[AMRadio] SPAM/Bounces

[Mack Rogers]

Well Todd, it is if you use facebook. That's a sure fire way for your contacts to receive spam that appears to be coming from you personally, as my wife has discovered 2 times the hard way. Both times facebook claimed her account had been hacked, pure BS.

I had a gmail account years ago and abandoned it's use because 90% of what I received there was spam and I got fed up.

Brian seemed to be addressing the "bounce back" of emails problem that is caused by too many recepients flagging emails as spam from the server that this email reflector resides on. That problem is not a security issue that any service provider can help you to resolve. Some service providers pursue the problem of spam in much too aggressive a manner and end up blocking emails that are legitimate, just because they originate from the same server source. That is why I never flag any emails from any of the ham radio email reflectors as being spam, even those that are indeed spam.

I don't believe for a second that google (gmail) spends any more time or money on their security than yahoo or any other service provider. They're all in business to make money and spend no more than is necessary.

"Hijacking" an email account is not as easy as you make it sound Todd and few hackers would pursue such a venture since there is no profit involved. None of the spam I've received from any of the ham radio based email reflectors has come from any email address that I recognize as being one of the legitimate and long time users. Most email accounts are "hacked" perfectly legally via not so knowledgeable users signing up on "social networking" websites that if they had taken time to read the license agreement they wouldn't have signed up and allowed all their info to be downloaded by websites that then use their email account for spamming purposes. The only true spam I've received has always originated from a new list/group user that only signed up for the purpose of spamming and I don't recall any spam originating from this email reflector at all???

I know the "bounce back" and "blocked" problem is a big one for administrators of any email reflector but I don't believe for a second that all subscribers on any of the ham radio email reflectors moving to gmail will instantly solve for you.

In fact, if you guys deem it necessary for all to have a gmail account, I'll just have to wave bye-bye.

N4VGB
Mack Rogers

  

--- On Mon, 10/18/10, Todd, KA1KAQ <ka1kaq at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Todd, KA1KAQ <ka1kaq at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [AMRadio] SPAM/Bounces
> To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" <amradio at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Monday, October 18, 2010, 3:31 PM
> On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Mack
> Rogers <n4vgb at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > How is it you believe gmail can stop spammers from
> joining the various ham radio email reflectors and control
> this situation?
> 
> They don't have to join, they simply hijack an email
> account and send
> to the addresses in it, Mack. Gmail just does an excellent
> job of
> handling *spam* sent to my account and other gmail users.
> Far better
> than hotmail, yahoo, or any other freemail I've used
> before.
> 
> > It's just way too easy for spammers to join the
> various ham radio user groups and gather the email adresses
> of hundreds or thousands of users in a very short length of
> time.
> 
> Well, that may be true of some, but unless they are set
> for
> auto-subscribe with no vetting, it's not as simple as just
> signing up.
> I can assure you that members joining here are thoroughly
> checked
> before they are allowed to subscribe, we have to approve
> each
> membership. Seldom will one slip through and when they do,
> it's
> usually just some idiot troll looking to cause trouble
> rather than a
> spammer. Rather than waste the effort, they just take over
> address
> books and access groups with addresses that are already
> registered
> members.
> 
> So, it's not as simple as you suggest.
> 
> ~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4
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