On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 05:08:30 -0800, Bill wrote:
Okay, so nobody likes spam, but it seems like nobody is doing anything to
stop it, other than blocking a sender or the domain - and that's not working
very well.
Actually, there are people doing something, and it is working. For me,
anyway. But, you have to be willing to learn how to run your own MTA to do
this. Most people aren't.
Why not let the individual consumer/user do the deed?
Add a feature in OE that will give the USER the option to block the bloody
ISP who
is allowing spam or porn to be sent through it's system. Under where OE has
"Block Sender," add one that reads, "BLOCK ISP."
This can't be done at the client level. By the time MS Outlook Express is
pulling email from the POP3 or IMAP server, the message has been received.
You can't block it, now; all you can do is divert suspect email to a
special folder, or delete it. Diverting is the better choice, just in case
you get a false positive.
When the USER gets a spam e-mail, he or she clicks on the "new" option and
with that one click of a key be told who, and where, the ISP is and...
1. How many spam e-mails the user has received via that ISP so he/she can
take
whatever action deemed necessary and...
Parsing the message headers to identify the suspect ISP is a daunting task.
Not something which can be easily deployed in a free, end-user email
client.
2. The user would then be given the option of blocking everything coming
from that ISP for a period of 10 days, 30 days, 6 months or permanently - but
let the user make that decision and...
3. The user could, if he/she wants to, send the ISP e-notification that any
and everything coming from their system is blocked and how long the "time
out" period is, and the reason(s).
This last would be a hazard. If the parser mis-identifies the source, then
the notify annoys the wrong party.
Spammers change names and domain names constantly, and they employ a million
tricks, but they all have to have an ISP who has to remain "still" - and I
want to get him in the cross-hairs!
You can't get the spammer's ISP in your cross-hairs. He typically uses open
proxies, and rotates through them. For every open proxy you manage to get
shut down, ten more are out there waiting to be abused.
One person blocking out everything coming from an ISP won't get their
attention, but when 100,000+ people do, they'll have to decide to cut loose
the spammer or risk lose legit customers.
One person, or 100,000 people, the ISPs being blocked normally don't care a
fig. Indeed, some voluntarily submit IP addresses to blocklists because
their users shouldn't be running mail services on those IP addresses.
It may be worth a shot. If you agree, please reply and if enough of us do,
maybe, just maybe, MS will consider it!
MSFT shouldn't, and likely won't consider it. Ask MSFT to add a Naive
Bayesian filter to the next iteration of Outlook Express; that would be
more feasible.
For what you want, you might look into SpamCop reporting:
http://www.spamcop.net/
Just be sure that you take the time to understand the nature of parsing
spam headers. You are responsible for the reports sent. Getting things
wrong only makes matters worse, because the recipients of the reports will
tend to disregard them if they are inadequate, or incorrect.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum