On Tuesday 09 February 2010, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>OK All,
>
> Please let me know if anyone has seen this one before.
>
> We have SA configured to insert "*****SPAM***** in the
>beginning of the subject lines of spams before sending them on to
>customers, then mail the message as an attachment to the user
>along with the SA report as to why it's spam.
>
> Lately I've seen a new trick the spammers are using.
>
> They are putting characters in the subject line that
>are not text characters - I don't know what they are,
>I haven't looked into this closely yet. Our SA installation
>is correctly tagging this as spam and sending it forward
>to the user.
>
> The problem is the mail client program, specifically
>Thunderbird. There must be a bug in T-bird that is tickled
>by these non-text characters because although the Subject
>line exists with ***SPAM*** in it if I look at the actual
>message in the mailbox with an editor, T-bird displays
>the subject line as a BLANK subject. Of course, since the
>Subject is blank then you don't see that it is SPAM and
>you have to go to the bother of opening it before you see
>the SA report that it's spam.
>
> This has only happened to a few spams so far, and I want
>to nip it in the bud.
>
> Now, why don't I just write a rule in T-bird that trashes mail
>that has a blank subject line, I hear you ask?
>
> It's because we have a few moronic customers who seem to
>think it's OK to send out e-mails with blank subject lines!!
Put a valid subject line required into your TOS, mail it to everybody, & then
do it a day later, bounce it at them if no subject line content. They will
either jump ship in which case offer to hold the door, or come around and do
it right in a day or so.
> It would be most useful if when SA was creating the subject
>lines of the e-mails with the spams attached, that instead of
>just blindly copying over the Subject line from the spam and
>inserting the *****SPAM***** in front of the subject, that
>SA stripped out all the non-text characters in the Subject
>line.
>
> Any suggestions appreciated! (even the smart-ass ones but
>they have to be clever)
>
>Thanks!
>Ted
>
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Hurd and architecture in one sentence? Uh-oh...
- Al Viro on linux-kernel
