Lycos Europe appears to have at least temporarily taken down its MakeLoveNotSpam site, which has been distributing a screensaver that directs distributed attacks against web sites used by spammers. The site now displays a graphic and the words “STAY TUNED.” References to the site have also been removed from the Lycos Europe home page, where it was prominently featured yesterday.
The site has shifted IP addresses from 83.241.136.230 to 213.115.182.123, which are both housed at the web servers of Starring, a Swedish advertising agency which is apparently working with Lycos Europe on the site.
Internet connectivity providers have begun blocking access to the site, which offers a "screensaver that spams the spammers," using idle computer time to attack sites that have been blacklisted for abusive spamming practices.
The attack launched by users of the MakeLoveNotSpam.com screensaver has succeeded in crippling several spammer sites, but some of the targeted sites remain available. Lycos Europe insists it is managing the traffic to merely slow the sites, rather than knock them entirely offline.