SPAM, IEMMC, and Caller ID

Thu Oct 30 01:08:53 UTC 1997

Hi there -- I subscribed to this mailing list for the express purpose of
replying to things that have been said on the subject of unsolicited bulk
e-mail.

Phil Lawlor of AGIS has suggested that a "Caller-ID" type of functionality
be built into sendmail. Do I think that is a good idea? In a general sense,
it probably is -- accountability is a Good Thing, and a mechanism such as he
suggests will probably help situations where mailbombs, Denial of Service
attacks, or harrassment have occurred and the perpetrator has to be found.

Will it help reduce spam? Absolutely not. People will find ways to "block"
the "caller ID", and not everyone uses sendmail as a mail server anyhow.

Phil also mentioned that he spent a sizable sum of money on the IEMMC and it 
ended up going nowhere. That might possibly be because the IEMMC was run,
apparently, by Walter Rines. Walter Rines is owner of Quantum
Communications, a big spamhaus that was (until recently) hosted by AGIS. I
question the wisdom of putting a spammer in charge of an organization that is
supposed to reduce spam levels for people who don't want to be spammed.

Would you put a convicted murderer in charge of a program designed to 
rehabilitate criminals? Probably not. 

Incidentally, Mr. Lawlor, if you really *are* participating in this
discussion because you are interested in lowering the level of spam that
gets dumped on the Net on a daily basis, I commend you for your change of
heart. Those of us who frequent the news.admin.net-abuse newsgroups would be
quite proud of you.

-- 
 NACS.NET ** Steve Sobol (sjsobol @ nacs.net) *** 216 619-2000, 1-888-273-NACS
 Tech Support, Programming, Postmaster, DNS dude,  Real-Live Human Abuse Auto-
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