At 11:44 AM 6/10/97 -0500, Phong Ta wrote:
[snip]
By the way, the reasons I am asking about this:
- To understand the mechanism that spammers used to send out
anonymous email to 10 million people! It is better to know
and hate than just to blindly hate.
This _isn't_ how they're doing it. Most of them simply spoof an available
SMTP server using spam-specific mail software, and launch away. Cyberpromo
and the sort make no real attempt at "anonimizing" their posts - it's easy
to tell when they've sent a message, but they often don't take email
replies (or bounces for that matter, which is a big problem), so what does
it matter?
- There is actually some useful applications about this.
[snip]
and try to abuse them personally. Also, this way people will
feel free to say anything they want.
This would be why I accept TWO-WAY anonimizers. I believe anon.penet.fi
was established so that people could openly communicate in support forums -
such as discussing personal problems without the stigma some people would
hold over them for their problems.
Watch out though - as anon.penet.fi found out about a year ago, YOU the
operator become the target of attack when someone uses your service for
abuse. That abuse thing is a two-way street.
If you're planning on running _multiple_ anon remailer accounts, then you
should probably look around for one of the several 'packages' that do this.
Troll the web for "remailer + anonymous" or somesuch.
There is also a danger in this area due to too much of
freedom (abuse). But that's another problem! That's why a
moderator is also required for this kind of service.
In which case, the people don't have TRUE anonymity (well, as long as
they're running through a system that can be monitored, they have no such
thing anyway).
---
Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering
Post Box 2395 / San Rafael, CA 94912-2395