Thanks for the various ways of doing this.  

Ive tried some of this (will try the others) but I almost always end up
having Listserv send back an email (backscatter) of some sort saying 'your
not authorized'.  Given the level of junk mail I get plus the amount of
replies received to my backscatter creating loops just creates a lot of
useless work.


However what im wondering a method exists to just delete any such messages
without a reply of any sort silently. 


(the /etc/alias script idea is good but still creates load on the machine.
If you add the junk mail im getting to those from other admins of other
lists im not sure it will be preferable? )
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: LISTSERV site administrators' forum 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Russell
> Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 5:57 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: How to prevent spam
> 
> On 2/1/2007 09:26, A. Omer Koker wrote:
> >  
> > I have the same issue.  I get over 400-500 junk 
> messages/day.  Wont this
> > create additional mail traffic since probably most of the 
> mail are from
> > spammers without a real return path?   
> > 
> > 1 - How can I  " | /dev/null"  mail from non members silently?
> > 
> > 2- Alternatively, thinking of an announcement list how can 
> I " | /dev/null"
> > mail from ALL BUT owners and editors (including members)?
> > 
> 
> If all of the editors are also owners, you could change the 
> list configuration
> to:
> 
> 	* Send= Owner,Confirm
> 
> A message with a sender address which is an owner address 
> will result in a
> posting confirmation request to the apparent sender. This 
> will prevent forged
> messages from being posted to the list, unless someone 
> confirms a message that
> he/she did not actually send. A message with a sender address 
> which is not an
> owner address will be rejected.
> 
> If some editors are not owners, you could change the list 
> configuration to:
> 
> 	* Send= Private
> 	* Default-Options= NoPost
> 
> then, set all subscribers to NoPost:
> 
> 	quiet set listname nopost for *@*
> 
> then, add the editors as subscribers and grant them posting rights:
> 
> 	quiet add listname editor-address
> 	quiet set listname post for editor-address
> 
> A message from anyone, member or non-member, who is not 
> explicitly authorized to
> post to the list will be rejected.
> 
> No matter which of these options you choose, there will be 
> some backscatter in
> the form of rejection messages, unless you modify the list 
> templates to suppress
> the rejection message.
> 
> It is virtually impossible to eliminate all backscatter 
> without violating the
> spirit, if not the letter, of at least one RFC, however, a 
> site can reduce
> backscatter by using an aggressive spam filter in front of 
> their list server.
> Our anti-spam appliance is the MX host for our list server. 
> Messages which
> receive a spam score in excess of a specified threshold are 
> diverted to a
> special quarantine mailbox which I monitor. When I find a 
> legitimate message in
> that quarantine mailbox, I redirect the message to the 
> original recipient
> address. When I redirect a delivery error message to an 
> owner- address, I use my
> own address as the sender address. On those extremely rare 
> occasions when I
> redirect a message to a list address, I use the original 
> sender address as the
> redirecting sender address, so that the message is posted 
> with the original
> sender's address, not my address. Some email clients do not 
> support message
> redirection, or do not do it properly. I use Thunderbird with the Mail
> Redirect extention, and it works correctly.
> 
> -- 
> Paul Russell, Senior Systems Administrator
> OIT Messaging Services Team
> University of Notre Dame
> [log in to unmask]
>