SPAM - Off topic...........

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Peter Watkins » Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:00:00


Hi,

 Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

In the early days receiving a "get rich quick" or a "pyramid scheme"
spam was a bit of a novelty - and sometimes i even read the messages.
However now at least 70% of the mail in my inbox is from spammers!!
 I thought isp's were supposed to regulate the net and prevent this
from happening.
 Emailing newsmasters and returning the spam no longer seems to have
any effect. One time after crossposting a load of spam back to their
authors one of them even had the cheek to write back complaining.

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Neil » Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:

> Hi,

>  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

Its not off topic at all, really.  Spammers, telemarketers, direct
marketers in general, are, at least IMHO, subhuman parasites, pretty
much on par with the kind of pieces of shit who would sit there snapping
pictures of you as you lay bleeding to death in a car crash.  What
pisses me off is that with all the hackers out there that are sharp
enough to write viruses, etc., why hasn't anyone come up with a way to
trash these bulk mailers with the equivalent of an E-Mail letter
bomb<g>?  These guys have got to hate spam as much as the rest of the
planet does...
        In the interim, the best way to prevent it seems to be to fudge your
E-Mail return address in your mailer/browser "reply to" settings.  For

instructions in you "signature" to remove the "anti-spam." in order to
reply to you.  It will confuse most of the software robots that are used
by the bastards to glean your address from newsgroups, etc.  Its also
not a great idea to include your full name, mailing address, phone# etc.
in public posts.

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Atanas E. Entch » Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:00:00

:  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

My solution is email filtering.

If you have a UNIX shell account, there is a free email filtering program
called Procmail, developed by a guy in Germany. Most ISPs carry it. Mine
does, but setting Procmail up turned out to require a lot of UNIX
programming skills, and turned out to be beyond my capabilities. My ISP
wouldnt help, either, so I abandoned the project.

If you have a SLIP/PPP account or the like (I have both PPP and UNIX
shell), my solution is Pegasus. Pegasus is an email client, developed by a
guy in New Zealand, and distributed freely. Pegasus has by far the most
superior filtering capabilities than anything else I have seen. And you
cant beat the price. Setting the filters up is very easy. My most
successful filtering expression is blocking all email that is not

the like. Pegasus kills those with ease.

AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy have proprietary email systems, so neither
Procmail nor Pegasus will work with them. Solutions there have to be
provided by the service itself.

Atanas

----------------------------------------------------------------------

| Atanas E. Entchev                http://www.cnj.digex.net/~atanas/ |
----------------------------------------------------------------------

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Kip Wyli » Thu, 11 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:

> Hi,

>  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

Hi
     You're screwed the second you post to this or any newsgroup. I see
by looking at your e-mail address that you don't ***erate some way to
throw them off your trail. I've found that if I don't mess up my
"reply-to" address like this "NOSPAM".oz.not, I get flooded within hours
of posting. They have robots that search NGs for email addresses. AND
don't send stuff back to them as that only serves to tell them you're
alive and kicking.
                        Kip Wylie
--

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Jaime Corder » Fri, 12 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:

> Hi,

>  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

> In the early days receiving a "get rich quick" or a "pyramid scheme"
> spam was a bit of a novelty - and sometimes i even read the messages.
> However now at least 70% of the mail in my inbox is from spammers!!
>  I thought isp's were supposed to regulate the net and prevent this
> from happening.
>  Emailing newsmasters and returning the spam no longer seems to have
> any effect. One time after crossposting a load of spam back to their
> authors one of them even had the cheek to write back complaining.

Consider Active vs passive counter-spamming

Why do anything manually ? Just feed them junk: it clogs up their
databases, bounces like a *** ball, and causes them all sorts of
minor nuisances.

This is done by faking a bad email return address, and be sure to do
so in your signature as well. You might want to explain how to
return your address to a correct one in your signature to be sure
everybody gets it.

Although this defeats the free spirited (i.e. one button) "Reply",
this foils the address gatherers. Your manual correspondents, i.e.
the actual real people will have to fix up the address, but this
is no problem for a human. Since everybody has a slightly different
name, it is nearly impossible for spammers to automatically correct.

I've seen a quite a few people doing this on sci.astro.amateur.
I myself haven't been doing it that long, so I have no real experience,
but no spam either.

I suspect it will really only prevent "amateur hour" spammers, of
which there are many. Somebody who really takes the time to decode
the protocol may get your address anyway, but it takes more than
casual programming.

Good luck,

Jaime

--
Jaime Cordera
LogicVision, Inc.
jaime AT lvision.com

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by D.C. Snel » Mon, 15 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:


> > Hi,

> >  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

> > In the early days receiving a "get rich quick" or a "pyramid scheme"
> > spam was a bit of a novelty - and sometimes i even read the messages.
> > However now at least 70% of the mail in my inbox is from spammers!!
> >  I thought isp's were supposed to regulate the net and prevent this
> > from happening.
> >  Emailing newsmasters and returning the spam no longer seems to have
> > any effect. One time after crossposting a load of spam back to their
> > authors one of them even had the cheek to write back complaining.

> Consider Active vs passive counter-spamming

> Why do anything manually ? Just feed them junk: it clogs up their
> databases, bounces like a *** ball, and causes them all sorts of
> minor nuisances.

