support@microsoft e-mails is a VIRUS

[Martin Pool]

On 20 May 2003, jw schultz <jw at pegasys.ws> wrote:

> > > Is there anyway you can stop sending these e-mails to everybody on the list?
> > > I've received maybe 3 or 4 of them since yesterday.
> >
> > One possible solution to reduce the spam/virus traffic on the list would
> > be to close the list so that only people on the list can send to it.
> 
> The rsync team has, so far, rejected that approach.  We want
> to keep the list as open as possible.

Many people post to the list without subscribing, because it is the
main support forum for a product.  It is not really "closed" in the
way that a list for a development team is.

So there would be a lot of mails blocked.  If they're automatically
bounced then it is annoying for rsync users.  If they're deferred then
the delay is annoying, and somebody needs to spend time reading
through the queue.  At the moment I don't think that would be a good
use of time.

The only real solution is to send spammers and virus writers to jail.

In the mean time we have set up spam and virus filters.  As jw says,
you are only seeing a small fraction of the literally hundreds of
attacks we suffer every day.

-- 
Martin