From: Edward Hasbrouck (edward@hasbrouck.org)
Date: Thu Nov 14 2002 - 01:45:58 CST
How should we deal with the effect of spam on FAQ autoresponders?
Before the Web, my FAQ was available by email from an autoresponder. It
still is. But now spammers harvest addresses from Web sites (such as the
page with the HTML version of my FAQ) and Usenet postings, and use those
addresses as either forged return addresses on spam, or targets for spam.
Earlier this year, for example, someone sent spam to the
autoresponder address in my FAQ, <faq@hasbrouck.org>, with the "From"
header in the spam set to "faq-admin@faqs.org". So the kind soul at
"faq-admin@faqs.org" (Kent Landfield) got an unrequested and unwanted copy
of my FAQ from the autoresponder! (My speculation is that clever spammers
are trying to set the "from" address in the spam to an address that
appears on the same or a related Web page, in order to dupe the recipent
into thinking it comes form a knon address.)
About 90% of the messages received by my FAQ autoresponder in recent
months have been spam. The messages sent by the autoresponder either
annoy real people who didn't request the FAQ, or confirm to the spammers
that they have a "valid" email address deserving of more spam.
Should I shut down the autoresponder? How many people still have email
but not convenient Web access? (A substantial number, I think, but I
don't know.) How do others deal with the spam+autoresponder problem?
Edward Hasbrouck
<http://hasbrouck.org/faq>
----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward@hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
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