Spam and Leps-l

[Neil Jones]

Firstly the Nigerian Scam we received. I laughed hard at Bob's response, but 
do you know this is a billion dollar hoax! It started years ago with letters 
and has now graduated onto email.  Lots of people have fallen for it.
I guess with emails like this the guide is "beware of _geeks_ bearing gifts" 
<groan> 
I got a second copy sent straight to me.The spammer has the Leps-l address 
listed in all the millions of ordinary ones. Checking it out, it originates 
with somebody with an account with an ISP in Lagos, Nigeria.
Being genuinely Nigerian is the only genuine thing about it. 

There are two routes by which spam enters the list. One is through the 
gateway to sci.bio.entomology.lepidoptera. This is now rather rare since 
there are people on the net who have created spam canceling programs
for usenet. These make it difficult for spammers to operate there.

The other is the route the Nigerian Scam took which will be blocked by the
proposed changes.

Spam is rather like death and taxes, unavoidable.

There are a number of ways in which spammers find email addresses.
A few examples are.:-

Off mailto tags on web pages.

By "grepping  a newsfeed". Scanning usenet for addresses. 

The "Rumplestiltskin attack". By simply guessing email addresses!

Once on a spammers list  getting off it it is rather like getting off Readers 
Digest's mailing list. i.e. near impossible.

I have received spam today which I can trace back because of a filtering 
system. They got hold of the address 6 years ago!

I would be very much against switching off the gateway to usenet.

Firstly it is very very useful in whole host of ways, archiving, retrieval 
etc. Also there are a suprising number of people who use it. This includes me 
on occasions.

A few other points. Jim Taylor's email wasn't actually transmitted via leps-l,
but it seems, and I can't be sure without seeing the message headers, that 
the  website advertised is with Jim's ISP. Being a customer surely puts 
any complainant in a better position. If you can prove its him get his site 
shut down! They will surely have an anti-spamming policy. It is even illegal 
in some states in the USA.

Ron Gatrelle may be complaining a lot because he posts a lot leading to more 
spam. Your experience may not be entirely typical Ron. An awful lot of it 
isn't what a good preacher wants in his mailbox! That may be upsetting as 
well. 

--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve

 
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