Please analyze the flood of spam in 'sci.crypt' and terminate the
offending accounts. The only right action against these network abusers
is outright account termination. Please also note that many of the spam
ads advertise drugs and illegal computer penetration services which may
violate laws in jurisdictions involved.

Please in the future severely throttle all user posts to the
group sci.crypt and Usenet in general. It seems cheap and easy for
spammers to utilize google services as a vector for DDoS spamming
against Usenet. Long-time users of the group, 'sci.crypt' are either
being denied service, or severely annoyed by the endless flood of spam.

In the time it took me to write this short email dozens more spam
messages have flooded the newsgroup. Almost all of those messages
originate from google services in the Path headers. This flood attack
is ongoing 24/7 and is clearly an automated attack and it must be
stopped.

I also request that google post nocem and cancel messages for the last
50 thousand or so sci.crypt spam posts originating from google servers.
Please clean up the mess.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to a valid
response indicating action to resolve this matter.

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I notified Hacker News.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37514999

Maybe someone there might know someone who knows someone ...

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via Fediverse: https://syfershock.com/notice/AZlzdB0gaxGseGDHuK

@arstechnica@mastodon.social
@theregister@geeknews.chat

At over 40 years old, Usenet is the oldest sharing network in
continuous operation. Today Usenet is under sustained attack from
malicious spammers and con artists. Most newsgroup charters prohibit
commercial advertisement or solicitation. Yet the upstream providers do
nothing to block such messages. What's worse, the services advertised
in many of the spam messages are illegal and fraudulent.

Maybe some investigators at the tech zines might want to inquire why
Google News has allowed a massive tsunami of illegal drug sales,
bitcoin fraud, and illegal blackhat services spam to flood Usenet
newsgroups?

The spam is so voluminous that newsgroup 'sci.crypt' has virtually been
rendered inaccessible by spam DDoS. Some usenet reader softwares don't
have the filtering facility to weed out all the garbage.

All my prior abuse complaints to Google and other major Usenet
providers have not been addressed or resolved. Therefore from now
onward I will be documenting them on Usenet. We want our sci.crypt back
from the malicious spammers and the Usenet providers that enable them
to operate with impunity.

If you know anyone who investigates and reports on this kind of stuff
please alert them. Maybe a little bit of attention will spur resolute
action.

I hope for an outcome of 100% elimination of all the drug, fraud,
blackhat, and DDoS spam and measures taken to prevent any repeat in the
future. Any Usenet provider that claims they shouldn't need to prevent
spam shouldn't be running a NNTP server peered to Usenet.

https://sybershock.com/forum/random/article-flat.php?id=293&group=news.admin.net-abuse.usenet#293

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Syber Shock wrote:

> I suggest others file abuse complaints with Google, then post copies of
> those complaints as follow-ups to this thread in the group:
>
> news.admin.net-abuse.usenet.
>
> This way we can document efforts to request Google cease enabling the
> spam abuse.

I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet history.

--
Blue-Maned_Hawk│shortens to Hawk│/blu.mɛin.dʰak/
│he/him/his/himself/Mr. bluemanedhawk.github.io

Am 15.09.2023 schrieb Blue-Maned_Hawk <bluemanedhawk@invalid.invalid>:

> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet
> history.

I fear that too, but simply not accepting any post from Google, but
still allowing outgoing feeds to Google would be enough to "fix" the
spam problem.

The sad thing: Some people use Google Groups for legitimate posts and
will not know that nobody can read them anymore.

Le 15/09/2023 à 12:50, Blue-Maned_Hawk a écrit :

> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet history.

They already destroyed groups after complaints about spam. And they are
not taking new groups on some hierarchies (such as fr.*). It would need
billions of people taking sudden interest in Usenet to reverse this.

Am 15.09.2023 schrieb Eric M <conanospamic@gmail.com>:

> Le 15/09/2023 à 12:50, Blue-Maned_Hawk a écrit :
>
> > I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve"
> > this problem by simply taking down their Usenet service,
> > permanently and irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge
> > archive of internet history.
>
> They already destroyed groups after complaints about spam.

