[Mailman-Users] Reject by default - will the spam increase?

[Chris Johnson]

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Michael Stucki wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> due to a big spam amount, I have switched my lists to only accept mails from
> list members.
> 
> After to weeks of production use, I note that many people use a wrong email
> address (not the one they used for the subscription).
> 
> Therefore, I'd like to send a rejection response on all messages from such
> non-members.
> 
> My question is: Since spammers are non-mebmers as well, will their bots
> understand my response as a validation (this address is being read) or will
> he handle it as an error response and probably delete it from the list?
> 
> What would you do?
> 
> Thanks - michael
> 
> 
> 

     They will see any response as a notice that there is something
there to receive mail and to which more annoying spam can be sent.  
If this is a unix/linux system try MailScanner and SpamAssassin.
That's what we did.  

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Chris Johnson               |Internet: johnson at nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
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