Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 12:07:28 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, terry@lambert.org, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Junk mail from hackers list Message-ID: <199703060137.MAA08368@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199703060040.RAA12621@phaeton.artisoft.com> from Terry Lambert at "Mar 5, 97 05:40:51 pm"
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Terry Lambert stands accused of saying: > > > I have noticed that I am receiving junk mail from AOL's mailing > > > list agregator again, now that someone from AOL recently subscribed > > > to the list, and was wondering if anyone else had the same experience? > > > > Is _that_ where it's coming from? My normal response to junk mail is to > > turn it around and send it to the postmaster, but I've been getting a lot > > of bounces from bogus headers. 8( > > Did you get the "CREDIT" one? That's the one that set me off, since > it didn't say how to get off their list (the ones that let me "REMOVE" > in a reply piss me off, but they are *just* below my pain threshold). I've had several "CREDIT" ones. I successfully mailed about ten copies of /usr/share/dict/words to one of the response addresses, but most of them bounce, I presume either because the spammer is clueless or because they've been cut off before I get up in the morning. > It may be time to rewrite the "From:" on the list so a simple reply > will fail, instead of leaving the poster's email address out there; > this would such, for lots of reasons... the main one is that it would > be harder to take a discussion off line. I do not believe in cutting my nose off to spite my face; I think there's an appropriate technical solution just waiting to be discovered (like what's happening to doubleclick.net these days with web-proxy admins using squid redirects to block their advertisements), and once the combination of idea and annoyance hits the critical level, the solution will appear. > Alternately, AOL response addresses could be rewritten so that a group > reply/reply to a posting from AOL wouldn't work. The AOL person would > have to be a list member. Perhaps force AOL members to use an anonymous remailer? > Worst case: don't allow AOL users to subscribe to the list. This is > a terrible thing. Not acceptable at all, agreed. AOL users shouldn't be penalised just because their provider is stupid. > I think you are right about whether or not they care: they probably > could care less that they agregating email addresses from a list > rather than from individuals. It'd probably take a privacy act suit > against them in order to make them quit, and even then, you couldn't > enforce it, since you couldn't prove where they got your address > from. No. As far as I can tell, there is no applicable law in this case. It's even worse for someone overseas, as I have no right to seek redress via american law, and australian law (which I might well be able to manipulate to a suitable result) has no jurisdiction over the guilty party. The solution has to be implemented in the same realm as the offense. > Like I said, I've been on the list before, and I've gotten off it > through their "send a comment" www page entry, even though the page > entry was damn rude about me wanting to press "send" (see the comment > page relevent to an outside user commenting on AOL to see what I > mean: http://www.aol.com/comment.html). Something like "If you truly > think we can't live without your pithy comments, click 'Submit' now.". *snort* What can I say? To quote TISM(*) : "as a Mistral employee once told me, you're only as good as your fans." > Terry Lambert (*) This Is Serious Mum; Machiavelli and the Four Seasons. -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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