Thanks for all the good information and advice Life's a learning curve ...
especially in IT.
James
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold Fuchs" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 5:49 AM
Subject: Re: [users] Spam challenge from being on this list.?
On 04/02/2009 12:27, James Elliott - WA Rural Computers wrote:
I aksed my ISP why I was getting so much spam in the form of returned
e-mails undeliverable to a Russian address, allegedly sent by me, but in
fact I do not recognise and of the addresses I am meant to have written
to - I don't know anyone in Rusia!
I sent copies of some of the bounced e-mails to my ISP, who wrote back
saying:
"Hello James
The bounce back emails and spam emails you are receiving is more than
likely occurring because your email address has been added to a spam
list. This commonly occurs when your emails address is available on
public websites. I've just done a quick search and found that your email
address is available on a few websites which you can view here
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=%22jelliott%40comswest.net.au%22.
This is going to be the reason why you are receiving the unwanted emails
to your Inbox".
I am not pleased that writing to the Moderator of the Users List has
landed me with a Spam challenge. Is there any way that e-mail can be
deleted from:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=128967
As others have said it is not possible to delete email messages once you
have sent them. (This is a general truth, not only applicable to
[email protected]). Also, as other have said, "[email protected]" is
not the moderator of the list. Messages to the list are only routed
through the moderator if they come from unsubscribed posters. I don't know
of any *explicit* way to contact the moderators of this list. Indirectly
you can put something like "please Mr./Ms Moderator help me" in a message
(or in its Subject line) and hope s/he's watching but ...
In my opinion, assuming you want to continue using this mailing list for
support, you should do the following - which is what I have done:
1. Create a new e-mail address specially for the purpose; I used
Googlemail but that's just a convenience.
2. Configure a new "account" in your your e-mail program with the relevant
details but make sure you set the "Reply to" address to
"[email protected]".
3. Set a filter (Outlook & Outlook Express call them "rules") saying "all
mail addressed to: or cc: <your_new_address> should be permanently deleted
from the mail provider's server and should either not be downloaded to
your computer or, if it is, should be immediately and permanently
deleted".
4. Subscribe this new e-mail address to [email protected]
The result of this is that your new address will receive the list's
messages if and only if they are addressed to [email protected]. You
will not see any messages addressed individually to your new address. When
you post a message, you will see the reply if the "replier" uses the Reply
or Reply All button but not if s/he tries to incorporate your address in
the to: or cc: list.
The disadvantage of this is that you will not be able to use the new
address to participate in off-list discussions without adding additional
filters to let messages through from specific people (a "whitelist"). Mail
programs process filters in the order you specify them so you must ensure
that a "Joe Bloggs is OK" filter comes before the "trash everything to me
personally" filter.
Some people will suggest using the Gmane News server to handle this list.
That works but you need to register a contactable e-mail address in order
to use Gmane and the spammers can harvest that address too, although
perhaps not as easily. There are disadvantages, though, which, for me,
make it a non-option. Sorry if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs
but in this context "mail" and "news" are *very* different even though
most "mail" programs will handle both types of message.
You might want to consider using the Web Forum
(http://www.oooforum.org/forum/) instead of an e-mail list or a news
group. You need to register but your e-mail address is not displayed. The
discussions in this list are completely different from those in the forum;
there is no automatic "cross posting". It has other disadvantages too,
which I won't bore you with unless you explicitly ask me to :-)
As to your existing address, it's already compromised and there's nothing
you can do except tolerate the spam or stop using it and delete it from
your your email program. Inconvenient I know but ...
--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please reply *only* to [email protected]
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