Reporting Spam (Was: That C-R crap)

From: Steve Lamb (grey_at_dmiyu.org)
Date: 08/08/03

  • Next message: Jeremy Gaddis: "Re: how do I get the "you have new mail"" 
    Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 21:33:54 -0700
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

    On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 20:22:04 -0700
    Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca> wrote:
    > On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 12:31:12PM -0400, hashi@pooq.com wrote:
    > > What is the proper way to report spam?
     
    > Essentially, trace headers back to the originator, forward copies of
    > the spam including headers to the originating ISP and any webhosting
    > providers mentioned in the spam. Weeding out fake headers takes
    > experience.

        Which is why most people don't, and frankly, should not report spam in
    this manner. I know, I know, you said that if you don't report spam you're
    part of the problem. I agree. There are, however, other ways to report spam
    that do help in the long run.

        Personally I did the spamcop thing for ages but got tired of keeping up.
    Now I'm taking a passive role in it. As the author of the teergrubing page
    <http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/usenet/teergrube.en.html> points out that
    if you increase the time it takes to send out the messages while decreasing
    the rate those messages are seen you raise the overall cost of sending out
    spam. Raise it high enough and people will stop seeing it for what the
    spammers want them to see it as "a low-cost alternative to traditional
    advertising".

        Therefore any spam that makes it past my filters is instantly reported to
    Vipul's Razor. If they've already seen it, fine. If not, they have a report
    from me and others can reject it. That lowers the number of deliveries. Spam
    that doesn't make it past my filters is rejected. If there is a shred of
    honesty in any of the reports these spammer shove in front of their
    "customers" faces as facts that this works the rejection rate should be going
    up. Finally any gross example of spam gets stuck on my server for about 5m.
    Hey, 1 extra Exim process on my machine for 5m to slow down one of his
    processes from delivering to others? Sure! He's gotta break down his bill by
    deliveries per second. My one just cost him 300 seconds. Again, raising the
    costs. 

    -- 
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
       PGP Key: 8B6E99C5       | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
	                       |    -- Lenny Nero - Strange Days
-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------



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