Like most people here I have an email address on amsat.org that automatically relays to my primary email address.
I get a **lot** of spam via this path; a quick check shows that fully 96 out of 244 recent spam messages (as classified by Gmail) received at my primary email address had been addressed to, and relayed via, k...@amsat.org. I'm tempted to just ask that my forwarding alias be turned off, but I have found this service handy myself in reaching other AMSAT members so I hesitate to do this. Would there be interest (and would it be possible) to modify the amsat.org email service to, instead of forwarding the mail, return a simple canned message saying that amsat.org member so-and-so can be reached directly at <your canonical email here>? This could be implemented with the existing vacation reminder service, which most UNIX-based email systems provide. When enabled, it returns a reminder to the first message from each distinct sender and optionally declines to deliver the original message. This does create the risk that spammers will merely harvest our email addresses from the bounce notices. But most spammers don't even provide a valid reply address, much less look at anything it gets. But just in case, you could spell it out in one of the usual obfuscated ways that require a human to interpret it. E.g., the forwarding notice could give my primary email address as "karn (at) ka9q (dot) nXXet, remove the two 'XX's". Ideas? --Phil _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
