<story><title>A way to take out spammers? 3 banks process 95% of spam transactions</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/a-way-to-take-out-spammers-3-banks-process-95-of-spam-transactions.ars</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nowarninglabel</author><text>The paper itself (linked to in the article) is pretty accessible, and a good read. Interesting that they noted for their research, 93.18% of the requests were for pharmaceuticals.&lt;p&gt;As for the banks: Azerigazbank in Azerbaijan, St Kitts &amp;#38; Nevis Anguilla National Bank in St Kitts &amp;#38;Nevis, and Danish-owned DnB Nord in Latvia, there is some more interesting factoids in the actual paper:&lt;p&gt;&quot;most herbal and replica purchases
cleared through the same bank in St. Kitts (a by-product of
ZedCash’s dominance of this market, as per the previous
discussion), while most pharmaceutical afﬁliate programs
used two banks (in Azerbaijan and Latvia), and software
was handled entirely by two banks (in Latvia and Russia)&quot;&lt;p&gt;As well as the fact that most of the merchant codes were correct:&lt;p&gt;&quot;For example, all of our software purchases (across all programs) were coded as 5734 (Computer Software Stores)
and 85% of all pharmacy purchases (again across programs)
were coded as 5912 (Drug Stores and Pharmacies). ZedCash
transactions (replica and herbal) are an exception, being
somewhat deceptive, and each was coded as 5969 (Direct
Marketing—Other).&quot;&lt;p&gt;It does make one wonder if spam is a solvable problem.</text></comment>
<story><title>A way to take out spammers? 3 banks process 95% of spam transactions</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/a-way-to-take-out-spammers-3-banks-process-95-of-spam-transactions.ars</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bmcleod</author><text>Unfortunately it&apos;s likely the spammers are simply going with whichever bank is easiest to work through.&lt;p&gt;Any changes will just cause them to move to the next easiest option.</text></comment>