What is the best way to deal with SPAM, unaut email?

luzanne · 29 Apr 2002, 09:18 PM

just wanted opinions on what is the best way to deal with unwanted email from unknown people/marketing/advertising companies

how does bounce work and wat are the bad points about using it.

should i block/bounce or delete and ignore?

LazyGun · 29 Apr 2002, 10:02 PM

"just wanted opinions on what is the best way to deal with unwanted email from unknown people/marketing/advertising companies"

huh?? Oh!!, you mean spammers and ethikul biznessez

"how does bounce work and wat are the bad points about using it."

send yourself an email and then bounce it. You'll see the results.
It can expose your real address, so if the mail was sent to an alias or name@yourowndomain.com it will appear to be bounced by your real addy.

"should i block/bounce or delete and ignore?"

Personally, I prefer to LART (Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool) with a mail to the ISP.

But it's generally a personal thing. D&I will keep you fairly spam free, but on the other hand once your addy doesn't bounce, it's considered to be live and spammable and makes its way onto the "Millions of addresses CD". B/B will make some spamware and spammers think it's a dead addy and they *may* remove it fromm their lists. Maybe.

lux · 30 Apr 2002, 03:01 AM

Use Spam Assassin to filter it out... (full/enhanced accounts required)...

elvey · 30 Apr 2002, 03:38 AM

1)Continue to use FM. Even with a free account, a lot of spam is blocked.
2)Use SpamAssassin
3)Don't do things that will let a spammer discover your email address.

As LazyGun said, it's up to you and generally a personal thing - how much time do you want to spend dealing with it? Avoiding it? Putting an end to it?
There are many different, and appropriate ways to deal with spam.

Received headers these days are usually faked.

Assume that any information in a spam that can be forged has been forged, and that which can't, isn't.

Find the contact information, and act on it (spamcop is usually helpful, but not always, in determining the sending server from which you received the spam. Spam Combat is another good resource. )

Go to http://relays.osirusoft.com/cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi to see what BLs the sender is in, and nominate accordingly.

All UCE aims to get you to contact the spammer, in some way. If it's via a toll free #, call it (warning, this gives away your phone#, even if you block caller ID, cuz they're paying for the call) if it's via a website, report it, and/or if you have a flat rate broadband connection, put it in your offline folder for frequent update; you don't pay for bandwidth used; they do. If it's via a mail or email address... well, the Unabomber nearly killed one of my professsors, so I won't go there... Follow up on your reports to abuse departments until you receive a good result. Read and/or post to news.admin.net-abuse.*.

SpamAssasin has a mailing list specifically for spam that gets past it; see http://www.spamassassin.org/lists.html
- said before at http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...&threadid=4185

29 Apr 2002, 09:18 PM	#1
luzanne Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 22	What is the best way to deal with SPAM, unaut email? just wanted opinions on what is the best way to deal with unwanted email from unknown people/marketing/advertising companies how does bounce work and wat are the bad points about using it. should i block/bounce or delete and ignore?

29 Apr 2002, 10:02 PM	#2
LazyGun Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 128	"just wanted opinions on what is the best way to deal with unwanted email from unknown people/marketing/advertising companies" huh?? Oh!!, you mean spammers and ethikul biznessez "how does bounce work and wat are the bad points about using it." send yourself an email and then bounce it. You'll see the results. It can expose your real address, so if the mail was sent to an alias or name@yourowndomain.com it will appear to be bounced by your real addy. "should i block/bounce or delete and ignore?" Personally, I prefer to LART (Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool) with a mail to the ISP. But it's generally a personal thing. D&I will keep you fairly spam free, but on the other hand once your addy doesn't bounce, it's considered to be live and spammable and makes its way onto the "Millions of addresses CD". B/B will make some spamware and spammers think it's a dead addy and they may remove it fromm their lists. Maybe.

30 Apr 2002, 03:01 AM	#3
lux The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 2,274	Use Spam Assassin to filter it out... (full/enhanced accounts required)...

30 Apr 2002, 03:38 AM	#4
elvey The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: San Francisco Posts: 2,458	1)Continue to use FM. Even with a free account, a lot of spam is blocked. 2)Use SpamAssassin 3)Don't do things that will let a spammer discover your email address. As LazyGun said, it's up to you and generally a personal thing - how much time do you want to spend dealing with it? Avoiding it? Putting an end to it? There are many different, and appropriate ways to deal with spam. Received headers these days are usually faked. Assume that any information in a spam that can be forged has been forged, and that which can't, isn't. Find the contact information, and act on it (spamcop is usually helpful, but not always, in determining the sending server from which you received the spam. Spam Combat is another good resource. ) Go to http://relays.osirusoft.com/cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi to see what BLs the sender is in, and nominate accordingly. All UCE aims to get you to contact the spammer, in some way. If it's via a toll free #, call it (warning, this gives away your phone#, even if you block caller ID, cuz they're paying for the call) if it's via a website, report it, and/or if you have a flat rate broadband connection, put it in your offline folder for frequent update; you don't pay for bandwidth used; they do. If it's via a mail or email address... well, the Unabomber nearly killed one of my professsors, so I won't go there... Follow up on your reports to abuse departments until you receive a good result. Read and/or post to news.admin.net-abuse.*. SpamAssasin has a mailing list specifically for spam that gets past it; see http://www.spamassassin.org/lists.html - said before at http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...&threadid=4185