Spam Mail: The webmaster strikes back

By Jim Park, ZDNet
01 December 2000 02:58 PM
Tags: e-mail, spam, header, received, isp, field, sender, nov
When the enemy has breached your defenses

You've done all you can to avoid getting targeted. But you find that you are still getting spam mail. You should not be surprised.

No matter what we do to hide ourselves, if people are tenacious enough, they'll find out our e-mail address. This does not mean that defensive measures are useless. They are helpful but unfortunately, unless we change the whole philosophy on which the Internet is based, namely the idea that information should be kept decentralised and free, we cannot keep anything secret for long. (Oh the price we pay for freedom.)

We aren't helpless, however. ISP vendors, just like us, are pretty sick of spammers. In fact, most ISPs, if we clue them in on users who are abusing their accounts to send out spam mail, will terminate the offending persons' accounts.

Well then, that's easy, right? We just have to look at the spam mails FROM address and send the corresponding ISP help desk and complain, right? Unfortunately, it's not that easy. The spammers know they will lose their accounts if the victims rat on them. So they have ways of covering their tracks. But once again, we are no average netizen. We are webmasters and are therefore a wee bit smarter.

Advertisement

Talkback 1 comments

    Interesting info, but when you ...Anonymous -- 17/01/01

    Interesting info, but when you say something like "You can visit their website for more details.", how about including a hyperlink to the URL, after all that's what the internet is all about!

    The only way to stop spam is to have an authentication system like that used to sign ActiveX controls - that way senders of spam will be unable to get a "licence".

Latest Videos

Sponsored content

Power Centre - Content from our premier sponsors

Blogs

  • Renai LeMay How reliable is IP telephony?
    Have you ever heard a weird kind of hissing, crackling or popping noise when calling someone on an IP telephony line? How rare is the phenomenon these days?
  • Array Forget the NBN, 100Mbps is already here
    Telstra and TransACT will shortly begin offering 100Mbps broadband to many customers. By moving early, the companies have not only raised the bar for Australia's broadband services, but thrown down a challenge to a government that now faces increased pressure to deliver the NBN as promised.
  • Array IT: Govt's cost-cutting bitch
    The government needs to stop looking at IT as a necessary evil or the place to remove costs when the Treasurer comes calling.
  • More blogs »

Tags

Back to top

Featured