Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Sun, Aug 05, 2001 at 09:53:36PM -0400, Diane M. Kurilecz wrote:
> So, is mail from computer.org, Mindspring, or AOL somehow being monitored by
> someone?  Or is this just a coincidence, and someone just randomly tried to
> send mail to a name which happened to be mine?

Could be any of these. But most likely, it's just random chance. Open up
a completely new hotmail or yahoo account and just watch the spam come in.

> Secondly, what is the deal with the numbers (usually five digits) at the end
> of most UCE these days?

That's so when you report them as spammers, they can trace it back to
you, confirming that the account worked (so they can spam you again) or
so that they can put your address into their personal remove list so as
to avoid getting their accounts yanked.

> And finally, what filtering systems are folks using these days?  I'm
> getting tired of seeing this crap, but don't want to miss legitimate
> mail.  My mail comes through a POP account at RoadRunner; Mom uses
> AOL.  (She is pretty good at not replying to most of the UCE, but
> she is on a lot of mailing lists and frequents AOL Chat Rooms.)

I'm using procmail in combination with a couple of heavily modified
spam/consistency checking sendmail rulesets. It's working pretty well.

Tip: filter everything with "   " in the Subject: into a special spam
folder. I'd say that will catch about a third of the spam you get. 

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