JargonFile/entries/spamhaus.txt

spamhaus

spamhows , n. Pejorative term for an internet service provider that permits
or even encourages spam mailings from its systems. The plural is spamhausen.
There is a web page devoted to tracking spamhausen. The most notorious of
the spamhausen was Sanford Wallace's Cyber Promotions Inc., shut down by a
lawsuit on 16 October 1997. The anniversary of the shutdown is celebrated on
Usenet as Spam Freedom Day, but lesser imitators of the Spamford still
infest various murky corners of the net. Since prosecution of spammers
became routine under the junk-fax laws and statues specifically targeting
spam, spamhausen have declined in relative importance; today, hit-and-run
attacks by spammers using relay rape and throwaway accounts on reputable
ISPs seem to account for most of the flow.