BPA Mailing Lists: SPAM and how to handle
Index
What is SPAM?
SPAM is the common name for Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE).
Some Measures to prevent SPAMmers from getting your email address
- Do not configure your browser
to send your e-mail address for FTP requests.
FTP requests can be hidden in a Web page, for example to
retrieve a image.
Further explanation:
FTP Email Scam
To turn off:
- Netscape: Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Send email address as anonymous FTP password
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: no change needed
because the e-mail reader is separate program.
IE sends a dummy user name "IE40user@"
- How SPAMmers get E-mail Addresses: from Earthlink
Why can't all SPAM be blocked?
A number of measures have been implemented here to block SPAM.
However, the people who send SPAM
are constantly developing techniques to counter the techniques
that have been developed to block SPAM.
Thus, some times the SPAMmers win.
However, some anti-SPAM measures have been enabled
because they are counterproductive relative to these lists:
they block more legitimate messages than SPAM.
At various times, some routine
anti-SPAM measures would have cut off the ability
of some members of the list to submit messages to the list
because of problems at their Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Past examples:
- Several major ISPs (most notably MSN.com)
had headers that violated the standards
and thus triggered the SPAM filters.
- Several major ISPs
(e.g., Best.com, pacbell.net)
had not turned off a major mechanism that allows
SPAMmers to falsify their sending addresses.
This misconfiguration is known as an Open Relay.
An alternative would be to restrict submissions to the list
to members of the list.
However, this has problems:
- Many people have mail go to their personal e-mail account,
but they read that account from work as well as home.
These people would not be able to submit from these other accounts.
- Many on the list have addresses that are aliases of the real
address, but their mail handling is done in a way
that makes the alias appear to be a distinct site.
It can be difficult for a SPAM filter to distinguish between
this aliasing and the use of open relays.
Hence, these people would not be able to submit to the list.
Past example:
Customers of the former PacBell Internet (PBI)
have addresses in the domain
pacbell.net, but the mail servers were in the domain
pbi.net and now are in yahoo.com.
There are similar situations where ISPs have merged or been acquired.
Thus, I am disinclined to activate this restriction.
What to do when you receive SPAM?
When you receive SPAM from one of the e-mail lists here:
- Delete the message.
It is minor annoyance for which there is little recourse.
Do not blow it out of proportion.
Do not get upset.
- If you have a SPAM filter that allows you to mark messages
as SPAM,
you probably do not want to mark any message from this list
as SPAM.
The reason is that some SPAM filter use this marking to blacklist
not just the contents of the message but also the sender.
Thus, you could wind up instructing your SPAM filter to block
messages from this list.
- Do not complain to the mailing list:
That only compounds the annoyance to other members of the list.
For example, if a piece of SPAM has an offensive subject line,
replying to the list sends another message
with that offensive subject line to the list.
- Do not blame the list maintainer.
The lists are un-moderated,
meaning that messages submitted to the lists are
automatically redistributed to the list.
This is a deliberate choice:
moderated lists involve higher levels of effort
and can result in substantially delays between submission of
messages and their distribution
(for example, when the moderator is on a business trip or vacation).
- It is generally recommended that you not reply to the SPAM message,
even if they claim they will remove your address from further
mailings.
- One technique used by SPAMmers is to generate all possible
addresses at a host and send mail to it.
It doesn't matter that most of it goes undelivered.
Result: If you respond, the SPAMmer now has
a confirmed address, and you are virtually certain to
receive more SPAM.
- "But they said they would take my address off the list"
The SPAMmer may remove your address from that
particular list, but put it on many other lists.
Remember, honorable people do not become SPAMmers.
My message to this list got rejected
If your message to the list gets returned to you with an error message
stating that it was identified as potential SPAM,
forward the rejection message to me.
Failing this, telephone.
Contact info at www.bpaonline1.org/411/bpa-list-manager.html.
Note: I need the details in the bounce message so that
I can install an exception that allows you to post to the list
without creating an unnecessarily large opening.
Specific problems:
- Open Relays/Blacklisted site
Your mail server (probably your ISP or company)
is misconfigured to allow people to relay messages.
SPAMmers favor certain ISPs and other sites
because of their lax policies, and
one of the basic SPAM filters is based upon having
a list of these hosts.
An open relay allows the spammer to hide this from
the SPAM filters.
An open relay also allows the spammer to falsify from what
host the message originated.
For more information, see
MAPS: Mail Abuse Prevention System.
Blacklists / Blackholes
Other Resources
Overviews of Various Common SPAM messages
Amusements