ADVISORY: Unsolicited spams to list members ADVISORY: Unsolicited spams to list membersApparently, someone is distributing the list of subscribers to this list as
of a few weeks ago. We turned off the "review" function, so it is no longer
possible to retrieve a list of subscribers -- an important feature back in
the days when trust rather than greed dominated the informal arrangements
that made these lists succeed.
If you receive mail that was unsolicited and contains a sales pitch, my
advice is:
* First time: send a message to the sender saying, "Please remove me from
your list. I'd rather not receive your mailings on any subject. Thank you."
* Second time: send a message and cc the postmaster@that.site.com (the
address is almost always postmaster@address.com) saying that you've already
asked to be removed and you're continuing to receive unsolicited mail from
that site.
* Subsequent times: send a message to the postmaster saying that the user
(and supply the email address) continues to ignore your requests, and that
you would like them informed in strenuous terms that they must cease and
desist sending email.
You should attach the original mail message with the full header as "proof"
that the user actually sent the mail in the first place.
If enough people adopt this approach (or something similar), any spam will
be met with so many "remove me from your list" replies, that it will be
difficult to justify sending out spams in the future.
That won't stop some people, but this is an idea on how to limit this kind
of behavior.
--
Glenn Fleishman * Point of Presence Company * Seattle, WA, USA * info@popco.com
"Trend Watch" columnist, Adobe Magazine
Moderator, Internet marketing discussion mailing list.
For list info, send INFO INET-MARKETING to LISTPROC@EINET.NET