[KYHAM] Arrl source of Spam

[Fernie Williams]

It really depends where you post your address.  I have an =
alias/forwarded
address with the IEEE, as well as the ARRL alias.  I do not give out the
ARRL alias very often, however, I have used the IEEE alias in many =
business
related emails - I get hundreds of SPAM messages with the IEEE and NONE =
with
the ARRL.  It comes down to your address getting around.  I have had a =
Juno
account since 1996 - it gets thousands of spam messages a month!  Do not
blame the ARRL, they are merely providing a service that gets their name
promoted (yes, we are providing free advertising when we give out the =
ARRL
email address).

SPAM filters are not perfect, and it is difficult to stop all SPAM =
messages.
I run an email filer at work for all corporate email.  It is stopping =
over
60% of all emails at the front door as spam and junk mail.  But, people
still get SPAM.  The filter gets updates from the vendor, much like =
virus
patterns, but it can not stop everything.  We also filter out messages =
based
on words, giving certain words a value that is summed per message. Once =
the
message reaches a certain level, it is isolated for manual examination.
Generally, 100 messages a night are put into the isolation queue.  =
Almost
every one is a SPAM message that has not been added to the SPAM pattern =
file
- I can then submit them for consideration.

So, in the end, we are ultimately responsible for the SPAM that we =
receive.
If we give out our ARRL address, it will end up on a list of valid email
addresses and begin to be SPAMmed.  What can we do? Not much.  What can =
the
ARRL do?  The spam filter I referred to is based on the number of users =
- so
if there are 6000 addresses, it could be in the tens of thousands to =
license
such a product.  Plus annual maintenance fees that continue forever...

Perhaps merely turning off the forwarding service for a while will =
generate
enough bounces to the SPAMmers that your address will be removed.  Maybe
not.  I use a free program called MailWasher to 'pretreat' my personal
email.  It allows messages to be deleted, blacklisted, and bounced back =
to
the SPAMmmer (assuming that the return address is something real - =
probably
not).  Additionally, this product will take advantage of the =
"Blacklisted"
sites - but all email from Juno is considered to be SPAM, so you have to
watch the messages to make sure that you are not deleting valid =
messages.

73,
Fernie


-----Original Message-----
From: kyham-admin@mailman.qth.net [mailto:kyham-admin@mailman.qth.net] =
On
Behalf Of N4AOF
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 10:39 PM
To: Ky Ham Mail List at QTH.net
Subject: Re: [KYHAM] Arrl source of Spam

> Since I have dropped the arrl forwarding service, I have received
> no more spam.  Obviously, while they may not want to be a source
> of spam they seemingly have no way to control it.

The CHOOSE not to use any of the available ways to control spam being
sent through their forwarding service.

Until the League decides to stop being an open invitation to spammers,
we will continue to see massive amounts of spam directed to us via the
League mail forwarding system and will continue to see more responsible
ISPs refusing to accept mail coming via the League mail forwarding
system because they are correctly identifying the League's mail
forwarding server as carrying an unacceptably high percentage of spam.

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