[Mailman-Users] spam discard expressions

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Sorry, I've been ignoring Mailman for a few days, and I guess you've
got a solution that works already.  This is a pair of alternatives
that each have some advantages and disadvantages compared to your
regexp-based solution.  FWIW, YMMV

Jim Dory writes:

 > Apparently our host provider performs spam tests only on outgoing,
 > rather than incoming - since my spamassassin blacklists don't have
 > any effect.

Your spamassassin blacklists will have no effect on Mailman, since
Mailman is not you.  Ask your provider how to configure this.  I
strongly recommend this in preference to any measures in Mailman as it
reduces the burden on the host.

 > So I've discovered the filters offered in Mailman after being
 > completely buried by spammers trying to post to our subscriber only
 > list.

I suppose you have cPanel, and I don't know much about their web
management interface.  If it's similar to vanilla Mailman, in Privacy
Filters -> Sender Filters near the bottom, there is an option
"generic_nonmember_action".  You can set that to Discard if you're
sufficiently sure that members always use their subscribed address, or
are willing to have members using unsubscribed addresses to post have
their posts silently discarded.

I recommend STRONGLY against using Reject, as that often results in
"backscatter", which is spam to "borrowed" addresses in "From".

This measure will be effective against all of the spammers in the list
below.  It will not work against spammers who spoof your subscribers'
addresses.

HTH

Steve