OT: Rejecting SPAM (was Re: [Esa-l]Filtering email address first)

[Mark A. Hershberger]

Patrick <pat at sid-dis.com> writes:

> >If you try to stop spam, you may want to block incoming smtp 
> >connections from known spam relays. It works great for me. Spammers 
> >don't even try that much anymore, though I'm using my e-mail 
> >address freely.
> 
> The problem is that my spamming come frequently from known source
> but with content not desired at that time. Hmm not really clear hey!
> Example, you may receive a letter from a mailing list without a valid To
> field but 2 days later you may receive a 10K order from the same domain.
> You see? 

Do you really get $10,000 orders via email -- no other contact?
I'm impressed.

Earlier this year, we had problems with DNS, and some people
raised the specter of missed orders for nuclear power plants.
(One of the divisions here builds them.)

Yeah, right.

Here is a real life experience with RBL and money and how it
works out.

I was looking for a job and talking to a recruiter.  She said she
would send me some information via email, but I never got it.
When I spoke to here she said the email she got back indicated
some sort of problem -- she wasn't really clear on what it was
except that she didn't have problems sending mail to anyone but
me and another "UNIX guy".

I finally tracked down the problem.  Her company's mail server
was configured as an open relay and was in the RSS database on
mail-abuse.org.  I let her know and she made sure that the proper
people fixed the problem.

Oh... I got the job she was recruiting for, as well (though that
certainly wasn't related the mail problem).

And, I can assure you that this was worth a lot more than
$10,000.

Bottom line: email is best-effort delivery.  It is not
guaranteed, no matter what anyone tells you.  Do not use it as
your sole means of doing business.

Mark.


-- 
		      ommnes exeunt in mysterium
		     All Things Lead into Mystery