Text 149, 105 rader
Skriven 2004-12-21 03:12:10 av Frank Vest (1:124/6308.1)
    Kommentar till text 147 av Gerald Miller (1:342/512)
Ärende: Fighting Spam
=====================
On (20 Dec 04) Gerald Miller wrote to Frank Vest...

Hello Gerald,

 GM>  GM>> I think a better solution would be to choose a more obscure
 GM> email  GM>> address and then notify everyone of the address change.
 GM>  GM>> Any opinions?
 FV> I use Netscape's filter in conjunction with sbcglobal's (my ISP)
 FV> filter. I used to try to report the spam, but most seem to not care...
 FV> or they tell me the spam is not from them and to report it to the
 FV> proper place... without telling me where the "proper place" is. :(

 GM> I don't use Netscape (per se) as my web browser -- I use a derivative,
 GM> Mozilla (on WinXPP) and Mozilla Firefox (on W98SE) and I NEVER use
 GM> them to get my email.  I also won't use Outlook Express or other MSN
 GM> products...

I have Firefox on my system here. Not bad, but no e-mail support. I
assume you use a web interface to get e-mail?

 GM> Now, in regards to where the "proper place" is...  (someone please
 GM> correct me if my presumptions are wrong) In the header of every email,
 GM> is the
 GM> address of every ISP that "handled" (routed) the email before it
 GM> reaches you.  There is software available that will parse the header
 GM> and reveal the originating ISP from where the spammer initiated
 GM> his/her junk. (this
 GM> doesn't always work because some of the "smarter" ones are quite
 GM> ingenious in their methodology.)

You've stated the problem. "this doesn't always work....". :(

 GM> Once you have that information, you can take action.

If that information is correct. Otherwise, one may/will get a reply
from the ISP that one makes the report to informing that they are not
the ISP of that person. Sadly, as I said, they do not give much help
with who the correct ISP is.... even if they know.

 GM> You can file a report / complaint with the ISP to have the offending
 GM> IP address removed.  This action does not work if the ISP caters
 GM> specifically to spammers, in which case you will likely want to
 GM> "block" the domain.

Yup.

 GM> The other approach would be to send a report to any of the DNSBL
 GM> (Dynamic Name Server Black List) organizations and request that the
 GM> offending ISP be added to their list.  There are many such
 GM> organizations available -- just Google for DNSBL...

Being a Sysop, and having an e-mail server running, I find this to be
a two edged sword. I have found that I suddenly could no longer send
or receive e-mail and discovered that my domain had been added to some
DNS black list. My logs show no mass e-mail or other spam leaving my
site and I do not allow relays. There is no reason for my domain to be
blocked. I then have the option of either requesting that my domain be
removed and dealing with the hassle involved in that, or not using
that DNS blacklist server. I usually choose the latter, even though it
means more spam gets through. Of course, that only allows e-mail to
com into my system. Other server that use that particular dns
blacklist can not receive from me. Sometimes this is a major ISP. :(

Fortunately, my software has the ability to block domains that I enter
(built in blacklist), so I do not have to use the blacklist servers as
much.

 FV> My "regular" address is, I'm sure, on every spam list on the planet. I
 FV> do have other addresses that are not given out very often and then
 FV> only to a few family and friends.

 GM> Unfortunately, world governments are rather apathetic in their
 GM> approaches in dealing with spam, but, they may be waking up to the
 GM> facts.  Spam is cutting into "the bottom line" (profit) of businesses
 GM> when manhours are expended to deal with the junk.  Some governments
 GM> (your own, for example) are slowly enacting legislation to deal with
 GM> spammers (and, hopefully,
 GM> their ISPs).  A recent case melted out a seven year prison sentence to
 GM> a cretin for his bulk email spam...

Hard thing is, with the amount of e-mail server software available and
some built into applications without the user knowing, it is easy for
someone to simply install a program and then discover that the hidden
server has been compromised by some spammer and a law suit served. The
spammer walks and the unsuspecting software user pays. :(

Yes, I know that it is the user that should know their software... but
that doesn't/isn't gonna happen when/while the OS makes the software
"user stupid".

 GM> There may be some hope, but it will be slow in coming.

As you note, the "bottom line" is where things begin. Until the bank
account is hit hard enough, little action takes place on anything
(generally speaking).


Regards,
Frank

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/flv
http://biseonline.com/r19

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Holy Cow! I'm A Point!! (1:124/6308.1)