🚀 go-pugleaf

see@my.sig (Kevin Quosig) writes:
>cplater@rattlehead.accs.wayne.edu (Charles A. Plater) wrote:
>> There is a package like this available (with instructions and an
>> applescript to return UCE messages to postmasters of spam boxen at
>> :http://www.fogcity.com

>I tried using it....it filters specific "known spam" addresses and
>domains. Problem is, it is over 100 items long and causes Em@iler to act
>funny. That, and the AppleScript never quite worked right for me.

Filtering on "known addresses" means you always miss their first spams. 
It also means you have to pay some company to keep a list up.  I don't
like the idea of paying "protection" money to save my mailbox.  

Kevin's idea works better.  Most spam comes in BCC'ed to you, so filter
out the mailing lists you want, then filter anything that isn't "To:" 
you or "Cc:" you into a probably-spam box. From time to time, check 
that box to see if anything you want showed up there by mistake.  
If so, add a filter for it.   I get about 40 mailing lists, and I tend 
to add about a filter every week or two.  One for each new mailing list, 
obviously. 

After awhile, 99+% of what shows up in 'probably spam' ... is.  

>I ditched it months ago in favor of the "legitimate address"
>filter....much simpler, filters faster, and seems to be just as effective.
>I used to take the time to contact all the postmasters, but I gave up.

Automate the process.  I wrote a perl script called 'yell' that complains
automatically - point a spam at it, and *grind* *slash*.   The next
generation of it, "Rebel Yell", will even browse the spammer's Web page
and warn everyone he links to that the page's owner is spamming.  
This really screws up the spammers!!!   I've watched LinkExchange banners
vanish off Web pages as a result of my complaints. 

Unfortunately 'yell' is in perl and relies on Unix tools like 'mail'.
Mac users with perl can get some functionality out of it if they also
have a unix shell account, but point-and-click it is not. 

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bo/bobmacd/yell

>I get about a dozen SPAM messages a day, and for every one Postmaster I
>write to (and spend 2-3 minutes each digging though the header to find the
>*real* e-mail address), 5 more spammers pop up in their place.

I write to all of them, since it takes me 0.5 seconds each. I've found
no significant increase in spam.  I have seen a bloody trail of terminated
user accounts and downed Web pages.  Complaining works. 

(by the way, never "reply" to a spam.  Never send a "remove" message. 
Never send anything to a spammer.   If he sees your address is real, he
will sell your name and spam you more.   Send them nothing unless you're
real good at forging a "User unknown" message.  (a feature of YELL) 

>And as much as I hate to do it, I found that my "expanded e-mail address"
>signature combined with a fake return address has cut-down considerably on
>the SPAM I receive (that, and dropping my AOL accounts...used to get 25-75
>messages of SPAM a week there!).

It is unfortunate that spamblocking works.  I no longer write private
replies to people on Usenet, because of spamblocking.  A lot of people
use a real-sounding e-mail address, and don't tell you it's fake.  
I don't like sending mail into black holes.  

The reason you got so much spam on AOL is because you have a profile. 
Spammers do profile searches and then harvest the names.  There are 
many commercial programs to do this automatically.  So don't have one! 

If you *MUST* have a profile, make it one of your spare accounts and then
in the typed description, say "please write to me at myrealaoladdr."
(don't go "@aol.com" or else that'll give it away as an email address. )

>I've about as 'bot-proofed my identity as I can.  :)

I refuse to hide under a rock.  However I have a Big F*cking Gun and a 
whole lot of attitude.  So spamming me would be a mistake. 

-Bob