At 12:39 PM 12/17/96 EST, L. J. "*&%##$%*" Cook wrote:
 
>[snip]
>
>Enough already!  When you hit "reply" your message goes out on HISTARCH, not to
>the guy on AOL who sent the message to the list.  He did not e-mail you.
He has
>NO idea who you are.  You are not on his list.  Instead, the rest of the
>HISTARCH list gets your message.  Approximately 15 people have now wasted my
>time with misdirected "remove" messages, which are meaningless in any
event. Let
>the list managers deal with it.
 
Good point! But I would like to know just what exactly the list managers are
doing to "deal with it."
 
>
>In the future, if you are confronted with SPAM, look to see whether it came
over
>a list.  If so, DO NOT HIT REPLY!!!!!  Instead, save the sender's name to your
>address book, or directory, or whatever, create a new e-mail and direct it to
>that address.
 
Not a good idea! "Hot Tip" number 5:
      http://www.csn.net/~felbel/jnkmail.html#hottips
 
"Don't respond directly to junk mail solicitations, even if you write on it
to delete your name from their database. The reason is that lists are often
rented for one-time use, with the agreement that if someone responds in any
manner, that name and address become the "property" of the company that
rented the list and sent you the mail."
 
... and thus can be sold to other spammers!
 
>If the SPAM comes directly from an account, you can hit reply.
>Anything else wastes all of our time, including your own.  I know that this
>takes more time than just hitting "reply," so to make it interesting, you might
>want to spam the spammers.  I like to forward them a clever spoof called "LOSE
>MONEY FAST" which I will forward to anyone on request.
 
Other anti-spammers have a different view about this:
 
~~~
        http://www.vix.com/spam/dontdo.html
 
"What not to do about spam
 
There is one cardinal rule to remember when dealing with spammers and rogue
sites: we must hold the high moral ground.
 
Therefore, when dealing with a spammer or a rogue site, don't:
 
     Threaten violence or vandalism;
     Mailbomb the site;
     Ping-storm or SYN-flood the site;
     Hack into the site;
     Try in any way to bring the site down illegally.
 
And above all else, don't use spam to fight spam. This also applies in
Usenet - don't follow up to spam postings, lest your posting also become spam."
 
~~~
 
        http://www.csn.net/~felbel/jnkmail.html#jemail
 
"Don't mail-bomb! Another not so very good strategy is mail-bombing, which
is periodically suggested by persons trying to get rid of junk email. It
works like this: bombard the sender with a return of the e-mail and a note
insisting they delete you from their distribution list. Set up a group
e-mail category and send out 50 copies per day to the offending party. You
might even attach a 100mb file to the email to get their attention.
 
Keep in mind, however, that your ISP (and probably the offending party's)
certainly will not approve of either of these practices (it very well can
get you cancelled). What actually ends up happening is that your ISP (who is
on your side) gets trashed with all of the e-mail traffic, as well the ISP
of the offending party - and both ISPs are probably innocent. Better to work
through
channels!"
 
To get really serious about fighting Spam try:
 
"How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers"
        http://www.csn.net/~felbel/jnkmail.html
 
"The Net Abuse FAQ"
        http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html
 
"Goodie Domain Service __ Files and archive Listings
_____alt.spam_FAQ_or__Figuring_out_fake_E-Mail_&_Posts_._Rev_961002"
        http://ftp.kom.tuwien.ac.at/faqs-hierarchy/alt/alt.2600/
 
Cheers,
 
 
 
--Lenny__