procmail
[Top] [All Lists]

[Tangential?] More about spam email filtering

1996-05-05 03:48:52
I have a spam email filter in Procmail that throws away (some) garbage
I don't want to receive. Fine so far. Running nicely.
  What I'd like to do is to have it automatically react on some
particularly offensive messages, i.e. autorespond with an "eat shit
and die" type of message (in more polite terms -- if this is
inappropriate, please write a message with fewer spook words in it,
and something about a $100 proofreading charge and threat with legal
action if they persist).
  Is this a bad idea, on the whole?

I've been hesitant to implement this because I don't know exactly how
to avoid e.g. the following situations:

  * procmail starting a war on its own against another procmail

    What if the bad guy has an autoresponder "thank you for your
    interest in $100,000,000 $FAST$ $CASH$ $GIZMO$" which triggers
    the spook filter again, which sends back another rude message,
    which triggers another autoresponder message etc etc?

  * NDN problems

    What if the bad guy uses a bogus address? How should I set up the 
    message headers to avoid having mail returned to me? 
      Sure, I can throw away NDN:s separately, but is there a way to
    avoid having them generated in the first place? 
      Like, f'rinstance, many mailers don't auto-respond to
    FROM_DAEMON messages. Is it OK for me to impersonate a mailer
    daemon? 

Also, tips on how to accelerate the rude responses would be welcome.
I.e., first, tell them I'm sorry I have a filter set up to bounce
trash, then if they try again, send them a somewhat more rude message
with Cc: to postmaster, then if they still try again, subscribe them
to a Scientology mailing list?

Actually, I'd be quite happy with something that keeps track of whom
I've rejected already, and sounds the sirens if they send me something
again within, say, 24 hours. 

BTW, is anybody actively maintaining a list of email spammers? I know
about Axel's Blacklist, but it's for Usenet spams, and none of the
others I've looked at is really what I'm looking for, either. They're
mostly just net.kooks and/or of historic interest. I'd like to have a
conveniently downloadable, machine-readable list of what's currently
going on.
  Are there more appropriate mailing lists for this kind of topic?

/* era */

-- 
See <http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~reriksso/> for mantra, disclaimer, etc.

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • [Tangential?] More about spam email filtering, era eriksson <=