user's e-mail address is everywhere on the Web 6

[hinesward]

I've got a PIA user who bitches a lot about all the spam he gets. I recently told him that our filter catches about 400 spams per day. That isn't enough for him.

I decided to google for his e-mail address. I wasn't surprised by what I found. I got 57 hits. Two of them were our company web site, and the rest included lots of different sites.

Obviously it's good for the company that our people write articles on-line and get the company's name out there. At the same time, these users are doing something that causes them to get a lot of spam.

And I know he isn't the only one.

 

[mrdenny]

I agree with Pat. My email address is published all over the web as I write articles and speak at user groups and they all have my email address posted.

We use Exchange at the office, and with the SPAM settings set about as low as possible almost all spam going to be is captured.

You can't blame people for getting spam. There are spammers out there that will find a domain name, then start sending emails to every possible address on the domain looking for which ones bounce and which ones don't. The ones that don't are added to the spam database to be sold.

Denny
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[gbaughma]

mrdenny:

Exactly. Even my email server at home has been "Harvested" several times, by a distributed network even! Can't even block the harvesters, because I'll get a half-dozen from one PC, then it continues the next half dozen from another machine elsewhere in the world.



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[ousoonerjoe]

Nobody in this entire discussion has come up with a valid solution to the actual problem.

If my users are going to put their e-mail addresses everywhere on the Web, then they should accept the spam that will inevitably come from doing so. First and foremost, you avoid spam by keeping your e-mail address out of spammer databases.

If you have a company policy about using their company email address for personal use, then notify their supervisor and/or HR when they have violated the policy. You pop enough of them and the message will spread like wildfire through out the organization about it.

Two things will happen: 1) they'll learn to live with the SPAM they get so not to bring attention to it to IT, or 2) they will stop using their corporate email account for personal use.

Unfortunately, I've found you have to treat users like kids sometimes. If you bust a couple of them, the others will avoid "getting in trouble". They don't have to like IT, but they do have to respect the rules and guidelines set forth just like any other policy and procedure. I make no exception for SPAM complaints when the user violates the policy. Valid emails being filtered are one thing, but SPAM not being caught because of the user's disregard to the rules is their problem, not IT's. We in IT have too much to do as it is than play with SPAM filters and users that constantly create work for us because of their own actions.

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