A company that's promoted an anti-spam "Do Not Intrude Registry" and essentially spammed spammers said Monday that many of its members have received threatening e-mails from a major junk mailer. Blue Security, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based start-up, debuted its registry and BlueFrog client last summer. The company's researchers, who work out of Israel, analyze and vet the spam, trace the message to a Web site (typically the site selling the product or service), and find a form on the site that can be used to complain or opt-out. The BlueFrog client then sends automatically fills out the found form once for each spam received. The result: the site is overwhelmed with opt-out requests or complaints.

"You are being emailed because you are a user of Blue Security's well-known software 'BlueFrog.' Today, the Blue Security database became known to the worst spammers worldwide," read the intimidating e-mail. "Within 48 hours, the database will be published on the Internet, and your email address will be open to them all. After this, you will see the spam sent to your mailbox increase 10 - 20 fold." The message also claimed that "Do Not Intrude Registry" users are breaking the law, and concluded with "If you think you can merely change your email address and be safe while still running BlueFrog, you are in for a big surprise. This is just the beginning..."

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