Robert Nicholson <steffi2(_at_)DGS(_dot_)dgsys(_dot_)com> writes:
What I'd like is a surefire way of differentiating a reply'd news article
_to_ me and SPAM.
What's the correct way to tell if a message is in response to a posting
instead of an unsolicited email message? Obviously once we start relying
on things like this the SPAMMERS will take advantage of it.
It's not surefire, but the way I do this works in almost all cases.
I use a unique e-mail address that is legal, but that I only use
when posting to usenet. I have procmail examine all mail to this
address, and consider it suspect (spam) unless it has a Subject that
starts with a `Re:' or has a References header in which case it goes
into my inbox. The rest go into a spam folder.
Since some spammers talk directly to your smtp server and do not
include your email address explicitly in the To header, I throw
anything not directed to me into the spam group. With this case,
I also check for "Resent-To:", and "Resent-Cc:" as well as "Cc:" and
"To:" just to be safe.
In my experience, this will sort virtually everything the right way,
allowing people to reply to my posts in the usual way. You
still might want to check the `spam' group from time to time for
the existance of legitimate mail, though.
--
Jason R. Mastaler jason(_at_)mastaler(_dot_)com