Subject: Locking out bulk e-mail...

From: [email-masked] (J.C. Archambeau)
Date: 27 Nov 1996 13:59:13 GMT

I have been receiving lots of bulk e-mail lately.  Is there a way for
a user to some how block out receiving bulk e-mail or is that something
my ISP has to do for me?  I will probably be having my ISP changing my
service so I will be a Unix site dialing into his system via FreeBSD
rather than having a shell account on their system.

Whichever way it needs to be done, I am interested to know the strategy
necessary to get rid of this nuisance.
--
/*                          
** Internet: [email-masked] | Don't blame me, I didn't vote for Clinton.
**           [email-masked]      | Intel is the word for 'errata.'
*/

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From: [email-masked] (Bob Wilson, Jr.)
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 21:46:21 GMT

On Thu, 05 Dec 1996 15:24:05 -0500, Jeff Garzik
<[email-masked]> wrote:

>> J.C. Archambeau ([email-masked]) wrote:
>> : I have been receiving lots of bulk e-mail lately.  Is there a way for
>> : a user to some how block out receiving bulk e-mail 

<<clipped>>

Please don't say "bulk" unless you're talking about the message
priority that was labeled to the internet message.  Some people send 
Unsolicited Comerical Email, this is known as UCEs.  Usually it's sent
by use of a list of e-mail addresses.  I suspect you are talking about
UCEs that are mailed from a broadcasted mailing list.

Some mail readers have filtering ability.  A few domains are common
problems, but few domains are nothing but businesses involved in these
"junk mailings."  Forinstance, geocities.com is a frequent reference
in junk mail.  Eariler today I communicated with someone at the
Pentagon that has a e-mail address at Geocities.  So filtering mail by
the source domain is not really great.  With a Unix-type email system
you can "easily" dump any message that is sent to more than 15 people.

But that will need a filter -ahead- of it that saves messages from any
mail list you read.  That will get rid of 3/4 or more of the junk
mail.  Best bet is to always respond with a complaint, and a request
that they NOT use your address in the future.  Their mail will slowly
clog up their lifes too!  Don't just hit reply, locate their contact
address.  If it's a local-to-you phone number, please call and tell
them every week for a month that you DO NOT want to ever hear from
them again.  If they're local you could sue them (not for much).  If
anyone wants to start a class action suit against any of these Bozos
I'd be happy to join if they had fouled my screen just once.
Otherwise, get their provider to warn them, and don't make it
profitable to send junk mail to your email address that you must pay
to access.

>> :
>> : Whichever way it needs to be done, I am interested to know the strategy
>> : necessary to get rid of this nuisance.

<<clipped about using a invalid address>>

>
>Bulk mailers are, by their definition, automated.  

You underestimate humans.  I've received email from single-senders at
a time.  I've had my nethandle discovered and replyed to...that's a
single lookup.  It will get worse until the law starts criminal
charges on these jaspers.

> When they add your
>e-mail address to their database and then try to send mail to it, mail
>will bounce.  This also stops malicious people who use a hacker program
>to subscribe you to every mailing list on the Internet.
>
>The downside of this is that every person replying privately to an
>article you wrote must edit the address, or their mail too will bounce. 
>It's also a pain for Netscape people, because they can't have separate
>news and e-mail origin addresses.

Minor pain, as another mailreader can be added..

ALSO a pain to your IP provider, as his domain keeps getting hit with
undeliverable email.  The GOOD answer to these these things TODAY
would be for all mail machines to hold -any- message that had two
"bad addresses" messages returned.  Might stop quite a bit of the junk
for a little while.  Established mailing lists could be configured to
not have this limit.

>-- 
>Jeff Garzik                         [email-masked]
>Spinne, Inc.                        http://www.spinne.com/
>
>   State-of-the-art efficient systems for the Internet.

CC:  [email-masked], [email-masked]

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From: Michael <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 09:55:51 -0800

Hi Jeff,

On Thu, 5 Dec 1996, Jeff Garzik wrote:

: You can also do something very simple -- put an invalid character in
: your e-mail address.
: 
: For example, my e-mail address would be <[email-masked]*>
: 
: Bulk mailers are, by their definition, automated.  When they add your
: e-mail address to their database and then try to send mail to it, mail
: will bounce.  This also stops malicious people who use a hacker program
: to subscribe you to every mailing list on the Internet.
: 

I really like this idea a lot. Does this also mean that the Reply-to: field
should either be removed, should be done to it as well, or it will let
someone reply, but it will still goof up the bots? 

: The downside of this is that every person replying privately to an
: article you wrote must edit the address, or their mail too will bounce. 
: It's also a pain for Netscape people, because they can't have separate
: news and e-mail origin addresses.
:

What's the point of Multi-tasking if you never run more then one program. 
It took Windows 10 years to get true Multi-tasking and no one will use
it after a generation of nit-wits started using Nutscrape. The hell with
people that can run more then one program like the rest of us :)  . 

Oh, cough, err.... Yeah :)  .

L8R,

Michael ([email-masked])

Press CTRL + L-AMIGA + R-AMIGA to continue...

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From: Jeff Garzik <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 15:24:05 -0500

> : a user to some how block out receiving bulk e-mail or is that something
> : my ISP has to do for me?  I will probably be having my ISP changing my
> : service so I will be a Unix site dialing into his system via FreeBSD
> : rather than having a shell account on their system.
> :

You can also do something very simple -- put an invalid character in
your e-mail address.

For example, my e-mail address would be <[email-masked]*>

Bulk mailers are, by their definition, automated.  When they add your
e-mail address to their database and then try to send mail to it, mail
will bounce.  This also stops malicious people who use a hacker program
to subscribe you to every mailing list on the Internet.