> This is done by faking a bad email return address, and be sure to do
> so in your signature as well. You might want to explain how to
> return your address to a correct one in your signature to be sure
> everybody gets it.

> Although this defeats the free spirited (i.e. one button) "Reply",
> this foils the address gatherers. Your manual correspondents, i.e.
> the actual real people will have to fix up the address, but this
> is no problem for a human. Since everybody has a slightly different
> name, it is nearly impossible for spammers to automatically correct.

> I've seen a quite a few people doing this on sci.astro.amateur.
> I myself haven't been doing it that long, so I have no real experience,
> but no spam either.

> I suspect it will really only prevent "amateur hour" spammers, of
> which there are many. Somebody who really takes the time to decode
> the protocol may get your address anyway, but it takes more than
> casual programming.

> Good luck,

> Jaime

> --
> Jaime Cordera
> LogicVision, Inc.
> jaime AT lvision.com

Or you could always threaten them with the long-arm of the law.  Give
this a try:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To Whom It May Concern:

In accordance with my rights under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
of 1992 and regulations established pursuant thereto, I hereby advise
you that I consider your messages an invasion of my privacy and demand
that all further messages to this e-mail address: "<<insert your e-mail
address and/or phone number>>," cease immediately. If this request is
violated, I will file an action in the United States District <<insert
the name of your local federal district court here>>, pursuant to 47 USC
Sec. 227 for an injunction against you and your company to include
damages, which by statute are not to be less than $500.00.  Please be
advised that you and your company are subject to personal jurisdiction
in the above mentioned court and will be required to appear to defend
any action taken therein.

Thank you for your compliance with this request.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I got this from some guy on another newsgroup (whose name escapes me).
Have fun and never give up in the "War on Spam."
--

San Antonio, Texas            Remove "NOSPAM" from the address to reply

 
 
 

SPAM - Off topic...........

Post by Kent Brownin » Tue, 16 Sep 1997 04:00:00

Quote:



> > > Hi,

> > >  Has anyone found a good way to combat email spam?

> > > In the early days receiving a "get rich quick" or a "pyramid scheme"
> > > spam was a bit of a novelty - and sometimes i even read the messages.
> > > However now at least 70% of the mail in my inbox is from spammers!!
> > >  I thought isp's were supposed to regulate the net and prevent this
> > > from happening.
> > >  Emailing newsmasters and returning the spam no longer seems to have
> > > any effect. One time after crossposting a load of spam back to their
> > > authors one of them even had the cheek to write back complaining.

> > Consider Active vs passive counter-spamming

> > Why do anything manually ? Just feed them junk: it clogs up their
> > databases, bounces like a *** ball, and causes them all sorts of
> > minor nuisances.

> > This is done by faking a bad email return address, and be sure to do
> > so in your signature as well. You might want to explain how to
> > return your address to a correct one in your signature to be sure
> > everybody gets it.

> > Although this defeats the free spirited (i.e. one button) "Reply",
> > this foils the address gatherers. Your manual correspondents, i.e.
> > the actual real people will have to fix up the address, but this
> > is no problem for a human. Since everybody has a slightly different
> > name, it is nearly impossible for spammers to automatically correct.

> > I've seen a quite a few people doing this on sci.astro.amateur.
> > I myself haven't been doing it that long, so I have no real experience,
> > but no spam either.

> > I suspect it will really only prevent "amateur hour" spammers, of
> > which there are many. Somebody who really takes the time to decode
> > the protocol may get your address anyway, but it takes more than
> > casual programming.

> > Good luck,

> > Jaime

> > --
> > Jaime Cordera
> > LogicVision, Inc.
> > jaime AT lvision.com

> Or you could always threaten them with the long-arm of the law.  Give
> this a try:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> To Whom It May Concern:

> In accordance with my rights under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
> of 1992 and regulations established pursuant thereto, I hereby advise
> you that I consider your messages an invasion of my privacy and demand
> that all further messages to this e-mail address: "<<insert your e-mail
> address and/or phone number>>," cease immediately. If this request is
> violated, I will file an action in the United States District <<insert
> the name of your local federal district court here>>, pursuant to 47 USC
> Sec. 227 for an injunction against you and your company to include
> damages, which by statute are not to be less than $500.00.  Please be
> advised that you and your company are subject to personal jurisdiction
> in the above mentioned court and will be required to appear to defend
> any action taken therein.

> Thank you for your compliance with this request.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

> I got this from some guy on another newsgroup (whose name escapes me).
> Have fun and never give up in the "War on Spam."
> --

> San Antonio, Texas            Remove "NOSPAM" from the address to reply

I like it.  Unfortunately, most of the spam I get doesn't have a valid
return email address.  I keep trying to email the 'psycic's back that
they need to fine tune their crystal ball, I sent them a telepathic
measage not to bother me again unless THEY include THEIR credit card
number.  If you are using AOL, forward all spam to aol address TOSspam
so they can reduce the spam traffic somewhat.  

--
Kent
F2 Xantos 310, Bic Samba 320, F2 Sputnik 290
Neil Pryde & ART
Remove 'nospam' from my email address to reply