Re: offensive emails

[Alex Lancaster]

>>>>> "CM" == Christopher J Mackie <address@hidden> writes:

CM> Oh, please don't do that.  Most of these messages are *intended*
CM> to get you to "unsubscribe."  Of course, you were never subscribed
CM> in the first place--it's only a ploy.  When you unsubscribe, the
CM> junk mailer knows that your email address (which was generated
CM> haphazardly) is 'live', and you're flooded with additional email.

Yes, indeed I endorse Chris' suggestion, *never* try to "unsubscribe"
because that's how they verify that it's a valid e-mail address and
then continue to send you more spam!

CM> I've seen really nasty versions of this ploy--stuff advertising
CM> things that would outrage anyone.  If you see something like that,
CM> it's almost certainly not what it claims to be (mass mailing
CM> disgusting ads?  What a waste of money).  Instead, it's some junk
CM> mailer trolling for addresses to add to the next mailing.

CM> Block the sender so you don't get anything more from that address,
CM> delete the message, and forget about it.

We'll try and block it at the upstream (majordomo mailing list server)
end as well.  We actually get suprisingly little spam on
swarm-support, which is good considering that we're not a "closed"
list (i.e. non-subscribers can post).  The SFI (where the majordomo
server lives) blocks spam from open relay servers (a source of much
spam), which I suspect, cuts down on 99% of it, but occasionally some
of it gets through.

If spam ever gets to be a serious problem we can switch to being a
subscriber-post only setup, but I'd rather not do that unless we
really have to, because it can be a pain if people post from different
e-mail addresses (e.g. whilst they're travelling) because the e-mail
will bounce (since their "From" address doesn't much their subscribed
address) and it often generates more questions about "why did my
e-mail bounce" than it solves in cutting down spam.

Alex
-- 
  Alex Lancaster           |  
  Swarm Development Group  |     web: http://www.swarm.org
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