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responding to UBE messages

1998-11-03 01:32:48
|Mon 1998-11-02 "P.M Foster" <pfoster(_at_)aracnet(_dot_)net> list.procmail
| How do I set up an autoresponder?  I want to autorespond to abuse mail,
| I've uploaded the abuse.txt file, but the recipe is giving me a lot of
| problems.

Autoresponder is bad idea. You need more better heuristics than what procmail
can do. The UBE messages really need human instpection before you send them out,
otherwise you may have to apologise from lot of people eg if the complaint
was mistakenly sent of to some mailing list or wrong address.

See pm-tips why. (follow X-info header)
jari


       "Spam FAQ"
        ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.spam/
        http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/net-abuse-faq/spam-faq.html

       "The email abuse FAQ"
        http://members.aol.com/emailfaq/emailfaq.html
        What is UBE, UCE, EMP, MMF, MLM, Spam, it is all explained here.

       "Get that spammer"
        http://kryten.eng.monash.edu.au/gspam.html
        ...All about Spam; tarceroute, netabuse etc. Full of links and docs"

       "How to fight back."
        http://www.oeonline.com/~edog/spamstop.html

[..zap..]

    2.3 UBE and bouncing message back

          Has anyone found that bouncing spam does any good at all?

        [sean] I had a whole policy message written up that would be sent
        out to spammers. Nothing but a waste of my resources. Most return
        paths are either completely bogus, or end up bouncing pretty damn
        soon after the spam, which just brings you more junk to deal with.

        Instead, I choose to send messages occasionally to administrators
        and upline providers of domains which spew.  "Agreement by action"
        is one of the legal standards I like to use (for "should you
        continue to send mail to me, that constitutes acceptance of the
        terms herein").

        InterNIC recently 1997-07 removed the root files for .com, .org,
        and .net (I think) from access at their ftp server. Too many
        spammers were using them for the purpose of generating mailing
        lists. Access to the files now requires an assigned FTP account
        from InterNIC. When I get a domain-style spam, I immediatley do a
        whois to get DNS info on the domain, then grep the root files to
        obtain a list of domains serviced by the same DNS. If they appear
        spammy (as spam domains tend to), I add these to a list of domains
        to filter (egrep) in my primary domain-based ruleset. Works for
        me, though the list is getting big.

        [Kimmo Jaskari <kimmo(_at_)alcom(_dot_)aland(_dot_)fi>] Another good 
reason is
        that all those bounces, which get ignored by the spammer/recipient
        anyway, still take up needless bandwith on the net. The spam is bad
        enough for that, bouncing it back with some more stuff added is just
        plain silly. You become part of the problem rather than the solution.
        If the bounce even gets to the spammer, the spammer drops it on the
        floor unseen.


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