[GreenKeys] Spam

[jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu]

Here's what I do, which is admittedly time-consuming and maybe if I were
not retired I would not have time to do this public service.  But I hope
it causes the spammers some pain - the trouble with just throwing away 
spam is that it doesn't cause the spammer any pain.

I save the message in a file.  Read the file from the top, looking at the
various Received: lines.  The domain name is usually phony, but the IP
address is there numerically.  Some spam puts in multiple bogus Received:
lines to throw you off, so it's important to figure out which ones
actually participated in delivering the spam.

Look up the domain owner using http://combat.uxn.com    That web site
is partly broken right now, so you have to lookup using ARIN and then
that may send you to a different server.  Some of these net listing will
include an address to send spam complaints; others will just have the
email address of a person who should be the contact person for that net.

Send an email to the abuse or contact address for the apparent originator,
and for the first relay point if any, with copy to uce@ftc.gov  Include
the entire spam message with all its headers in the email.

You may get back nothing, which is OK, or you may get a form letter 
telling you the spam is being investigated, or you may get a bounce
because the contact address is no good.  Or you may get told you
should have sent the complaint to some other address.

Once in a while I get mail back thanking me for alerting some net manager
that one of their sites is being used as a spam relay.

I don't think ftc.gov is doing anything more than warehousing the email 
they get; but at least you have sent mail about spam and scams to the
right place.  Maybe they will weigh it; at least it lets them know that
spam is still a problem.