raedts Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Hello, the ammount of spam is getting too much to go through the held mail daily, but I am always afraid that some "real" e-mails are between them. So I wonder, can I configure my account sin a way that people sending mail, who are not on my white list, get an e-mail back wich they have to confirm? That would spare me a lot of time. I know some other systems use this kind of service. Regards, Ludo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenUnderwood Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 You are talking about a challenge/response system. From dialog from some of the "old-times" (I use that term in the best possible way), SpamCop used to use a system like that but stopped when a major flaw in that method was discovered. Any c/r system I have heard about uses the envelope-from entry in the message to return the challenge. The problem is that the envelope-from is easily forged and usually is on spam and viruses. This means that the challenge system is actually spamming the addresses forged in the spam and viruses it is protecting the registered user from. It is just deflecting the problem onto someone else, which is not very nice. For more heated debate/explanation of the problem, search for challenge/response in these forums and on the newsgroups. Some people don't care who their actions are hurting as long as they are not receiving spam and viruses. When I get a challenge for a message I did not send, I actually respond so I can tell them about the problem they are causing other users. Of course this response also lets the original spam and/or virus through to them, which is a sad side effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Challenge/response systems do not work you should avoid them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 for a few "choice" discussions on the merits of C/R, take a few minutes and head over to the following previously hashed over items; http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=85 http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=100 http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=234 http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=614 You'll note that there's just a bit of duplication <g> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.