Thread: Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
"Magnus Hagander"
Date:
> > This is truly worrisome...  I wonder if spammers today are
> basically
> > subscribing to mailing lists so that they receive the
> e-mails (seems
> > like a very obvious trick), or if they're moving to the
> next level of
> > "decrypting" the "encrypted / anti-spam" form of e-mail
> addresses (the
> > way they're displayed on the mailing list web site)
>
> Our email lists are mirrored onto web sites like Google, so I
> am thinking they got it that way.

archives.postgresql.org properly "hides" the addresses. However, they
are mirrored to Usenet News, where anybody can pick them up. Much easier
that way, I bet that's what most use.


> > Any comments?   If it is the first option above, then it feels like
> > by definition there is absolutely nothing that can be done, now or
> > ever  :-(
>
> Yes, I came to that conclusion long ago.

That's the bottom line, though. Spamfilters help, but only part of the
way.

//Magnus

Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
Peter Eisentraut
Date:
Magnus Hagander wrote:
> archives.postgresql.org properly "hides" the addresses.

If you think that spammers are unable to do s/ (at) /@/ you're living in
a dream world.

Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
"Guy Rouillier"
Date:
Carlos Moreno wrote:

> Any comments?   If it is the first option above, then it feels like
> by definition there is absolutely nothing that can be done, now or
> ever  :-(

I got an IMAP account with BurntMail.com.  I belong to a dozen mailing
lists, and haven't received any spam since getting the email account.
They obviously do aggressive spam filtering, but as far as I know I'm
getting all the email I should.  An option to consider...

--
Guy Rouillier


Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
Ian Harding
Date:
On 1/8/06, Guy Rouillier <guyr@masergy.com> wrote:
> Carlos Moreno wrote:
>
> > Any comments?   If it is the first option above, then it feels like
> > by definition there is absolutely nothing that can be done, now or
> > ever  :-(
>
> I got an IMAP account with BurntMail.com.  I belong to a dozen mailing
> lists, and haven't received any spam since getting the email account.
> They obviously do aggressive spam filtering, but as far as I know I'm
> getting all the email I should.  An option to consider...

I use Gmail which promises I will never run out of room, can tag
messages and bypass the inbox, and has a very good spam filter.
Searching is obviously pretty good too.

I noticed I got about 5 - 10 spam emails within MINUTES of each post
before I switched to Gmail, I'm sure I still do, I just don't see
them.

Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
"Jim C. Nasby"
Date:
On Sun, Jan 08, 2006 at 12:34:25AM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > archives.postgresql.org properly "hides" the addresses.
>
> If you think that spammers are unable to do s/ (at) /@/ you're living in
> a dream world.

Agreed. I'd honesly rather we drop that nonsense so I can at least cut
and paste email addresses when needed.
--
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461

Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

From
"Greg Sabino Mullane"
Date:
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>> If you think that spammers are unable to do s/ (at) /@/ you're living in
>> a dream world.

> Agreed. I'd honesly rather we drop that nonsense so I can at least cut
> and paste email addresses when needed.

I'd rather not. While obfuscation is not a surefire solution, it does help.
Quite a bit, as spammers generally go for the low hanging fruit. I've done
tests on this, and the number of spams received is far higher for
unobfuscated email addresses.

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200601101538
http://biglumber.com/x/web?pk=2529DF6AB8F79407E94445B4BC9B906714964AC8

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