[MacPerl] Recent Spam Messages

[Matthias Ulrich Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>]

I've received two independent complaint messages from list subscribers about
the recent increase in spam levels on the list. This might be an opportunity
for me to reiterate my current spam policy, and also to clear up some
misconceptions that apparently have appeared.

Not that this is *not* an invitation for a discussion on the list, although I
welcome replies mailed to me personally and I might summarize contributions if
anything significantly new appears.

So first, the policy & perspectives:

 - I do not approve of anybody sending off topic mail of any kind to the list
   (although I tolerate some occasional social chatter and think that people
    should be free to add any ceterum censeos they see fit to the MacPerl
    content in their messages).
 - This includes discussions *about* Spam, which in my experience are roughly
   1:1 in volume with actual Spam.
 - I run some filters against any message submitted to the list so suspect
   messages get hand moderated by me. For obvious reasons, my objective there
   is to minimize my overall pain threshold, so I have the smallest amount of
   work with the smallest possible Spam load.
 - In general, I make the filters specific enough so the list won't see the
   same spam twice, but occasionally I slip up (and some dreck is awfully hard
   to filter. The Netcheck spam consists of essentially all noise words, and
   the one reasonably reliable clue (that the mail originated from an uu.net
   dialup host) is used by too much legit mail.
 - The list is hosted as a favor by my former University lab, so I can't bother
   the system administrators there too much.
 - Lastly, I should mention that my geographical and professional situation at
   the moment is very much in flux. Once I've gotten a bit more clarity on that
   point, I'll probably move the mailing lists to a server where I have more
   freedom in setup (and ideally a server reachable thorough the macperl.com
   domain name we recently reserved).

Now, to the complaints (Which, as I said above, I usually answer privately, but
I guess I have to do something about the peasants on this list getting restless
:-)

> To: mac-perl@iis.ee.ethz.ch
> From: Greg Walsh <gwalsh@NO_SPAM.artec.com>
> Subject: The amount of spam the list has been
   recieving
> Cc: cgi-list@jann.com

First of all, three little remarks:
 - As I said above, please sent complaints (or compliments) about the service
   to me, not to the list.
 - CCing a second list in the same message is an additional no-no: It often
   leads to members of the two lists CC: ing each others and others complaining
   about the CCs and a third group asking where to unsubscribe... been there,
   done that.
 - Inserting spamblocks in one's From: address in a list sent to a mailing list
   strikes me as a bit antisocial, as it sabotages personal replies sent to the
   author. 

> All of a sudden I've been getting spamed *through* the list.

Not all that sudden, unfortunately. This has gone on for about 3 years.

> It was bad enough when list members started promoting their personal web
> hosting services,

I don't know about the CGI list, but none of the Web hosting spams on mac-perl
came from members or ex-members.

>but *completely* unrelated Spam by non list members is is not OK.

Agreed (list members or not).

> Is there a way to filter the posts (Procmail perhaps?) so that
> we don't get "Make Money Fast", "Just released, 10,000,000 email
> addresses" or "Buy stock in my business" type posts?

As explained above, I'm already using "filter-out" techniques as much as
possible. Unfortunately, it does not currently seem possible to equip
Majordomo with the "filter-in" technique that I use for my personal mail feed
(mark anything as suspicious which does not have "neeri" in the From: or CC:
line.

> Given that the spammers have our addresses,

No they don't, or at least not through our mailing list server. The only
address they have is the mailing list address itself (which appears in a few
thousand mailto: URLs on the Web).

> I'd like to prevent them from
> posting *through* the list and having [MacPerl] in the subject line.
> Its tough to filter at this end without blocking the list,

Agreed. I realize that list mail is difficult to filter for the recipients.

> but you might be able to block them at your end since they are sending from
> a unique account.

"unique"? More like "megalique". As I said above, I catch the vast majority of
repeat spams.

----------
> To: mac-perl@iis.ee.ethz.ch
> From: John Taylor-Johnston <jtjohnston@courrier.usherb.ca>

> 	I don't know about the rest of you, but I am becoming tired of the junk
> mail. I did not sign up for this! I'm here for net support on Macperl not
> to give my email address to every tom dick and harry!

I can assure you that these spammers do *not* get your address from the list
server. This might be a small consolation as long as you are subscribed to the
list, but should you ever choose to unsubscribe, you will *not* be in their
database (unless they obtained your address by other means).

---------

Last of all, what can *you*, as subscribers, do against the Spam?

 - Complain about it to the originator's ISP or to the authorities. I intend
   to forward the JT's Restaurants Spam to the SEC as it looks like possible
   investment fraud (See http://www.sec.gov/enforce/comctr.htm for submission
   guidelines if you're planning to do the same).
 - You can also subscribe to the list from a forwarding account. I think
   pobox.com and/or bigfoot.com offer  forwarding accounts with optional
   spam filters. Don't know how good those filters are or whether filtering
   costs anything.

Matthias

-- 
Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
  "They were gasbag creatures. Their netmail was mostly jabberwocky even
   after Relay's best interpretation." -- Vernor Vinge, _A Fire Upon the Deep_



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