On 10 Jan 2005 at 9:54, John Howell wrote: > At 8:12 PM -0500 1/9/05, David W. Fenton wrote: > > > >Current problems with challenge/response systems are mostly due to > >pilot error. > > > >The problems are not inherent in the systems themselves, but in > >people's lack of familiarity (or lack of understanding) of how the > >systems should be used. That will change over time. > > The reason I refuse to respond to any such challenges is quite > simple. They are indistinguishable from any other spam message that > asks me for a response to establish that I'm dumb enough to deserve > more spam. . . .
Well, except for one key fact: when not received in error (as in the case of the messages from the dumb subscriber to this list who hasn't included the list address in his whitelist), they come from someone you have recently emailed. > . . . And if spammers aren't using this format to harvest live > addresses already, they most certainly will. That's what I'd call an > inherent problem. If spammers are smart enough to check the recipients in my outgoing email and spoof challenge/response messages from those correspondents, then email is completely dead. But I really don't think that's the case. Also, keep in mind that this only happens once with each correspondent -- once you've been whitelisted, it's just like normal, old-fashioned email correspondence. I understand the annoyance over the current problem on the list. But it's happening because the user hasn't configured the service correctly, not because of something inherently wrong with challenge/response systems. And I have news for those of you who ignore them: you'll eventually be on an island all by yourself, with no email correspondents except spammers. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
