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Can-Spam Compliant Sneakwrap | 10 comments (10 topical) | Post A Comment
Blocking CAN-SPAM Spam[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by tscoff on Mon May 03, 2004 at 02:21:12 PM PDT

I run my own mail server and the CAN-SPAM act has helped me block incoming Spam because a number of the spam houses are including a couple of text strings in their messages such as unsubscribe.cgi or remove.php which none of the mailing lists (such as The Gripe Log...) include in the body of the messages which I receive. This allows me to block all e-mail messages which include those strings in the bodies of the message. In addition, there is another annoying company which found the one e-mail address on my server which accepts all incoming e-mail so that if you send someone on my mail server an e-mail from a mail server which I have blacklisted you can send the e-mail to that address and it will be reviewed and then sent on. They own consumer-based.com and real-coupons.com and they actually obey the CAN-SPAM act and include that string in their Spam messages as a contact point. I started rejecting any e-mail with those strings in the headers or bodies and now I don't get any of their Spam. The CAN-SPAM act has actually reduced the amount of Spam which I receive. Not because I'm getting less or because I'm asking the Spammers to stop sending me their junk, but because they have to include certain text strings in their junk and I'm able to reject all e-mail that includes those text strings at my mail server so that I never see it.

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But doesn't that filter some legitimate e-mail?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by beamdriver on Wed May 05, 2004 at 04:04:43 AM PDT

I guess if you never want any e-mail ads of any kind, that would work. I do like a few companies that I've specifically requested to send me deals and such (geeks.com, Southwest, Linkshare, etc.) and they have those strings as well.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


So far it doesn't[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by tscoff on Wed May 05, 2004 at 05:00:20 AM PDT

So far I haven't filtered out any legitimate e-mail that way.  The spammers use different strings in their messages than the legitimate companies do and therefore that doesn't prevent the legitimate e-mail from coming through.

Eventually the spammers will figure out that they need to include links in their e-mail which are identical to the legitimate list serve unsubscription e-mail only links, and when they do that I'll be stuck accepting their junk.  Until then I will be able to easily filter out a large amount of spam using those strings without blocking/rejecting and legitimate e-mail.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



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