SpammerGate is the tale of how River City Media (RCM), Alvin Slocombe, and Matt Ferris, accidentally exposed their spam empires operation playbook to the world after improperly configuring their Rsync backups.
In so doing, the accidentally leaked their inner workings, the list of contacts, invoices, data about their daily operations, how they inject spam into major networks and how they get their emails past many of the best spam guardian type applications and services which spend millions of dollars trying to protect you.
Their data-dump was discovered by Chris Vickery, a security researcher for MacKeeper and shared with Salted Hash, Spamhaus, as well as relevant law enforcement agencies.
While seasoned security practitioners are familiar with spammers and their various methods, this tale gives up a very rare opportunity to look behind the curtain and view their day-to-day operations, their contacts, their emerging methods, and see who they networked with, sold services to and much, much more.
For many more details of the whole spammer operation check out the article on CSOOline.com
Why is River City Media data important?
This data-dump is important because it contains 1.4 Billion – yes, Billion with a ‘B’ – records of emails, with real names, user IP addresses, and often physical address. The chances are that you, or at least someone you know, is affected.
To check if your email was exposed – visit HaveIBeenPwned.com – enter your email address, and see if your data has been exposed in a breach.
Check if your email address has been Pwned!
If you see ‘River City Media’ listed, then your email was in the data-dump exposed by accident by these spammers!