Re: Man gets nine years for spamming

From: Michael Pelletier (mjpelletier_at_mjpelletier.com)
Date: 04/24/05 

Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 04:24:50 -0700

Moe Trin wrote:

> In article <a2kae.63251$A31.19035@fed1read03>, Michael Pelletier wrote:
>
>>1) SPAM is not a SECURITY issue. It is a nuisance. Not counting SPAM that
>>are phising. Now don't say emailed viruses are SPAM because everyone
>>filters incoming email to remove Defanged MIME attachments and dangerous
>>file types. I am sure, rather hope, you have some sort of filtering of
>>your incoming email...
>
> And how many st00pid prospective customers to you loose because they don't
> know any better than to send HTML mail - or even freakin' PowerPoint
> presentations to you as ordinary mail. I've got a sister that bad - and I
> have been pounding on her for years to not send me 'Multi-part
> Alternative' mail to no avail.

I filter html mail but, I only remove the HTML link tags from the links and
language scripting. This mainly is to prevent those users that just love to
blindly click...as for attachments, I use two techniques. For customers
that we exchange a lot of data with, I use an sftp server. There is a nice
client I found for it named winscp. I works nice and even novice users can
use it. For those rare occasions when a customer does not have an account
but, they need to send something that is otherwise filtered, I will tell
them to rename the file extention as ".txt" then send it...
 
>>2) You seem to not be able to comprehend that not everyone has the same
>>business model as you. You may be able to block countries, but I can not.
>
> The number of businesses that do not, and never will have, an
> international field far outnumber those that do, just as the number of
> businesses with totally clueless fools handling the network services far
> outnumber those with a functional brain.

Don;t get pissed. Since this stupid post has begun, people have been saying
block this block that without realizing that it does not fit the type of
company I work for...Now, I agree with you that if you can get away with
blanket address blocking then it is not a bad idea. It certainly is the
easyest and does not take much work or technical abilities.

>>For the last time, we have sales people. They travel a lot. In fact most
>>have a 80% road time to 20 % office time. Most travel overseas. Their
>>travel includes but, is not limited to, China, S Korea and most of S.
>>America.
>
> Well, at least we know you are not working with an airline because they
> have a presence in the countries where they do business (and in many
> cases, other countries as well).

No, I do not work for an airline...

>>What do sales people do when they travel. They sell. They hand out their
>>business cards to anyone that will take it. So what do you do? Do you
>>include a disclaimer on your business cards that reads "If you come from
>>these countries, CHINA, Etc, ETC, sorry we do not except email from you."
>>Do you really think that is a good idea?
>
> If your company wants to do business overseas, you should have a point of
> presence there - or at least nearby. Can't afford an office there? Fine,
> that's what reps are for.

I agree. Absolutely. However it is not my call. All I can do is the best I
can with the restraints being what they are.

>>3) Why should I block email from various countries because of SPAM when I
>>can accurately nuke it? You guys have never answered this question yet.
>
> Must be wonderful to be perfect. Are you sure your alternate name isn't
> Alan Connor? Do you know how many countries there are with working
> intern et service? Do you do business in the Ukraine? How about Nigeria?
> Brazil? Actually, we do. In the case of Brazil, my phone book lists three
> offices, though I suspect one may be a local rep. All contact from Brazil
> is proxied through the Rio facility. Don't your DNS guys know how to do
> that?

First no reason to be sarcastic. It was, and still is, an honest
question...I have received a lot of crap because I handle the problem of
SPAM differently than most. I responded by asking a logical question. Why
should I change when I can safely and effectively neutralize it without
blanket IP block filtering. And still no one has answered it...and who the
hell is Alan Connor? I sincerely hope we have not regressed to name
calling. Don't make me break out my "moma" jokes...

>
> Old guy

Michael 

-- 
"Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems." -
Linus Torvald

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