Webmaster Forum / Perl / DBI Library / March 2010

I'm brand new here, feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt, ignore me altogether, etc.

Being brand-new, I'm not sure how big a problem this type of spamming is for you guys, but, the way we avoid it on Oracle-L, is that new subscribers are immediately subscribed to the list and start receiving email, but, new subscribers posting privs are disabled.  In order to gain posting permissions, you're required to send a polite email, requesting it, to the Oracle-L admins (which is myself and Steve Adams, currently).  The admin has to login to the website and explicitly enable posting privileges.  It's a bit of a hassle, but, our signal to noise ratio is extremely high, and spamming is nearly impossible.  If someone is a troublemaker, you can temporarily, or permanently ban them, and new subscribers can't take the hit-and-run approach of subscribing an account, spamming, and then abandoning the account.

It's a bit more work for the admins, but, speaking as one of the Oracle-L admins, and Oracle-L is a pretty busy list, the workload of granting new subscribers posting privileges is pretty low.  Steve is pretty inactive these days, and I handle pretty much all the day-to-day stuff, and I get, around 1-4 requests for posting privileges a day.  As I'm pretty active, I usually handle them as they come in, but, one could also just check the email once a day, at a specific time, and run through everything there.

I'm not sure how big this list is, how frequently you get new subscribers, etc, nor do I have any idea how big the spam problem is here, but, I thought I'd mention an idea for an alternate approach.

As I said, I'm brand new here, feel free to ignore all of the above....

-Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Beddoe [mailto:Neil.Beddoe@raidllp.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 1:04 PM
To: dbi-users@perl.org
Subject: RE: spammer on dbi-users

They'll only use another address if you do.  There are a lot of these originating from Hotmail accounts at the moment.

-----Original Message-----
From: jeff [mailto:jeff@roqc.no]
Sent: 25 March 2010 16:57
To: dbi-users@perl.org
Subject: spammer on dbi-users

Who's ever the dbi-users group monitor, please shut this annoying person
off:

Kenneth Webber <mp34ken@hotmail.com>

.

This message is intended only for the use of the person(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain information which is privileged and confidential. Accordingly any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender as soon as possible.

It is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument or as an official confirmation of any transaction, unless specifically agreed otherwise. All market prices, data and other information are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. Any opinions or advice contained in this Internet email are subject to the terms and conditions expressed in any applicable governing Marble Bar Asset Management LLP's  terms and conditions of business or client agreement letter. Any comments or statements made herein do not necessarily reflect those of Marble Bar Asset Management LLP.

Marble Bar Asset Management LLP is regulated and authorised by the FSA.

Another option is to moderate the list, maybe by putting all new subscribers on
moderation by default and then taking them off after their first post, or
something.  I seem to recall that many other Perl lists are moderated, but that
it is done so well you hardly notice.  I've basically never seen a spam on a
Perl list save for this handful. -- Darren Duncan