[5414] in RedHat Linux List
Re: spam from this list?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Otto Hammersmith)
Thu Nov 21 09:55:21 1996
From: Otto Hammersmith <ohammers@cu-online.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 08:53:22 -0600 (CST)
In-Reply-To: <199611210108.RAA08075@jklaren.qualcomm.com> from "Jon Klaren" at Nov 20, 96 05:08:26 pm
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Jon Klaren wrote:
>
> So it makes me wonder... Is there a spammer subscribed to the list just
> to collect email addresses? Is some spammer's robot gleaning email
> addresses from the mail list archives on www.redhat.com? I can't figure
> out how else they might be getting my address.
Could be. Though, it wouldn't be to difficult to imagine somone
searching the Web for e-mail address with something like Altavista. I
do recall doing a vanity search, and the most prominent thing I found
was the Red Hat archive... perhaps Red Hat would set it up such that
'bots will ignore the archive. (I know it's possible, as long as
they're well-behaved... I just don't remeber how)
> Just to see, has anyone else on this list received spam lately from
> info@maraphone aka maralist@icgroup.net
don't remeber.
> Emerald@earthstar aka emeraldette@pop.a001.sprintmail.com
Yes. Something about penpals. !?!? I really doubt someone bothered
to subscribe to the redhat-list just to get addresses to hock
penpals. (not that hocking penpals over the internet can be an overly
booming business, no matter who you target) I think the web search is
a more likely idea.
> autumn@industry.net aka autumn@gtwinc.com
I vageuly rember one like this.
> If so, that would make it a little more likely that this list was the
> source for the spammer's collection of names.
Does sound likely.
> I know how to use procmail to filter this stuff out, but it's hard (and
> annoying) to keep the filter up to date with every bogus sender and
> subject line they invent.
I haven't found it overly annoying.. I just always reply, with a
simple "remove me from your list". If they don't comply, then there
will be trouble... no one hasn't, yet.
If it does become a problem you could always set up your mail to
generate a bogus Reply-To (maybe even from) header, and instructions
(like X-Instructions:) saying to e-mail you at xxx@xxx.xxx rather than
the default... the bogus address could even reply telling people what
they did wrong. Or you could resort to what Lars Wirzenius has
(moderator of comp.os.linux.announce) and force a "password" in the
subject. Either way, a simple automatic way of extracting e-mail
addresses wouldn't find anything useful.
--
-Otto
--
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