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Bounce
Authored by: dennisbest on Feb 22, '02 11:53:35PM

I had an account that was getting hundreds of spams a week. It was a long-forgotten address that was listed on a site I designed. It was basically useless so I could experiment.

I bounced 700 messages the first time and have been checking back about once per week. Each week the number goes down. I now have it down to about 80 per week. I get a bunch of undeliverables.... but I also get standard replies too... which I also bounce.

I think this is a useful tool. I also think some spammers do try to get rid of bad addresses in some automated fashion. Even though the addresses they use appear to be dead...I also think they too have tricks to make you think that. I also suspect that bouncing unwanted mail to 'legitimate' spammers like "classmates.com" or "ebay.com" will save your address from being distributed later...when they sell their list. Not "if", "when". Nip it in the bud, I say.

One sure way of getting your address enshrined as valid is to use the "unsubscribe" link that comes in most (and works in some) spams... you are merely validating your address. Or maybe you trust them....If so, I have a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge I want to sell you.

If you didn't ask for the email you have every right to fight back in a technological sense. Spam is a sleazy and unethical practice...

If I can write 'return to sender' on snail mail... I have a right to do this. IT IS NOT FORGERY for crying out loud. Give me a break. It is not unethical or dishonest to bounce a message. You are saying that your address is not a valid recipient for their junk. That is honest. Even though they put my name it, I must assume they meant it for someone who cared. They have the wrong person.

I used to forward my junk to spamcop and frankly that doesn't get you anywhere in practical terms of ridding yourself of spam. It may help the greater good in the long run, but that is debatable.

Bounce away. It's free. It's fair.



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Bounce
Authored by: teomalchio on Feb 23, '02 04:07:18AM

:°°°°°°°-(
none i my ex-lover ever writes to me!!!!
:°°°°°°°°°°°-(
sigh.....



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Bounce
Authored by: el bid on Feb 23, '02 07:35:04AM
If I can write 'return to sender' on snail mail... I have a right to do this. IT IS NOT FORGERY for crying out loud. Give me a break. It is not unethical or dishonest to bounce a message. You are saying that your address is not a valid recipient for their junk. That is honest. Even though they put my name it, I must assume they meant it for someone who cared. They have the wrong person.


On reflection, you're right. This isn't a forgery, because as far as I can make out nothing is faked in the headers. (Actually this is what makes it ineffective if you bounce in the direction of anyone with a clue).

What it is though is a downright lie. You're not just saying "Return to Sender" as in the snailmail case you mention. You're explicitly saying that the address is an unknown or illegal alias. Neither of these statements is true. You're also saying that the action of delivering the mail failed, which again isn't true.

So it comes down to the simple question: do you want to make a habit of sending out emails that don't tell the truth? If you don't mind using email this way yourself, I'm puzzled why you should object to people telling you that if you send them $9.95 they will turn it into a steady income of $2,000 a week, confer on you a degree from a leading university and lengthen your penis.

--
el bid


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I agree with DennisBest
Authored by: beastie on Feb 23, '02 07:30:56PM

ok, this is indeed not 100% or even 50% effective tool, but so is Spamcom.net. Noone guarantees you that you won't recieve spam anymore from the source you have reported about via Spamcop.

This tool gives me ability, gives me a chance to stop occasional spammer. And that's _good_ thing. That "Bounce to sender" thing was one of the reasons why I switched from Magellan to Mail.app.

C'mon people, leave that heavy moralism and hard ethics for philosophy professors. If someone sends me spam then my mailbox does indeed not exist for them. Period.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



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You agree with DennisBest?
Authored by: el bid on Feb 24, '02 04:37:01AM
C'mon people, leave that heavy moralism and hard ethics for philosophy professors.

That's not Bill Gates behind that alias, is it, beastie? Pre-Enron that flag might have rallied a few duh-brains. These days pretty well everybody is beginning to understand that "truth in business" is crucial to our future.

--
el bid


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spamcop
Authored by: Ranger on Mar 08, '12 06:42:32PM
Fellow enthusiasts, I have an iPhone4 and a MacBook Pro, both devices have the most recent commercial OS from MAC. I have a fully functional iCloud account with 50G. I find that Apple iCloud and me.com do not filter spam very well, if at all. So, I purchased a spamcop.net account. I now have set my me.com mail to be forwarded to spamcop.net for filtering. I thought I would then set my iPhone to only see filtered e-mail and ignore my iCloud account. So here is the issue... Some spam is not caught by Spamcop and I must report it, however I have been unable to find a way to forward an e-mail as an attachment from the iPhone Does anon have a hint since there is no documentation for the iPhone or MAC OSX on spam cops website.
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Time is relative, relatives take time. Mark Mettler 1994


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