*PLUG*
  Hope you'll pardon this - I don't make a habit of sending blatant plugs
to the list, but I thought this one might be relevant. [The editorial is
much longer than the plug btw]
 
  As an avid e-mail communicator, like many of you on this list I'm sure, I
also get my share of spams. I'm sure many of you are noticing that these seem
to be coming with more frequency and to more people. (I don't refer to the
idiots cross-posting irrelevant Mac... postings to the list, but to the people
that are sending irrelevant and unsolicited advertisements to thousands or
tens of thousands of people's e-mailboxes.) As some of you may know, several
companies have sprung up to provide just this "service".. i.e. they write
software that steals e-mail addresses from posts to newsgroups, web pages,
and anywhere else they can find them; then sell their "advertising services"
to (sometimes) unsuspecting companies looking for targeted ad audiences.
  One of the vendors at HP World actually mentioned to me that they were
considering "e-mail advertising" over the Internet. I tried to talk him out
of this, but he seemed to see only dollar signs and didn't seem disuaded by
my arguments that this was not a good way to portray a positive image. I don't
know if anyone else on this list is contemplating this tact, but I strongly
urge you to talk to some e-mail veterans (people that have been using the
Internet for some time) and hear for yourself how people feel about getting
these things. I get the feeling that most people considering the e-mail
advertising route really have little or no experience in using e-mail, and
no understanding of the battle those trying to use it for "real" work are
going through.
 
  Anyway, the point of this message. #1 I would hope to discourage any casual
users out there that may have read the trash books being sold by the likes of
the infamous green-card attorneys and think that e-mail advertising is an
easy way to make a million $$$s. Secondly, for those NetMail/3000 users out
there (including the freeware version); we've added a new feature to NetMail
which allows you to automatically refuse to accept any incoming mail from
a (configurable) list of addresses. Arguably better than "kill" files used
by other mailers; we actually refuse to accept the message at all - causing
it to be bounced back to whomever sent it. [the bounce is handled by the
SENDING system - since it never gets accepted into our system at all - so
even those "clever" spammers using false return addresses get their own junk
back.] Not only does it NOT clutter up your users' inboxes, it clutters up
the senders inbox with "undeliverable" message notices.
 
  This enhancement will roll out in NetMail/3000 version B.05 (also in the
freeware NetMail, POP Server, and DeskLink products). We'll provide you
with a list of know spammer addresses to start you off with; addresses like:
 
[log in to unmask]
*creditwise.com
*valleynet.net
*sftcell.com
*moneyworld.com
delores*@ix.netcom.com
delores*@gis.net
 
("*"s are wildcard characters.)
 
(B.05 will be available on our web and ftp sites within a week or so.)
 
Hope this saves some of you some time and frustration.
 
               Chris "Don't spam me" Bartram
 
 
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