A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil
I would imagine that if your AMSAT.org email address is public and posted online then spammers could email it which then gets forwarded and might look like a trusted email to your email provider and not flagged as spam.Just a thought.
On Thursday, October 31, 2013, Phil Karn wrote:
A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org javascript:;. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
On 10/31/2013 01:44 AM, Bryce Salmi wrote:
I would imagine that if your AMSAT.org email address is public and posted online then spammers could email it which then gets forwarded and might look like a trusted email to your email provider and not flagged as spam.Just a thought.
My amsat.org email address is already public, as evidenced by all the spam it collects. It's been standard spamming practice for a long time to connect to mail servers and just run through as many names as possible in the hopes of finding a few; I'm sure they do that to amsat.org along with the rest.
But spammers have shown themselves unwilling to spend much, if any, of their own personal time collecting email addresses. If they can automate it, they'll do it because the cost is practically zero. If they have to do it by hand, they won't.
By returning a human-readable (but not machine readable) message to anyone mailing me at amsat.org, any human who wants to reach me still can. But the spammers aren't as likely to get it.
It's interesting that even though my current primary email address has been active for 10 years, and even though it collects plenty of direct spam, fully 1/4 of all my spam still comes via amsat.org.
Phil
At 01:22 AM 10/31/2013 -0700, Phil Karn karn@ka9q.net wrote:
A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil
I'm Hardly getting any spam or fishing through the reflector, maybe only one or two a week. Whenever anything looks like spam I check the headers and see if it came through the reflector.
KB7ADL
i have had my amsat.org redirected email for some 15+ years. i now get 50-100 spam messages per day (as my callsign is pretty active on the web). since my main email account is with at&t, they use yahoo. all of the spam goes into through their spam filter and shows up in the spam folder. should i use mozilla thunderbird to get my email, the spam filter in thunderbird tags all of it and puts it in the spam filter. i browse through them just to see if the filter was not to aggressive and gets rid of an email i want.
it is really no different than when we get some threads going that i do not want to read and just hit the delete key. a nuisance, yes, but life goes on.
73...bruce
On 10/31/2013 10:28 AM, Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL wrote:
At 01:22 AM 10/31/2013 -0700, Phil Karn karn@ka9q.net wrote:
A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil
I'm Hardly getting any spam or fishing through the reflector, maybe only one or two a week. Whenever anything looks like spam I check the headers and see if it came through the reflector.
KB7ADL
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Same here. No spam filters, and a fast delete key. That way nothing slips through the cracks
Folks, SPAM is no different than the junk mail you receive in the mail, and needs to be treated the same.
Virgil N5IVV
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 9:43 AM To: amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Spam through amsat.org
i have had my amsat.org redirected email for some 15+ years. i now get 50-100 spam messages per day (as my callsign is pretty active on the web). since my main email account is with at&t, they use yahoo. all of the spam goes into through their spam filter and shows up in the spam folder. should i use mozilla thunderbird to get my email, the spam filter in thunderbird tags all of it and puts it in the spam filter. i browse through them just to see if the filter was not to aggressive and gets rid of an email i want.
it is really no different than when we get some threads going that i do not want to read and just hit the delete key. a nuisance, yes, but life goes on.
73...bruce
On 10/31/2013 10:28 AM, Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL wrote:
At 01:22 AM 10/31/2013 -0700, Phil Karn karn@ka9q.net wrote:
A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email
directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil
I'm Hardly getting any spam or fishing through the reflector, maybe only one or two a week. Whenever anything looks like spam I check the headers and see if it came through the reflector.
KB7ADL
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Phil,
Interesting idea. I think what you are suggesting is to turn the Amsat email forwarding service into an email lookup / reply service, where the sender of the original message would receive a means for contacting you (your contact email address) in a non-machine readable form. The original message would be discarded. They would then contact you via a second message, to that (human readable) address. Spam would be eliminated, and the legitimate people wanting to contact you would be enabled to do so directly.
A few thoughts...
1. As has been noted by others, most folks aren't getting a lot of spam (I've received a couple over the past many years, but not nearly enough to be a problem), so the service as it stands seems to be working. If I recall correctly, there was a problem a few years ago, and that was corrected by switching providers or something like that. The folks maintaining the reflector seem to be on top of things.
2. The current service does hide your real email address from the as-yet unknown-to-you sender; your response to them can be from any email address you choose, or not at all, depending on your mood at the time. An automatic reply would disclose your address to someone unknown to you without your knowledge. Though the address could certainly be an address you specifically set up for this purpose, and the auto-responder could notify you of the attempt, the horse would have already left the barn. So, it is a bit of a security concern.
3. Machine-based Captcha response engines are reported to be getting pretty good, and in theory could be modified to bypass your gateway. It's probably not worth it, at least right now, but if your concept were deployed widely, and on sites with higher potential payback, the spammers attention might be directed to do the required engineering.
Still, interesting.
Greg KO6TH
Phil Karn wrote:
A significant fraction of the spam I get on my primary email account comes by way of the amsat.org email reflector; by my count, 18 of the 76 spam emails I've received in the last day.
But I don't want to just shut it off; sometimes people I do want to hear from make contact that way. And I've used it to contact others whose email addresses I don't know, but who I know to be AMSAT members.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up some sort of auto-responder on amsat.org so that instead of just forwarding email, returns a message to the sender with a non-machine-readable image of the user's actual email address, possibly accompanied with a sound file with the same information for anyone with impaired vision. Spammers couldn't handle it, especially since most don't even use valid return addresses. But any real human could resend his email directly to its destination.
What do people think of this idea? How much of a problem is spam for everyone else here?
Phil _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (6)
-
Bruce -
Bryce Salmi -
Greg D -
Phil Karn -
Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL -
Virgil Bierschwale