On 04/02/2009 12:27, James Elliott - WA Rural Computers wrote:
I aksed my ISP why I was getting so much spam in the form of returned e-mails undeliverable to a Russian address, allegedly sent by me, but in fact I do not recognise and of the addresses I am meant to have written to - I don't know anyone in Rusia!

I sent copies of some of the bounced e-mails to my ISP, who wrote back saying:

"Hello James

The bounce back emails and spam emails you are receiving is more than likely occurring because your email address has been added to a spam list. This commonly occurs when your emails address is available on public websites. I've just done a quick search and found that your email address is available on a few websites which you can view here http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=%22jelliott%40comswest.net.au%22. This is going to be the reason why you are receiving the unwanted emails to your Inbox".

I am not pleased that writing to the Moderator of the Users List has landed me with a Spam challenge. Is there any way that e-mail can be deleted from:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=128967


As others have said it is not possible to delete email messages once you have sent them. (This is a general truth, not only applicable to users@openoffice.org). Also, as other have said, "users@openoffice.org" is not the moderator of the list. Messages to the list are only routed through the moderator if they come from unsubscribed posters. I don't know of any *explicit* way to contact the moderators of this list. Indirectly you can put something like "please Mr./Ms Moderator help me" in a message (or in its Subject line) and hope s/he's watching but ...

In my opinion, assuming you want to continue using this mailing list for support, you should do the following - which is what I have done: 1. Create a new e-mail address specially for the purpose; I used Googlemail but that's just a convenience. 2. Configure a new "account" in your your e-mail program with the relevant details but make sure you set the "Reply to" address to "users@openoffice.org". 3. Set a filter (Outlook & Outlook Express call them "rules") saying "all mail addressed to: or cc: <your_new_address> should be permanently deleted from the mail provider's server and should either not be downloaded to your computer or, if it is, should be immediately and permanently deleted".
4. Subscribe this new e-mail address to users@openoffice.org

The result of this is that your new address will receive the list's messages if and only if they are addressed to us...@openoffice.org. You will not see any messages addressed individually to your new address. When you post a message, you will see the reply if the "replier" uses the Reply or Reply All button but not if s/he tries to incorporate your address in the to: or cc: list.

The disadvantage of this is that you will not be able to use the new address to participate in off-list discussions without adding additional filters to let messages through from specific people (a "whitelist"). Mail programs process filters in the order you specify them so you must ensure that a "Joe Bloggs is OK" filter comes before the "trash everything to me personally" filter.

Some people will suggest using the Gmane News server to handle this list. That works but you need to register a contactable e-mail address in order to use Gmane and the spammers can harvest that address too, although perhaps not as easily. There are disadvantages, though, which, for me, make it a non-option. Sorry if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but in this context "mail" and "news" are *very* different even though most "mail" programs will handle both types of message.

You might want to consider using the Web Forum (http://www.oooforum.org/forum/) instead of an e-mail list or a news group. You need to register but your e-mail address is not displayed. The discussions in this list are completely different from those in the forum; there is no automatic "cross posting". It has other disadvantages too, which I won't bore you with unless you explicitly ask me to :-)

As to your existing address, it's already compromised and there's nothing you can do except tolerate the spam or stop using it and delete it from your your email program. Inconvenient I know but ...


--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org


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