On 19 Dec 00, at 7:59, Russ Hunt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> My understanding here is that this spam doesn't actually get to the
> list, then?

Right, assuming that you've protected your list adequately
(send=private or editor; subscription=open,confirm or by owner;
default-options=review, etc). Only to the list owners. It's
unfortunate that the spammers have caught on to the fact that
listname-request is an address that always works.

The bad news is that listname-request *must* transmit mail coming to
it, even if the address matches the "Filter=" keyword fot the list.
Since the purpose of the listname-request address is to contact the
list owners. The person writing in may be having trouble subscribing
or posting because a filter was defined too broadly, and therefore
that avenue of reaching help must not be cut off.

The good news is that the next version of LISTSERV (and perhaps even
the 2000b release of 1.8d?) applies LISTSERV's spam protection to the
listname-request address. So if your LISTSERV site is on the LISTSERV
network, and the spam is caught by the spam-filter, then you won't
get those particular pieces even when sent to the -request address.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a *perfect* spam-filter, so
some spam will still get through...

Francoise