[SpamCop-List] Re: How can I report SPAM *without* opening the e-mail?

[Mike Easter]

Andy Miller wrote:

> I use MS Outlook.

I don't use OL, the MAPI client for MS Office suite which serves as a
message/email client for the suite.

I think OL is a terrible agent to be using to handle spam and spam
reporting -- it wasn't designed to store mail in an appropriate format
to be submitted to anything, including spamcop, abuse desks, or anything
else which needs the original form of the received mail message.

At one time SC spamcop wouldn't even handle OL mail for parsing and
processing.  Eventually SC buckled under the demand of the popularity of
those who used it for their mail handling.

You are posting here with OE Outlook Express, which is an excellent app
to handle the issue of spam parsing and reporting.  It is a completely
different agent in that regard than OL and the two should not be
confused with each other.  Many people use the term 'outlook' to mean
OE.

> I'm happy to do the Options-Headers thing and
> report all headers but I really don't like actually opening the SPAM
> mail.

You are absolutely correct in your assessment that that is an extremely
bad operation.  In a perfect world, no one would ever read a spamsubject
or spamfrom to determine if something were spam or not, no one would
ever open a spam for the purpose of a similar determination, no one
would ever open a spam in order to report it.

There are a great many spam reporting operations which can proceed
forward very nicely without opening any spams.  A person can use a
sophisticated spamfilter to determine what is spam and what is not
without ever opening a spam, and a person can report spamsources via
spamcop without ever opening a spam.

> Sure I have virus scanners but still I don't like opening mail
> that was unsolicited and from an unknown source.

We are in complete and total agreement on your concern.

> I read somewhere that forwarding from Outlook wasn't "good enough"
> but even if it were the operation of forwarding would open the e-mail.

Forwarding is an ambiguous term.  The term for OE is 'forward as
attachment' -- that option is not available for OL users without some
kind of third party addon which is described here
http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/122.html  Outlook does not
properly forward mail with the headers and message body intact. It is
not possible to use SpamCop's email submission system with Outlook
unless you use one of the below add-on programs or similar macro.

> Can't I just send in a report with the whole *unopened* e-mail as an
> attachment?

You can do that with OE.  You can do that somehow or other with the
3rdparties at the link above.

IMO it would be better if you didn't report spam or even handle spam
with OL, but instead did it some other way.

If I wanted to use OL on my goodmail, I would have some good filter
separate all of my spam so that none of my spam ever reached OL's store
system, and then I would report my spam not with OL.

I have no idea how I would do that right now -- since I don't use OL.
If I did use OL I would either figure it out or not report spam.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin