On legitimate addresses: In the past I've seen many legitimate people provide fake 'reply to' addresses for newsgroups. And I've seen alot of spam using real domains, but not theirs. If you're looking to filter out x% of spam and don't mind losing y% of newsgroup/mailing list mail, you're fine. On testing validity: You'll also need to recognise that ping tests wont be a good test for a domain, as some firewalls discard packets on this port. A website wont be a good test for a domain either, as some mail servers don't have a related web address (the University I attend has a [EMAIL PROTECTED] address format). Checking the ip resolution of the domain may have to be good enough. Red herring: Maybe try to communicate with their SMTP server. I think I recall some way of testing whether a user existed on the SMTP server, but I doubt it exists anymore (otherwise spammers would use it to find more accounts). Other: Nice idea though. I've thought of similar things, such as having a multitude of addresses, one for every use (one for CFAussie, one for a particular client, one for a particular project, etc.). When I start getting spam on one address, send out an email to the relevant newsgroup/contacts who I use the address for then close it down and replace it with a new one. The contacts have been informed, so when they accidently send to the old address they should realise, or they can contact via phone. -Matt
> I'm at a point now, where i'm about to go postal and the mention of > Viagra or Mortgage Loans via the net. > > But.. > > I heard on the radio this morning, some QUT propella-head has designed > a "Spam firewall". Basically what it does is it verifies the actual > domain of an email address, and if it comes back as unknown host, > *spam*. > > Got me thinking, in that what if you had two accounts. Primary is what > you give out, its the one you can feed out to lists/forums/pornographic > web forums...err..um..websites...... and so on. CFPOP will check that > email once every X minutes, cycle through a db and find which "domains" > aren't inside it and do a ping/pong test on the domain itself. If it > passes, it redirects the mail to your "secret" secondary account for > you to download anywhere anyhow. > > Then once a week, you can log into the primary catchment area and see > the "undecided" emails aswell as the "spam" ones, to make sure > everythings cooking with gas. > > Whats your thoughts on such a concept? Its pretty basic and its flaw so > far is that it could take up to 5-20mins for your email to come through > on first time callers. > > Regards > Scott Barnes > CodeMonkey For Hire. > - > http://www.mossyblog.com > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aussie Macromedia Developers: > http://lists.daemon.com.au/ --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/
