[pchelpers] Re: Mountains of spam

Hi Ekhart & Eric,

Saturday, May 27, 2006, 3:57:46 AM, you wrote:

EGlnl> Contrary to what the subject says, this returned mail is not spam; it's
EGlnl> legitimate mail caused by spam sent in your name. Be happy it's coming

Technically correct; this is normal operation.  It's the original
messages which are the problem, and you have no control over them.
All you can control is, to some extent, what address you use in public
places, and how you use it.


EGlnl> Well, it's only public to those on the list, which is why i reacted to
EGlnl> quickly to the spammer we had as a member a while ago. On the website,
EGlnl> the addresses are obscured as eric.furman@xxxxxxxx, for example.

Ekhart, the problem is the spammers who do NOT post to the list, but
instead just lurk and collect messages and thus email addresses for
later use doe direct mail efforts. Also, messages may be forwarded by
list members to other people and public locations. All of this happens
without any obvious indication on the list itself. In short, you
should assume that it's public, one way or another.

Any mailing list, any newsgroup, many forums, probably places like
eBay, etc., are all public.


>> EF> How did whoever - or whatever program - get to use
>> EF> my address in the first place?

Eric, if you want, I can send you an email which appears to be from
you, John, Ekhart, or whomever. It only takes me a second or two
longer, about the length of time that it takes to type in the new
From: address.


EGlnl> Another big problem is people who put addresses into the "To"
EGlnl> or "CC" fields when sending several copies of an e-mail instead
EGlnl> of using Bcc.

I think ISPs and/or email programs should explain this more, and make
it a default field, and in fact possibly even make it easier to use
BCC: than CC:.

-- 
Scott.



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