There are all sorts of different techniques for backtracking spammers.
I consider the type of spam, the content, the frequency and the
condition of the headers. I also distinguish between the common ISPs,
like the phone services and MSN, and the commercial ISPs, where
everything is on the internet. 

Dan
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Francoise Becker [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 4:14 PM
> 
> 
> On Thu, 29 Nov 2001 13:39:39 -0500, Dan Robinson
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> >Tracey, if you contact the spam address, they'll simply add 
> your address
> >to more lists. I had that happen to me. I tracked back a different
> >spammer to the hosting isp and told them what was happening. That
> >stopped it.
> 
> One reason why I didn't name names is that it's _possible_ that the
> organization named on the From: line was innocent and was the 
> victim of a
> mail-bomber. What better way to mail-bomb someone than to 
> make a bunch of
> list owners mad at them? The mail definitely came through 
> Pacific Bell so
> the best thing is to send all the mail headers to 
> [log in to unmask] and let
> them figure out what account really sent it -- it looked like 
> a dial-up
> account, IIRC, so assuming that they keep logs of which 
> account used which
> dial-up IP at what time, they should be able to track down 
> the real culprit.
> 
> 
> Francoise
>