Barrie Robinson (barrier@bconnex.net) wrote:
> Someone on the list advised that one should not open spam messages while
> connected to the 'net because they send a message back confirming the
> validity of your address - then adding you to a spam list. So I did
> exactly that - and guess what? It does stop the confirmation and I
> suggest people disconnect before opening any messages !!!! Strange there
> is no warning by the email program (Eudora) that the message has initiated
> a return message !!!!
Barrie, the others have said exactly what I would have, that it's trivial
to track people who open emails with HTML. Though I'm a bit more cynical on
whether this is bad or not. Most spammers will shotgun mails to their lists
regardless of whether someone is there to get them or not. You can never,
and I mean never, beat them, you can only limit their impact.
I'm lucky in that I run my own email server. I use a combination of tactics
to block spam which aren't available to people who can't.
That being said, I've recently been the victim of the spammer's new weapon
of choice, a tactic the anti-spam folks call "Joe Jobbing".
Since many people use blacklists which block spam based on the From:
address, spammers are now hijacking valid domains. Recently I began to
notice that I was getting a ton of bounces from emails I never sent. Porn
spam all being sent out with a From: address being set to some random
username at my own cthompson.com. They never went through my mail server at
all, it's all mail trickery designed to look like it was from me.
Apparently this is incredibly common now. One friend who works for a
company which filters email for large corporations told me that he's been
getting "Joe'd" for weeks now and that he doesnt even notice until he gets
more than 2000 bounces in a day. He knows someone who recently got 40,000
bounces.
So, when it comes to email, trust nobody, filter agressively, very
agressively. And, if you get an email from me offering you hours of dvd
quality streaming gay porn, it's not me, really.
_______________________________
Chris Thompson
1974 MGB Chrome Bumper Roadster
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