Re: FN-FORUM: Boxtrapper

date posted 21st November 2007 08:59

Quoting Rob Owen [EMAIL REMOVED]

> I have become totally pi$$ed off by the amount of spam I have been receivi=
ng
> lately.
>
> I do have a spam filter on my mail client, but I want to implement somethi=
ng
> server side.

You should look at something like SpamAssassin. Spamassassin with =20
Bayesian checking turned on works wonders. I've also heard good things =20
about greylisting - but I haven't tried this yet.

> I was wondering if anyone had used Boxtrapper before, or something similar=
.
>
> Boxtrapper works by whitelisting verified email addresses and only
> delivering mail from whitelisted sources.
>
> If you were to send me an email and you were not whitelisted then that
> message would be placed in a queue and you would receive an email asking y=
ou
> to verify that you are a real human being and not an automated mailer. All
> you need to do to verify your email address is to reply to the verificatio=
n
> message.
>
> Once verified, your address is added to the whitelist and any queued
> messages are delivered. Verification is required only once.

That's a challenge/response system. They are quite common and =20
generally disliked. Making legitimate people jump through extra hoops =20
in order to email you is just rude.

See the section on criticisms at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge-response_spam_filtering

> I know that people are inherently lazy or too busy to be bothered verifyin=
g
> their email address and just wondered whether they would be put off by
> having to do this.

If I get a challenge/response verification mail from someone who I'm =20
trying to get in touch with then I just ignore it and they don't get =20
the mail. Usually it's from someone who has initially emailed me =20
asking for some help.

Sometimes I get a challenge/response verification mail that has been =20
triggered by a spam mail that has been forged to look like it comes =20
from me. Those ones I always respond to.

We've discussed systems like this before here, and I don't think that =20
you'll find that my opinions are very unusual.

Cheers,

Dave...