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Re: OUR LIST

At 08:22 PM 11/8/97 PST, Sean wrote:

>One way 'spammers' and solicitors aquire your e-mail address is from
>e-mail items themselves.  If you include your e-mail address in your
>signage (as many of us do to facilitate communication), then you
>might change it slightly and give breif instruction about what is
>wrong and needs changing before it will work.  Computer programs
>cannot easily determine that something is wrong with these addresses
>they 'pluck' out of e-mail correspondence.  Some people have mailers
>that allow for invalid 'FROM:' addresses, and these users again
>provide information about what to change in the e-mail address to
>successfully respond to them.

Our master-user, in an attempt to reduce spam, is proposing to install
software called "sendmail" which supports return-address verification.  That
is, before it accepts any email, it sends a check message to the sender.  If
the sender's address is invalid (as is the case with most spam), this check
message bounces, and original message is not downloaded to me.  I understand
that this means that if anyone uses an invalid 'FROM:' address in posting to
medit-plants, I won't get it, nor will I know what I'm missing.

I don't know if this software option is widely used, but if it is, perhaps
medit-planters should be thinking twice about using invalid 'FROM:'
addresses, as suggested by Sean, and as I have noticed several people on the
list do already.

>It is sad that the interenet has become yet another way to be
>harrased - there are already too many harrasement mediums in the
>world today.  For whatever reason, you are currently being pick on
>and it is wise to review what might be the cause.  As other
>Medit-Plants folks (such as myself and others) are not being
>targeted, I suggest you look elsewhere for the cause of the problem.

I believe that private email (including email to groups like medit-plants)
rarely gets you on to spammers' lists. If you post to usenet newsgroups,
however, it's very easy for them to harvest your address and put it on a
list.  Some people use an invalid 'FROM:' address when posting to
newsgroups, but their correct one for email.  Although this is a hassle both
for you and for anyone who might want to email you in reply to a newsgroup
posting, it seems that it does reduce the spam you get.

Another thing.  When a spammer asks you to send a one-word message to be
removed from his list, DON'T.  This just tells them there is a real human
being on the other end, i.e., it increases your spam-value and probably gets
you on several more lists.

>Good luck!

Yes!

John.
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