not exactly fighting back

Story: 6 Simple & Safe Postfix Changes for Over 95% Spam ReductionTotal Replies: 10
Author Content
tuxchick

Nov 19, 2007
12:49 PM EDT
It's a pretty good article with good explanations of Postfix's built-in filtering options. However, while the author claims no false positives in six weeks of use, most admins won't be so lucky, because these checks will also reject mail from mis-configured servers, which unfortunately are legion. Using RBLs is also perilous, even the ones listed in the article, which are pretty reliable. If you expect to get a lot of mail from strangers, using these options will cost you some legitimate messages. OTOH if you're a grumpy hermit who can easily whitelist who you want to hear from (and the article should have mentioned whitelisting), then it's good tactics.

It's not really fighting back- it's just building a bigger umbrella and taller waders for weathering the shitstorm. Fighting back would be a slick, automated way to trace the buggers back to their sources and fry them on the spot.
tracyanne

Nov 19, 2007
1:52 PM EDT
Quoting:Fighting back would be a slick, automated way to trace the buggers back to their sources and fry them on the spot.


Now that is an idea that has real appeal.
Sander_Marechal

Nov 19, 2007
2:13 PM EDT
If you can invert it, you'll be a millionaire. As will the guy who invents a device that allows you to slap people over the internet :-)
ColonelPanik

Nov 19, 2007
2:31 PM EDT
/slap
pcatiprodotnet

Nov 20, 2007
7:23 AM EDT
BlueFrog from "Blue Security " in Israel did just that - it fought back a little too well; so the spammer mafia threatened to assassinate their families.
tracyanne

Nov 20, 2007
12:07 PM EDT
Quoting:the spammer mafia threatened to assassinate their families.


They must have been very effective, good.
jezuch

Nov 20, 2007
4:25 PM EDT
Quoting:They must have been very effective, good.


Not really... AFAIR BlueFrog collapsed under spammers' fighting back the fighting back. It's no longer operating.
tracyanne

Nov 20, 2007
5:35 PM EDT
damn
Sander_Marechal

Nov 20, 2007
9:46 PM EDT
After BlueFrog collapsed, a number of new projects were started that hoped to fill the gap. The most promising was using the same technique but over a p2p network to remove any single-point-of-failure. However, most of these projects seem to have died. Too bad, because BlueFrog was pretty effective indeed.
jacog

Nov 21, 2007
12:44 AM EDT
I have a special hatred for spammers. Not sure why... there's something dirty about it I just can't explain. When I receive an email where every single potentially filterable word is intentionally misspelled, I have to ask myself if anyone actually trusts these people enough to buy any product from them.

And they are everywhere. I used to work for an online dating site, and spammers would constantly join as members. My wife and I recently started playing World of Warcraft... and you run into characters in there all the time with names like "Gsdjkfhsjkdfhsdfasf" who try and spam you with their "We sell Warcraft gold" spam.

jezuch

Nov 21, 2007
5:07 AM EDT
Quoting:I have to ask myself if anyone actually trusts these people enough to buy any product from them.


Apparently yes. The best proof of this is that the spammers are still sending spam. They would stop if it wasn't worth it.

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