On Thu, 2020-06-11 at 18:50 +0200, Alex Woick wrote:
> Marc Roos wrote:
> > 4. auto reply with something like (maybe with a wait time of x
> > hours):
> >     Your message did not receive the final recipient. You are
> > sending
> > from a known spam provider
> >     network that is why we blocked your message. Please confirm
> > that:
> >     - you are not a spammer and
> >     - you have permission to use the mail adress you send your
> > message to
> >     - you and your provider agree to uphold GDPR legislation
> >     - you and your provider are liable for damages when breaching
> > any of
> > the above.
> >     
> > 
> >     Click link to confirm and you agree with the above
> >     
> > https://www.domainwithoutletsencryptcertificate.com/asdfasdfadsfaf
> > 
> 
> This is bad practice on multiple levels, please don't do this.
> 
> - arbitrary valid email addresses are used as sender address by
> spammers 
> to avoid being blocking as unknown sender. Whenever one of your
> users 
> gets a spam mail, some innocent unknown user gets the "click on the 
> link" message by your mail system. It's not spammers are using
> always 
> their own usernames. Many spammers also use their spammer address 
> database as sender addresses as well.
> - by sending the "click on the link" message you acknowledge to a 
> spammer some email he spammed is valid and not unknown. This is a
> kind 
> of information that should not be disclosed to spammers.
> - two persons who are both behind such a system are not able to 
> communicate to each other, because they never receive the "click on
> the 
> link" message. It is blocked by the other mail system and replied 
> automatically by another "click on the link" message. Both mail
> systems 
> are sending these messages endlessly to each other. It's the "chicken
> or 
> egg" problem.
> - "click on the link" messages are considered bad practice, because 
> users must not be educated to click on links in unexpected emails.

Additional reasons this is a bad practice:

- you are placing the burden of reducing the spam in your system on all
the non-spam-sending users who wish to communicate with your users.
- by raising the "cost" of sending legitimate mail to your users, you
will of course receive less legitimate mail along with less spam.
- for business transactions this costs business/money; eg. if faced
with such a system upon initial contact, I myself would choose to not
"click the link" and merely go to a competitor if there are other
reasonably equivalent businesses.  not an absolute deal breaker, but
definitely a strong turn-off.


-- 
Jesse Norell
Kentec Communications, Inc.
970-522-8107  -  www.kci.net

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