Re: web bugs and html logs controlled by spammers: Which is exactly why I turn off all images etc. in my browser before I open any mail in my "spam" folder. (On my workstation I also run WebWasher and PopUp Stopper to cut down on the clutter I see in everyday browsing.)
Likewise, I ban spamvertisement hosts (at least, the ones I notice and judge worth the effort) in the corporate web proxy software, and look for "web bug" style URLs in my spamhint.txt filter file. I have no need to help the spammers track which of their messages actually got read. I report all the mail that makes it to my Inbox to SpamCop, which in turn feeds into the ip4r systems I rely on for the corporation. FWIW, I also tried SpamAssassin Pro as an Outlook add-in; the trial was very effective. As far as fighting back, fake bounce messages may be effective against FlowGo or some other "professional" spam outfit, but as mentioned by wiser heads, in general, you'll be sending those fake bounce messages to fake addresses. There is probably a place for the technique, but I suspect it's not worth the effort. Some of our ancient e-mail addresses are fine spamtraps simply because the spammers don't listwash much based on bounces; they'd been receiving bounces for 2 years yet still kept serving up that spam. A better approach might be to establish a more general, aggressive defense. Instead of just tightening up your borders, or implementing a single teergruber for mail, how about implementing Tom Liston's LaBrea: http://www.hackbusters.net/ In a nutshell, you run this software on one machine parallel to your firewall, and tell it to absorb all unsolicited traffic to the IP addresses in your subnet that you know are empty. Even better, also implement the referenced perl module to make a nice HTML report page *and* rat out the unwanted visitors to Dshield.org ... And hey, none of this is for the faint of heart... --- [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus (http://www.declude.com)] --- This E-mail came from the Declude.JunkMail mailing list. To unsubscribe, just send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and type "unsubscribe Declude.JunkMail". The archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com.