From their own spam?
I know some aren't accessible without login (I can't test).

> And they are not taking new groups on some hierarchies (such as fr.*).

True, does anybody know the reason?
I read (I don't know who wrote) that somebody tried to contact the
people that administer Google Groups and they refused.

> It would need billions of people taking sudden interest in Usenet to
> reverse this.

I don't think that Google will do it anyway if Google decides not to do
it.

Even with the current user amount it makes no sense to stop processing
control messages.

Le 15/09/2023 à 16:08, Marco Moock a écrit :

>> They already destroyed groups after complaints about spam.
> From their own spam?

I think so, if it's a spam from someone else they do nothing.

> I know some aren't accessible without login (I can't test).

Wich one ? I can test, see my mail :)
>> And they are not taking new groups on some hierarchies (such as fr.*).
> True, does anybody know the reason?
> I read (I don't know who wrote) that somebody tried to contact the
> people that administer Google Groups and they refused.

They think usenet is dead, so why bother at all ?
> Even with the current user amount it makes no sense to stop processing
> control messages.

Maybe it's not automatic for them, I don't know how it works at all.

Le 15/09/2023 à 16:33, doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) a écrit :

> Smae people who think usenet is dead are the same people who
> want to kill or limit social media!

Usenet is not dead but not popular because you get insulted all the time,
we need to find a balance :)

On 9/15/23 09:32, The Doctor wrote:
> In article <ue1ddk$34n3s$5@dont-email.me>,
> Marco Moock <mm+usenet@dorfdsl.de> wrote:
>> Am 15.09.2023 schrieb Blue-Maned_Hawk <bluemanedhawk@invalid.invalid>:
>>
>>> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
>>> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
>>> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet
>>> history.
>>
>> I fear that too, but simply not accepting any post from Google, but
>> still allowing outgoing feeds to Google would be enough to "fix" the
>> spam problem.
>>
>> The sad thing: Some people use Google Groups for legitimate posts and
>> will not know that nobody can read them anymore.
>>
>
> This is why I will say find another newsserver as Google
> is getting blackballed!
>
> Put in your sigs
>
> Unsubscribe from Google Groups as GG is getting depeered!

Community deprecated, maybe?

--
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 9/15/23 08:07, Eric M wrote:
> Le 15/09/2023 à 12:50, Blue-Maned_Hawk a écrit :
>
>> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
>> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
>> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet history.
>
> They already destroyed groups after complaints about spam. And they are
> not taking new groups on some hierarchies (such as fr.*). It would need
> billions of people taking sudden interest in Usenet to reverse this.

Wait, whats the fr.* hierarchy?

--
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 9/15/23 05:50, Blue-Maned_Hawk wrote:
> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet history.
>

I remember there was some archive of Usenet that was used in stuff like
teleha.ck? but agreed.

--
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 2023-09-15, Eric M <conanospamic@gmail.com> wrote:
> Le 15/09/2023 à 16:33, doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) a écrit :
>
>> Smae people who think usenet is dead are the same people who
>> want to kill or limit social media!
>
> Usenet is not dead but not popular because you get insulted all the time,
> we need to find a balance :)

I can asure you is not dead, many people now specially older folks that
are fed up with http are coming back, myself included.

I decided to avoid http as much as I can and limit myself to open/free
parts of it like the fediverse, but now a days I spend more time on
gemini,gopher,usenet,fediverse sites, matrix, irc etc

ReK2
Happy Hacking
--
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- [https|gemini]://2600.Madrid - https://hispagatos.space/@rek2
- https://keyoxide.org/A31C7CE19D9C58084EA42BA26C0B0D11E9303EC5

Le 15/09/2023 à 16:42, candycanearter07 a écrit :

> Wait, whats the fr.* hierarchy?

It's the french-speaking hierarchy, groups beginning with fr.*, there are
still people there :)

Le 15/09/2023 à 17:33, rek2 hispagatos a écrit :

> I can asure you is not dead, many people now specially older folks that
> are fed up with http are coming back, myself included.
>
> I decided to avoid http as much as I can and limit myself to open/free
> parts of it like the fediverse, but now a days I spend more time on
> gemini,gopher,usenet,fediverse sites, matrix, irc etc

This is good news, I hope more and more people will come back.

