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[procmail(_at_)informatik(_dot_)rwth-aachen(_dot_)de] Re: Removal here?

1997-12-27 03:59:49

[PLEASE *erase* "procmail(_at_)informatik(_dot_)rwth-aachen(_dot_)de" AND ALSO
PLEASE *erase* "Tim Berger <timb(_at_)transmeta(_dot_)com>" from the above
recipient list before replying to this.  Thanks!]



Hi ChipnClara,

                the way you have worded the query below the answer
is *no* -- the people on the 
<procmail(_at_)informatik(_dot_)rwth-aachen(_dot_)de>
list does *not* have any magic ability to *unsubscribe* you or
anyone else from "the many mailing lists which send me material".

But You didn't use the word "unsubscribe", you used the word
"removed".  This is a strong suggestion that it isn't ordinary
mailinglists we are dealing with here (the one you actively
*subscribe* to) but rather spamming-lists set up by people with
no respect for your right to decide yourself what mailinglists you
want to belong to.  These lists usually send out direct
advertisements or MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing = Pyramid-games)
schemes or other information **you didn't ask for**.  This is the
main point:  You didn't ask for the information.  That's why one
should never never never ever respond to spam.  Kill it by
ignoring it.

If it is in fact spam you want to fight, we are in business.  But
we can't stop the spammers from spamming, except that we in some
cases can have their Internet Service Providers revoke their email
accounts -- but they soon get new accounts.  See
http://www.vix.com      for details on how to fight spam.

If you want to kill spam before you need to see it, you need good
software.  I don't know if there is anything for the Microsoft
Win-95, Win-NT or Win-3.11, or for the Macintosh available.
I use a different Operating System altogether; a type of Unix that
is much better and on top of that doesn't cost you anything as the
licence is for free, it is licenced under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC
LICENSE and the GNU LIBRARY GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE and a few other
similar licenses, that add up to that it is for free to use and
modify as long as you don't keep changes for yourself.

Today the releases of Linux I have heard of comes with procmail
installed.  Procmail is one program you kan use to kill spam
without needing to see it.

Myself I quit using procmail for this and moved the fight one step
closer to the source:   I installed sendmail-8.8.8+spamcan-0.96 on
my Linux-box (runs on most PC's and Pentiums and many Macintoshes
as well + a number of other kinds of computers also).  This is not
for the amateur...   I am a computer specialist specializing on
Internet mail and Sendmail.  My site http://www.lege.com has some
info on sendmail configuration, especially for the home Linux user
who operates on a dynamic IP dial-in Internet connection, but I
haven't mentioned spamcan there yet.

My Internet Service Provider (ISP) has also added some protection:
They have arranged it so "Envelope Senders" must "resolve in DNS".
I don't aim at explaining what this means exactly, other than that
it prevents some obviously faked sender addresses from being
accepted for relaying or delivery by the hosts at my ISP.

I notice you write from an AOL address.

I believe Brad Knowels is the sendmail guru at AOL, if he hasn't
changed jobs in the last year or so.  He has the expertice to
arrange it so AOL customers are protected from a lot of the
Internet spam by doing both the "Envelope Senders" must
"resolve in DNS" thing and also the sendmail-8.8.8+spamcan-0.96
thing on the gateways between the Internet and AOL.  If there is
a popular demand among AOL customers for this, I believe that much
of the external Internet-generated spam can be cut off when it is
about to enter AOL country.  Contact <brad(_at_)his(_dot_)com> and ask!

It is difficult to keep any scheme, be it /etc/spamcan.cf for
sendmail-8.8.8+spamcan-0.96 or personal ~/.procmailrc files for
the Procmail on Linux solution, constantly updated.  There is
always a spam now and then that get through, and you have to
update your recepies again, being careful not to make them can
non-spam.

This fight is not easy, and resemble the fight in the human body
between the bodys infection defense mechanisms and virus and
bacteria, diseases, that try to subdue us.  But the fight goes on,
and the same with spam.

Until it becomes illegal to spam -- if it ever does -- we will
have to fight it as best we can.  Most professionals on the 'net
do their best to filter it out and to kick out the offenders from
the net.  But some big providers have been careless in signing
contracts such that they are legally bound from kicking out the
spammer(s).  These big providers risk becoming cut off from the
rest of the Internet by the rest of the Internet community, so
if anyone who reads this are a customer to a domain that allows
spam -- get out!  Whole networks are cut off from being able to
mail users at other networks because of sloppy policies about
fighting spam.  Possibly the largest Swedish provider, tip.net
(telia.com) is cut off from ever ever ever again sending a mail
to any user at Berkeley.Edu because they have in the past been
inactive in tracking logs to search out spammers..  We users need
to vote with our feet.  Leave Internet Service Providers that does
not cooperate with the Internet Community in fighting this evil.


Thanks for listening!



On Fri, 26 Dec 1997, ChipnClara wrote:

To whoever this might concern:

I am trying to get my name removed from the many mailing lists which send me
material, and I read that you do this.

Please let me know what to do to get my name removed.


Whatever you do -- never reply to spam -- not even "to have your
name removed" -- because a lot of spammers use this to verify the
address list that it is correct.  Either can spam using some
appropriate filtering software and/or track it using ISP on the
way and contact <abuse(_at_)last-known-not-faked-domain> (what this
domain is requires real sendmail expertice to figure out).

 
Thank you,

Clara





Here is a pointer to spamcan:

From: timb(_at_)transmeta(_dot_)com (Tim Berger)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Date: Sat,  1 Nov 1997 20:19:51 GMT:
Subject: spamcan-0.96 is now available. Capture spam by regular
         expression site-wide.

Spamcan is a highly effective anti-spam measure in the form of a
patch to sendmail.  Spam is captured site-wide by regular
expression.

See http://consult.ml.org/~timb/spamcan

This version is released to properly patch sendmail-8.8.8.

Tim Berger
UNIX Systems Administrator
Transmeta Corporation
Phone: (408) 327-9830 x465

+ + +


As I said above, I am running this software to my satisfaction.


__________________________________________________________________
Leif Erlingsson                 Tel     +46 8 604-0995
DATA LEGE                       Fax     +46 8 605-2551
Glavagatan 33                   URL     http://www.lege.com
123 71  Farsta,  Sweden         Email   mailto:leif(_at_)lege(_dot_)com
__________________________________________________________________
I remember the past.  I am not doomed to buy Microsoft products.


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