[SC-Help] Re: Spammers getting smarter?

[Bert Driehuis]

Mike Easter wrote:

> Eek!  I'm seeing none over the 'life' of my SP usage and you are seeing
> 10 a week.
> 
> Something is wrong with your SP configuration then.  [...]

Determining if a given piece of e-mail is spam requires two things: the 
technical insights in how to tell forgeries from unforged e-mail (the 
latter category comprising both desired e-mail and spam that doesn't 
hide its origin). The second is insight into (if not a perfect 
administration of) outside parties whose stuff was actually requested.

Most users cannot be left with the technical determiniation. Many users 
have no clue what they subscribed to. In the hands of users who do 
cannot give a positive answer to both considerations, tools that make 
spam reporting user friendly also make the same tool idiot friendly.

I do not want to take sides in this particular discussion, not knowing 
the complete facts from eiter side, but I take exception to the 
suggestion that a mechanical tool like SpamPal can replace human oversight.

That said, users who use tools they do not understand whilst being 
warned of the dangers deserve to be strung up together with the 
spammers. I usually give them one bite of the apple (I know, I'm not a 
hardcore anti-spammer), but second offense and into the blocklist they 
go (together with parties I expect to take action if I requested 
assistance from such parties, like postmasters of small sites).

I've added a couple of users of a tool that deliberately sends reports 
to innocent bystanders to my private blacklist, together with the 
company that sells that piece of crap. As the bold warning on the 
SpamCop submission form notes so eloquently, "The last thing SpamCop 
wants are network administrators so accustomed to false claims that they 
no longer take these spam reports seriously."

Again: this is not a comment specifically about SpamPal, but if a tool 
makes it easy to inappropriately report non-spam, caution is called for. 
Even if ultimately it's pilot error. Too many people trust their tools 
over their judgement.