Spam

Roland Perry roland at linx.net
Wed, 9 Oct 2002 15:01:25 +0100


In message <Pine.LNX.3.96.1021009131144.758w-100000@ooh.amtp.cam.ac.uk>,
Martin Keegan <mk270@cam.ac.uk> writes
>I presume the spammers "forge" (which I think is too strong a word) the
>From: headers so as to reduce the efficacy of particular anti-spam
>strategies by increasing the false positives?
>
>> I suppose what we need to do is intercept mail coming in from outside
>> that has a header that seems to be from within our system and append a
>> "this message appears to be forged" disclaimer to it.  I wonder if spam
>> assassin can do that?  I suppose I could write it myself but the chance
>> of embarrassing failure is large.
>
>This is a disaster - they do something like this at Cambridge University's
>Engineering Department: if you have an @cam.ac.uk email address but aren't
>mailing from within the University (e.g., from your cablemodem), then the
>mail is bounced on entry to the eng.cam.ac.uk mailservers. I can see
>exactly why they do it, though.

There is a general rule that Spam is not a technical problem, and
technical measures will always have drawbacks. What's needed is a way to
solve the social problem.
-- 
             Roland Perry | tel: +44 20 7645 3505 | roland@linx.org
Director of Public Policy | fax: +44 20 7645 3529 | http://www.linx.net
 London Internet Exchange | mbl: +44 7909 68 0005 |       /contact/roland