> 1. Set up a very big procmail file for myself that filters out any
> email not sent to me directly or to a list I subscribe to (I gave
> up on sending complaints to the postmaster), and
I did the same thing, and noticed a huge decrease in the amount of spam I
receive. Now, the only spam I receive is from people who put my address in
the To: header of their message (which few spammers do since their
automated mailing software doesn't do that kind of thing.)
> 2. manually changed every single MAILTO tag so it includes a "remove-this"
> within their addresses. I also warn readers about this.
> I do this because many spammers don't bother to read the text
> but use scanning software that just pulls up addresses.
It's sad that we even have to do this - as if the spammers have already
won over us already. It used to be that it was considered bad form to post
your real E-Mail address to UseNet, and now, so many people have betrayed
that by using UseNet to gather addresses and abuse them... <8*(
Actually, if everyone gets an E-Mail filter and weeds out messages they
don't want, things should be fine. There's currently a proposed amendment
to the "unsolicited commercial fascimile" law which would make it apply to
E-Mail (it currently doesn't apply but so many people have decided it does
anyway.) I don't like this - the government regulates everything, and the
InterNet has continued to grow without government intervention. So far,
whenever the government has tried to intervene with the InterNet, it has
usually been in a way so that InterNet access would be nearly impossible,
at least in the USA. I still remember that "anti-sex" bill which almost
became the law in Washington (state)...
> Some, like Wallace Spamford and Jeff Slaton, they have shown that they are
> willing to flout whatever notice you post, and are willing to back it up
> with counter-suits. You can make whatever notice you want, but you may
> have to be willing to follow it up.
Warning people not to use E-Mail for either non-profit or commercial
solicitations from address obtained off the 'Web do pretty much nothing. I
run a WWW server for my school - I'm only a student and have no power over
any school administrative functions. Yet I continually get non-profit and
commercial E-Mail aimed at teachers and administrators, despite the fact
that I put up a sign which asked not to send solicitations to the
webmaster's address.
The spammers don't care if you tell them not to use an address to send
their solicitations to - they'll do it anyway.
Nick Zitzmann http://orion.edmonds.wednet.edu/
(Resident Macintosh Tweaker)
"Wow! Neat trick. Sure glad you
were backed up..."
- Peter Stoller