On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Peter Cole wrote:
> Interestingly, I read an article in one of our national newspapers
> earlier this month on the subject. It suggested that if everyone
> forwarded all their spam to their ISP they would soon get fed up and
> sort the problem out.
This is way off topic, but as an ISP I feel compelled to correct some
misconceptions here.
If it appears in a newspaper, and if it has anything to do with the
Internet, always do further research before you believe it. I have yet to
see an Internet-related newspaper story that has been carefully
researched. If that story had been researched, the writer would never
have made that suggestion.
It is estimated that about 35% of all e-mail being transmitted on the
Internet at any given time is spam, up from estimated 10% last year and
increasing rapidly. This isn't your ISP's fault, so don't beat up on him
about it.
All reputable ISPs prohibit their customers from sending spam. That does
little good because as soon as an apprehended spammer's account is
cancelled, he just moves on to another ISP. It's estimated that the most
active spammers change ISPs as often as every week.
Unless the spam originated from another of your ISP's customers,
forwarding all the spam you receive to your ISP will just swamp him with
complaints he can't do anything about. Your ISP can stop some of the spam
that originates from outside, but not most of it. As I explained in my
previous message, in most cases there is no accurate way to distinguish
between spam and valid e-mail. If your ISP sets up strict spam filtering
rules, it will stop an unacceptable amount of valid e-mail too. Do you
really want your ISP (or anyone else) to decide what e-mail you should and
should not be able to receive? Probably not, and most ISPs operate under
the assumption that you don't.
Most ISPs do attempt to block spam to some extent. They can block e-mail
from so-called "spam domain" mail servers, mail servers that exist for the
sole purpose of distributing spam. They can block e-mail from specific
e-mail addresses known to be used by spammers. They can block e-mail from
"open relay" mail servers, mail servers that are misconfigured (usually
due to ignorance) in such a way that spammers can use them to distribute
spam. They can block e-mail from other ISPs' IP addresses used for dialup
customers, who have no business sending e-mail directly to mail servers
belonging to an ISP other than their own (a common spammer trick).
Trouble is the spam mail servers, e-mail addresses, open relays, and
dialup IPs are all moving targets. They change so fast that the blocking
mechanisms used today will be useless tomorrow. The result is that a
*lot* of spam still slips through. On my mail system I block an average
of 25,000 messages per day, but many of my customers are still swamped by
spam. There isn't much I can do about it.
If you want filtering more stringent than your ISP can provide, then use a
mail program that has filtering capabilities. The current versions of all
popular PC and Mac e-mail programs have pretty sophisticated filtering
capabilities. Take the time to learn how to use them. Just remember that
the more stringent your spam filtering is, the more valid e-mail will be
blocked along with the spam.
The best solution will be legislation prohibiting spam, but so far all
attempts at passing such legislation at the national level (in the US)
have failed. Some states have passed anti-spam legislation, but it is
largely ineffective. Besides, these days most spam originated from
outside the US, US legislation against spam won't make much difference
unless all countries pass similar legislation. There's not much chance of
that.
If you get an intolerable amount of spam the only guaranteed way to stop
it is to change your e-mail address, and then be *very* careful about how
you spread your new address around.
--
Chip Old (Francis E. Old) E-Mail:
fold@bcpl.net
Manager, BCPL Network Services Phone: 410-887-6180
Manager, BCPL.NET Internet Services FAX: 410-887-2091
320 York Road
Towson, MD 21204 USA