Spamcop listed - need help to diagnose why

[jdow]

From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at toybox.placo.com>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
>>> 
>>> Unfortunately, jdow, since your using this setup, the spammer has
>>> already successfully delivered the mail to you.  The fact that you
>>> delete the spam before reading makes no difference - the spammer
>>> doesen't know that and thinks they have successfully delivered it.
>>
>>No they have not. They've managed to get it onto my machine, 
>>transiently.
>>It never got delivered to ME, the organic unit here at this email
>>address.
> 
> I know that and your arguing out of your hat - simply pulling statements
> out of context.  You know perfectly well that the "to you" in the
> sentence was to your machine, the paragraph context told you that.
> 
> Unfortunately in the spam game, it only matters if the spammer
> thinks they didn't successfully deliver it to you.  And that only
> happens if the machine delivering the spam gets an error when
> trying to deliver it, since the spammer isn't using legitimate
> senders addresses and cannot get feedback any other way.

Sonny, you define it your way and I'll define it mine. The object
is to not bug the user with spam. The secondary object is to keep
the machine load for spam as low as possible. You have a priority
inversion there.

> I've never been a fan of post-filters for this reason.  For some
> kinds of filtering - like content filtering for example - that
> is the only way you can do it.  But I think it the height of
> strangeness when SA checks blacklists and such to assign scores.
> If they really cared about spamfiltering, they would use the
> IP blacklists in the way they are intended - to block access
> completely to the spammer, not even let them connect to the
> server at all.  The mail that SA is assigning scores on based on
> an IP blacklist shouldn't even be in the SA filter to begin with.

People do that and discover they have blocked paying customers and
the like. If you are going to raw block on black lists at least
setup a scoring system that has some wide testing behind it.

>>> Denying the spam before it's even accepted into the server is a
>>> much better way.  Unfortunately, a content filter means you have to
>>
>>If you can make fetchmail do that you're pretty clever, kemo sabe.
>>
> 
> No, but I can replace the Rube Goldberg fetchmail arraingement your
> using with a real mailserver that is on the Internet all the time
> and can make use of blacklist servers and such.
> 
> And yes, I'm just as good at making smart-alecky comments as you
> are.  Probably better at it, actually.  Do you want to knock it
> off and go back to the technical merits discussion now? ;-)

I happen to put a priority on other things. "Good enough is good enough."
If I were to get into serious tinkering it would be with software defined
radios rather than the mail system when it's working perfectly well for
the needs here at this site. Of course, YMMV.

{^_^}