send=public is practically begging for trouble.  The list name will get
discovered by some spammer/virus/trojan and the list will become the
target of junk mail and it will distribute the junk mail, unless you put
some kind of protective measures in place.  A good spam-detector/filter
in the incoming mail path will help, but none of those are perfect and
some garbage will get through.  Configuring the list to have all items
moderated will help keep the list itself clean, but will drive the
moderator nuts wading through the garbage that gets through.  There is
the confirm,non-member option that can reduce the garbage flow, at the
price of extra work for those who send to the list without being
subscribed.

We're even seeing incoming spam targeted to lists that were
CONFIDENTIAL=YES at the moment of initial creation, so somebody
somewhere received traffic from them and then was compromised by
virus/trojan/hacker or something, is all I can figure - but there is no
way I can identify that will reveal where the spam-generator got the
list address.  If you have to have general-audience subscribers,
apparently it is impossible to completely conceal the existence and
identity of a list.

>>> [log in to unmask] 10/18/2007 9:15:13 AM >>>
Follow up for viagra emails.
I have had numerous calls like below. These students all belonged to a
particular open listserv list with replies to sender. I have closed the
list for now. Aren't these messages actually coming from the list and
maybe appearing to come from the user? List is send= public.
I believe we may require in the future that if a public list is
requested that it be edited. Any thoughts appreciated.

spam is being sent out from user's email account
she is receiving emails from other JMU users who have received the
messages to remove them from her list
this problem has been occurring for multiple people
told user to email [log in to unmask]






Steve Eckard
IT Specialist
James Madison University
MSC 5735
568-8191