Le 15/09/2023 à 17:46, doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) a écrit :

>> Wait, whats the fr.* hierarchy?

> fr. stands for France.

Not at all, France has the france.* hierarchy (which is dead because all
the French are on fr.*, this is subtle).

Le 15/09/2023 à 17:48, doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) a écrit :

>> Not at all, France has the france.* hierarchy (which is dead because all
>> the French are on fr.*, this is subtle).

> Do you run inn?

I don't run INN, but people are feeding the hierarchy with it :)

On 15/09/2023 16:45, The Doctor wrote:
> In article <ue1qf1$39hqa$4@dont-email.me>,
> candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:
>> On 9/15/23 09:32, The Doctor wrote:
>>> In article <ue1ddk$34n3s$5@dont-email.me>,
>>> Marco Moock <mm+usenet@dorfdsl.de> wrote:
>>>> Am 15.09.2023 schrieb Blue-Maned_Hawk <bluemanedhawk@invalid.invalid>:
>>>>
>>>>> I hate to sound pessimistic, but i fear that Google may "solve" this
>>>>> problem by simply taking down their Usenet service, permanently and
>>>>> irreversibly destroying an unimaginably huge archive of internet
>>>>> history.
>>>>
>>>> I fear that too, but simply not accepting any post from Google, but
>>>> still allowing outgoing feeds to Google would be enough to "fix" the
>>>> spam problem.
>>>>
>>>> The sad thing: Some people use Google Groups for legitimate posts and
>>>> will not know that nobody can read them anymore.
>>>>
>>>
>>> This is why I will say find another newsserver as Google
>>> is getting blackballed!
>>>
>>> Put in your sigs
>>>
>>> Unsubscribe from Google Groups as GG is getting depeered!
>>
>> Community deprecated, maybe?
>>
>
> Google is doing a good job of using rope to hang themselves.
>
> GG seems to be a huge source of spam.
>
> Gmail too.

"Google takes abuse of its services very seriously. We're committed to
dealing with such abuse according to the laws in your country of
residence. When you submit a report, we'll investigate it and take the
appropriate action."

Translation: "We will ignore it and do nothing"

There is a lot of spam from the same email-addresses all posted within
seconds - and the GG interface is nowhere near good enough to let a
human post anything within minutes let alone seconds. They could easily
rate-limit - and that would mostly solve the problem. Of course they
don't care. To them GG is just abandonware. It generates no revenue,
therefore they don't care.

Am 15.09.2023 um 14:33:54 Uhr schrieb The Doctor:

> Anyone for a cancelbot option?

I am.
Canceling all messages from Google groups in specific groups would be
reasonable.

Am 15.09.2023 um 14:35:31 Uhr schrieb Eric M:

> Le 15/09/2023 à 16:08, Marco Moock a écrit :
>
> >> They already destroyed groups after complaints about spam.
>
> > From their own spam?
>
> I think so, if it's a spam from someone else they do nothing.
>
> > I know some aren't accessible without login (I can't test).
>
> Wich one ? I can test, see my mail :)

news.admin.net-abuse.email

Am 15.09.2023 um 14:36:56 Uhr schrieb Eric M:

> Le 15/09/2023 à 16:33, doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) a écrit :
>
> > Smae people who think usenet is dead are the same people who
> > want to kill or limit social media!
>
> Usenet is not dead but not popular because you get insulted all the
> time, we need to find a balance :)

I can't confirm that, at least for the technical groups.

Am 15.09.2023 um 15:47:34 Uhr schrieb The Doctor:

> The web is a mess and web social media is not getting good press!

Most websites are a mess because of webmasters wanting it that way.

Am 15.09.2023 um 15:46:54 Uhr schrieb The Doctor:

> gopher is still around?

Yes, there are lists of public gopher servers, just use Google. :-)

Am 15.09.2023 um 17:27:50 Uhr schrieb Richard Harnden:

> It generates no revenue, therefore they don't care.

They could place advertisement banners between the articles, like
narkive.com does.