Hi all, I have noticed a marked increase in spam mails to this and other lists. This is annoying but even more annoying is the flood of mails that always follows as people flame the list instead of the original sender. So for those of you who are new to anti-spam and spam-relay measures if you run a mail-server update it to the latest spam proof mail program available such as sendmail 8.9.2 and then configure it to reject spam. Under redhat 5.2 the simplest way to do this is to use linuxconf to configure the mailserver. If you want to flame a spammer then be VERY careful that you are flaming the right person. Spammers KNOW they are going to get flamed and use false domain names or "borrow" an inocent persons account. Examine the mail headers to try and find the original sender use traceroute and DNS lookup to determine if the MX domain address address is real. if the address is a real one use the whois lookups run by internic and ripe etc and you will be able to find the techinical contact and company name for the MX record belonging to the domain from which the mail originated. Then you can PHONE them up and complain in person which is much more effective na unpleasent for them. You can write and complain to their ISP which will get their account closed. You can add their domain name to the anti-spam lists on the web. All of which is very much more satisfying than flaming the wrong person or list. Lastly if you do not understand how to carry out the above measures DONT DO ANYTHING - until you do. Cheers and best wishes all, Hillary
