Spam from China Fruits

[KenJackson]

I seem to be getting more than one spam message per day with fake return email addresses, subject lines and messages except that the first part of the message which starts something like this:

Food Business Review Online Covers CHFR

China Fruits Corporation
Symbol: CHFR
Current: $0.68 UP 3.8%

Food business Review Online, an online information source to the food
industry, has been keeping its readers up to date on CHFR and its
ability to supply oranges to a desperate market. This kind of coverage
will directly affect sales and distribution. This company continues to
have heavy trading. Act fast and grab CHFR Tuesday!

These are clever enough to get through my spam filter, which causes me to thoroughly hate China Fruits Corp. I hope they fail and go under.

A few days ago I went to the China Fruits website and found an email form under contacts. I sent them back some of their own trash. But today I can't get to the form, so I wonder if they changed the site to insulate themselves from their own medicine.

Can anyone think of anything to do to punish this evil company?

[technossomy]

By responding you are indicating that the email they have used is an existing one, so you are only solliciting more emails by doing that.
Also, companies like these probably have little to do with fruits, but are a front for illicit activity. To evade prosecution they have to change address frequently, typically a couple times a year. Their victims are unwitting internet users.

[beagle2]

Heres more info about stock spams - http://www.spamnation.info/stocks/FAQ.html , china-fruits, chfr.ob, does appear in their database but the bottom line seems to be there's not a lot you can do.

[KenJackson]

By responding you are indicating that the email they have used is an existing one, so you are only solliciting more emails by doing that.

That would be true if the return address was valid and if I sent email to it. But I didn't reply to the email. I went to China Fruits' website and sent the email via their online form.

China Fruits may or may not have actually sent the email, but they are involved. They may profit from it, and even if not, their name is being used. They have an obligation to oppose crime that is done in their name.

[ZakaqerE]

have you looked at the mail headers? Steve Gibson of grc.com was talking about this. You can look at them and find the IP of the computer that sent the mail in the fist place. Link

[KenJackson]

I don't trust email headers.

Years ago (when spam was a relatively new thing) someone set up a web site that would automatically generate and send an email to the administrator of a domain from which spam had originated. Anyone could go to the site and paste in a spam message they had received, with headers, and it would send the email requesting that the account of the guilty party be suspended.

What an excellent idea! The problem was and is that spammers figured out how to forge every aspect of the spam they send. So a lot of innocent administrators were being bombarded with incorrect automated email, which really didn't help.