From: dhesi@ether.rahul.net Subject: how to beat earthstar.com at its own game Date: 4 Dec 1996 22:14:06 GMT Organization: a2i network HOW EARTHSTAR.COM WORKS: [25 Dec 1996: BTW, I suspect that other junk email sites such as sallynet.com, telysis.com, and isp-inter.net have a similar modus operandi.] They have software that filters out flames, letting only legimitate inquiries get through. I assume they do it by filtering out copies of the junk email, and filtering out messages that contain typical keywords included in protests. The person sending junk email can maintain his normal accounts in other places and use earthstar for sending junk email. He gets only the legitimate inquires, which may be a tiny fraction of replies. HOW TO BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME 1. When you get junk email from earthstar.com, send back a brief request for more information, or with a specific question. Make it sound very real, and be polite, as if you are a prospective customer of whatever service they are offering. 2. You will get a reply in which the sender will usually include his web page address and/or normal email address. 3. POST IN THIS NEWSGROUP THE FULL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION. Use the same subject heading as this posting, so we have a single thread with all the information. 4. Send a complaint to the sender and cc it to his service provider. For example, the junk email sender daniel@earthstar.com turned out to be daniel@inetnow.com, so I sent him the message below. Do this for each junk emailer from earthstar.com. The same should also work for addresses at isp-inter.net. Once their real email addresses become public, the autofiltering services provided by the junk email services become useless -- they get unfiltered complaints directly and so does their service provider. ===== Date: Tue, 03 Dec 96 17:51:09 PST From: Rahul Dhesi To: Daniel Decker cc: lpark@inetnow.com (tech contact inetnow.com), postmaster@inetnow.com Subject: junk email Replied: Wed, 04 Dec 96 13:00:52 -0800 To: Daniel Decker aka daniel@earthstar.com You are hereby put on notice that users at our site do not wish to receive unsolicited junk email from you, which we believe you have been sending in large quantities using the email address daniel@earthstar.com, at the site earthstar.com which appears to be devoted to sending large quantifies of unsolicited junk email. Rahul Dhesi hostmaster & postmaster a2i communications network operations ===== -- Rahul Dhesi "please ignore Dhesi" -- Mark Crispin