Dateline tracks down a porn spammer

A trail through Toronto, Canada
We’ve connected "Spunkfarm" to a company up in Toronto, Canada. Maybe someone there can help us. A company called “Global Media Resources.” registered the name "Spunkfarm." 

We arrive at the address. It’s a postal drop — just a little mailbox. It seems like a dead end.  But when we go back to our computer we find there’s another Toronto company affiliated with "Spunkfarm." This one is called “Python,” and there’s even an address. Maybe the porn mailer is there.

We go to the location, not a mail drop. But it certainly doesn’t look like an office. The space was going to be a Middle Eastern restaurant. Another dead end.

There is one place in Toronto that might help us: It’s called Tucows. That’s the place that registers those Web site names. It’s what led us to Toronto to begin with.

The receptionist is happy to look up the name "Spunkfarm" for us. We get another address—this one very nearby.

We discover that down these dingy alleys of old industrial buildings, and a man on the street tells us that the whole area here is all dot-coms. “Mostly, mostly porn though,” he adds.

We're at Toronto’s Internet porn district. The man takes us around back to the freight elevator and gives an idea what goes on inside this building. There are more companies that seem to see porn within the building.

At this point, no one knows we are with "Dateline" or that we’re wearing hidden cameras. We find the building and start asking questions:

Hockenberry: We’re trying to figure out what the source of a Web site called "Spunkfarm" is. You know anything about that?

Dan: I’d like you to talk to my CTO. I have no idea who you are. I can’t talk about our company operations. I’m not in a position. But I can put you with someone who can give you all the answers.

Hockenberry: OK, fine, yeah.

Dan: I just don’t know who you are, sorry.

Hockenberry: My name is John.

Dan: It gives me no context.

Hockenberry: What do you do here?

Dan: I’m the director of information technology. I run the data center...

Dan: You’re asking me questions about our sites and our sites are viewed ‘controversial’ by some people. And I have no idea who you are, you could be an activist, you could be anyone. So I prefer if you speak to someone else.

Hockenberry: OK, OK....

By now they’re getting a little suspicious. Dan takes us to see his colleague.

Hockenberry: Dan said we could ask you some questions about some sites that may be associated with you guys?

Burry: Sure.

So we tell him about Julie and her "Spunkfarm" problem.

Hockenberry: Where is that coming from? Here?

Burry: It wouldn’t be coming from here.

He explains that this place simply helps Web sites connect to the Internet. Web site owners can pay them a fee, the way the phone company is paid to wire phones to the outside world.

They say they have nothing to do with making porn, or sending porn spam e-mails. But they do seem to know a little more about how the Internet porn business works. They told us regardless of who actually makes "Spunkfarm," anyone can sell it. In fact, independent sales people sell subscriptions to the site on a commission basis.

They’re not supposed to spam the porn to people who don’t want it, but some obviously do.

But would it be possible to identify the salesman who sent Julie those free samples of "Spunkfarm"?

Richard Burry says each salesperson has a code, an ID number that would mean nothing to a customer, but it’s the only way a spammer gets paid for selling subscriptions.

Burry: From the code that’s in the e-mail we can tell by the codes who sent it.

The code is like a salesman's fingerprint... but even if we had it, they say our chances of finding whoever sent the e-mail to Julie are slim to none.

Burry: Impossible.

Hockenberry: Impossible?

Burry: They change where it’s coming from. They change the IP addresses of where it’s being sent from. 

Burry: They’ll sign up with fake names or fake credit cards and so forth. So in essence you can’t really trace where it’s coming from.

But will they help us find the owners of "Spunkfarm" who then might at least try to give us a name for the spammer?

Dan: I would like to invite you at this time to leave the premises. If you do not leave, we’re not going to answer any more questions, and there will be people who will come here and help you leave.

Hockenberry: Sorry - I didn’t mean to...

Dan: That’s alright.

Hockenberry: .. get you upset there, Dan.

Dan: I am. So please leave.

Out we go —  but we couldn’t help but notice they didn’t seem all that troubled by the reality of millions of people being blasted with porn.

Dan: I resent the fact that someone’s implying that I am doing something wrong.

Hockenberry: By selling animal pictures?

Dan: It’s just data. Thank you very much.

Hockenberry: It’s just data? Animal sex is just data?

Dan: Now you are being controversial.

Back in New York, we go back to our computers to get the spammer’s ID code the Canadians told us about.

And sure enough in Julie’s e-mail it was there. The number that uniquely identifies the sender and the owners of "Spunkfarm" have to know the name. 

But where can we find the folks from "Spunkfarm"?

There’s got to be a place where these Internet porn creators go, some place out in the open where we can just walk up and ask them about the spammer’s ID code. Well there is such a place — a porn convention. And just where you might expect one — Las Vegas.

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