Forwarded from another list. Note the mention of procmail.
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This just came in from an IRS autoresponder:
Over the past six months, a significant number of individuals have begun
forwarding multiple copies of every spam message they receive to the IRS
and other federal agencies. Frequently, these messages are transmitted via
procmail filters and are not being screened by the recipient. The result
is that literally thousands of messages are being forwarded to the IRS
every week with complaints that fall outside of the Agency's
jurisdiction. The irony is that those complaining about SPAM have become
offenders themselves.
This situation was further exasperated recently where a programming glitch
in an automated mail filter caused what effectively was an email bomb
attack on the IRS. The individual responsible could have faced federal
criminal charges for their negligence.
Effective immediately, please remove "net-abuse" from all automated mail
responders and limit referrels to that address to tax related matters. If
the volume of mail continues to grow at the current rate, I'll be forced
to take the email server off-line.
Regards,
Inspector Andrew Fried
IRS Internal Security
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