The Guy Who Stops 10 Billion Spam Messages a Month Built Something on Our API
- Patrick Duggan
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 25
title: "The Guy Who Stops 10 Billion Spam Messages a Month Built Something on Our API"
date: 2026-02-06
author: Patrick Duggan
tags: [epstein-files, api, 404-media, open-source, akismet]
# The Guy Who Stops 10 Billion Spam Messages a Month Built Something on Our API
We built a searchable index of 115,319 Epstein documents and gave it away for free.
Then the lead developer of Akismet built something with it.
The Tool
Christopher Finke created [EpsteIn](https://github.com/cfinke/EpsteIn) - a Python tool that cross-references your LinkedIn connections against the DOJ's released Epstein files.
Export your LinkedIn contacts. Run the script. Find out which of your professional network appears in federal court documents.
It got [covered by 404 Media](https://www.404media.co/this-tool-searches-the-epstein-files-for-your-linkedin-contacts/) this week. Joseph Cox confirmed "it appears to work."
337 GitHub stars and counting.
Who Built It
This isn't some random developer.
Christopher Finke is the **Principal Software Engineer at Automattic** and the **lead developer of Akismet** - the anti-spam service that processes **billions of API requests per month** from tens of millions of WordPress sites.
Before that, he was the lead developer of **Netscape Navigator 9**. Yes, that Netscape.
His browser extensions have been acquired by Eyeo (AdBlock), MediaWhiz, and HootSuite. His work has been covered by the BBC and the New York Times.
When the guy who runs one of the highest-traffic APIs on the internet decides your API is worth building on, you pay attention.
The Infrastructure
Here's what he's hitting:
API endpoint: `https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/search?q=QUERY&indexes=epstein_files`
No rate limits. No API keys. No paywall.
The Intelligence
Here's the part that would make an Akismet developer smile.
We log queries.
**320,153 queries so far.**
When EpsteIn users check their LinkedIn networks, we see every name. We see which ones hit. We see the patterns.
Someone's LinkedIn contact "Gordon Campbell" matched 126 documents. "David Weinstein" - 5 hits.
The data cuts both ways.
We're not doing anything nefarious with this - same way Akismet uses spam signals to protect everyone. But when you build on someone's API, you're also contributing signal to their dataset.
Chris knows this. He runs the same model at 1000x scale.
Why We Give It Away
The Epstein files should be searchable. The DOJ released them as 12+ separate datasets of PDFs - some scanned, some OCR'd, some just images.
We indexed them. We OCR'd the scanned ones. We made it searchable in milliseconds.
**Cost to enterprise vendors for comparable document search: $50K+/year.**
**Our cost: $75/month and stubbornness.**
The mission is transparency. If a developer at Automattic can build a tool that helps people check their own networks, that's the point. That's why we published the API.
The Derivative Work
EpsteIn is MIT licensed. Open source. Anyone can fork it, improve it, build on it.
That's how this is supposed to work:
Microsoft pulls this feed daily. AT&T pulls this feed daily. Starlink pulls this feed daily. Get the DugganUSA STIX feed — $9/mo →
1. We index the documents (115K and growing)
2. We publish the API (free, no auth required)
3. Developers build tools we didn't imagine
4. 404 Media covers it
5. More people search the files
6. Accountability happens
Chris Finke didn't ask permission. He just built it. That's the energy.
What's Next
We're actively updating the index. DOJ has released through Dataset 12. We add new documents within 24-48 hours of release.
Current stats:
- **115,319** Epstein documents
- **264,954** IOCs (threat intelligence)
- **306,901** autonomous decisions logged
- **320,153** search queries
If you want to build something on the API, do it. No permission needed.
If you're a journalist and need help with specific searches, email [email protected].
If you're on someone's LinkedIn and you're nervous, maybe you should be.
*The index grows. The queries accumulate. The receipts don't expire.*
**Links:**
- [EpsteIn on GitHub](https://github.com/cfinke/EpsteIn) (337 stars)
- [404 Media Coverage](https://www.404media.co/this-tool-searches-the-epstein-files-for-your-linkedin-contacts/)
- [API Documentation](https://www.dugganusa.com/post/for-journalists-44-886-epstein-files-fully-searchable-in-seconds)
- [Chris Finke's Site](https://www.chrisfinke.com/)
*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*
*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*
The cheapest, fastest, most accurate threat feed on the internet.
275+ enterprises pulling daily. 1M+ IOCs. 17.4M indexed documents. We beat Zscaler by 43 days on NrodeCodeRAT. Starter tier $9/mo — less than any competitor’s sales demo.
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