Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:28:20 -0400
From: Jim Kling <jkling at nasw.org>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: SpamArrest
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Ted White wrote:

>>This might be of interest to those of you for whom spam is a major
>>problem. It's called Spam Arrest (http://www.spamarrest.com/), and it
>>works by sending an email response to anyone who emails you for the
>>first time, directing them to go to a web site and manually confirm
>>their existence. They are then added to your authorized sender list, so
>>it only needs to be done once. I imagine you can manually add people to
>>the authorized sender list as well, but I haven't read into it that far.
>>
>>If anyone uses it, I'd be interested to hear your impressions. A bit
>>drastic for me to pursue just yet, but I may consider it in future.
>>
>
>How would a list like this confirm that it wasn't spam?
>
The spammer won't go jump through the hoop of going to a web page and
doing the confirmation.

What really appeals to me about SpamArrest is that it generates backlash
against the spammer -- he gets a confirmation email sent right back to
him. Send 100,000 emails to 100,000 people using SpamArrest or a similar
service, and you're server would crash.

--
Jim Kling
science writer
Rockville, MD
http://nasw.org/users/jkling