Spam

[Owen Lewis]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> [mailto:ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk]On Behalf Of Ken Brown
> Sent: 09 October 2002 11:17
> To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> Subject: Re: Spam
>
> There /are/ lists which act as spam magnets but this isn't one of them.
> Try cypherpunks. They can get 200 spam messages a day. The rate of spam
> you are talking about is probably less than average. I wouldn't worry
> until you start seeing 20 or 30 a day. If anyone actually had a grudge
> against you would be seeing thousands, and what's worse, large
> numbers of other people would be getting spam that on the face of it
> came from you.

What? A grudge against a saint like me? Perish the thought :-)
>
> The real problem with spam is forged "from:" headers. More or less daily
> we get complaints from legitimate users of our system that other people
> have been sent pornography that seems to be from them.  Of course what
> happens is that spammers send to lists of people and set the from: &
> reply-to: & so on headers to addresses belonging to an arbitrary victim.
> I get fed up explaining to people that anyone can set "from" to anything
> on email.
>
> 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.

I think you are probably right and that there is no 100% answer to the
nuisances and risks that arise from net connection. That said, our ISP seems
to do its best for its customers. Almost all the virus bearing attachments
to e-mail sent here have been stripped before arrival. As for spam, for
most, its no more than an irritation. However, had I small children still, I
would be mighty incensed and some of the auto-connects to sites that arrive
here daily. Freedom of speech is one thing. There should also be freedom
from having unsolicited filth being jammed under one's nose (or scams or
quack remedies etc. etc).


Owen