This may have been addressed before but I thought I'd mention it because it concerns messages spoofing RW addresses. Today's spammers seem to be focused on sending out messages to the Lists pretending to be from Rootsweb. I received a few of these this morning from this address: <ncgranvi-l@rootsweb.com> Luckily, it was caught by Mailman because it wasn't subscribed; the message contained nothing but a suspicious link, too. This was obviously an attempt to use the subscribe address to send a message to the list, but they are getting a bit more sophisticated with their addresses, though. I would advise that others be on the lookout for messages addressed similarly to their lists just in case someone taking just a casual look at the address mistakenly accepts it without realizing what it really is. Deloris Williams

I forwarded one of the messages to Rootsweb immediately on receipt inquiring as to its validity but did not receive a reply as of this morning.   Mary Ann Lubinsky ________________________________ From: Mary Ann Lubinsky <maryannlubinsky@yahoo.com> To: "JYoung6180@aol.com" <JYoung6180@aol.com>; "del_williams@comcast.net" <del_williams@comcast.net>; "listowners@rootsweb.com" <listowners@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 3:48 PM Subject: Re: [LO] Messages spoofing Rootsweb None of the messages came through any of the lists.  They were delivered to me personally in my own mailbox.  They only mentioned the lists.   Mary Ann Lubinsky ________________________________ From: "JYoung6180@aol.com" <JYoung6180@aol.com> To: maryannlubinsky@yahoo.com; del_williams@comcast.net; listowners@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 3:12 PM Subject: Re: [LO] Messages spoofing Rootsweb Mary Ann-   NEVER NEVER NEVER report ANYTHING that comes to you as admin or via a list or list request address as spam to your ISP. You won't be removed from the list unless you are reporting list messages as spam as Kathie stated...but you DO run the risk of getting RootsWeb blocked as the spammer by these ISP. The ONLY place to report any spam that spoofs RootsWeb is TO RootsWeb.   Joan   In a message dated 7/21/2012 2:38:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, maryannlubinsky@yahoo.com writes: I received 8 messages yesterday to my personal email address, 2 each for 4 of my Rootsweb lists, requesting I verify my identity by clicking on a >link.  The message said the mailing list would be deactivated if I did not >follow through.  Upon investigation, I determined they came from an AOL >address.  I reported each of these as SPAM to abuse@aol.net with a cc to spam@uce.gov because they were attempts at phishing. > > Mary Ann Lubinsky > >

None of the messages came through any of the lists.  They were delivered to me personally in my own mailbox.  They only mentioned the lists.   Mary Ann Lubinsky ________________________________ From: "JYoung6180@aol.com" <JYoung6180@aol.com> To: maryannlubinsky@yahoo.com; del_williams@comcast.net; listowners@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 3:12 PM Subject: Re: [LO] Messages spoofing Rootsweb Mary Ann-   NEVER NEVER NEVER report ANYTHING that comes to you as admin or via a list or list request address as spam to your ISP. You won't be removed from the list unless you are reporting list messages as spam as Kathie stated...but you DO run the risk of getting RootsWeb blocked as the spammer by these ISP. The ONLY place to report any spam that spoofs RootsWeb is TO RootsWeb.   Joan   In a message dated 7/21/2012 2:38:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, maryannlubinsky@yahoo.com writes: I received 8 messages yesterday to my personal email address, 2 each for 4 of my Rootsweb lists, requesting I verify my identity by clicking on a >link.  The message said the mailing list would be deactivated if I did not >follow through.  Upon investigation, I determined they came from an AOL >address.  I reported each of these as SPAM to abuse@aol.net with a cc to spam@uce.gov because they were attempts at phishing. > > Mary Ann Lubinsky > >

I received 8 messages yesterday to my personal email address, 2 each for 4 of my Rootsweb lists, requesting I verify my identity by clicking on a link.  The message said the mailing list would be deactivated if I did not follow through.  Upon investigation, I determined they came from an AOL address.  I reported each of these as SPAM to abuse@aol.net with a cc to spam@uce.gov because they were attempts at phishing.  Mary Ann Lubinsky ________________________________ From: Deloris Williams <del_williams@comcast.net> To: listowners@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 2:06 PM Subject: [LO] Messages spoofing Rootsweb This may have been addressed before but I thought I'd mention it because it concerns messages spoofing RW addresses. Today's spammers seem to be focused on sending out messages to the Lists pretending to be from Rootsweb. I received a few of these this morning from this address: <ncgranvi-l@rootsweb.com> Luckily, it was caught by Mailman because it wasn't subscribed; the message contained nothing but a suspicious link, too.  This was obviously an attempt to use the subscribe address to send a message to the list, but they are getting a bit more sophisticated with their addresses, though.  I would advise that others be on the lookout for messages addressed similarly to their lists just in case someone taking just a casual look at the address mistakenly accepts it without realizing what it really is. Deloris Williams

Jim, I didn't mean to leave the impression this was a government office, because it wasn't that I know of. In my own personal case it was DOD and we all knew the security rules and that there is little expectation of privacy, except on a secure account. The earlier example happened to be a lawyer's office who asked me to unsub their employee, but that kind of surprised me. This one today with the lady complaining at being unsubbed was just a commercial business of some sort, nothing out of the ordinary. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net -----Original Message----- From: James R. Davis [mailto:james.davis1@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 5:32 PM To: 'David E. Cann'; 'Listowners List Posting' Subject: RE: [LO] Removed by her employer? Hello David, As you probably remember it is officially fraud, waste, and abuse to use government equipment and time for personal use. It is up to each organizations management to dictate to their IT departments on how much they will tolerate. When use becomes excessive they must crack down on be subject to being accused of collaborating with miss-use of government equipment. I'm finally retired but where I worked there were filters for pornography but not for investments or for genealogy. There could have been filters on these or other topics but I didn't know about them. However our IT specialist monitored all use and would send out friendly notices to cut back or be reported to their supervisor or higher. This was enough to keep things under control. Our management did get reports on a routine basis of attacks from outside sources and abuse by employees. I worked as a civil servant for the U.S. Air Force. Peace, Jim

I think you gave her good advise. Don't use her work email since they won't allow it, and get a free web account. It will do no good to resub her work address because it will only bounce off again, and only she can take charge of her mailing list activity. I bet her employer has already talked to her about personal emails! But there is nothing that you can do. I commend you for doing a good job at being an admin. Joan On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 4:35 PM, David E. Cann <decann@infionline.net> wrote: > How do you explain to a subscriber who is subscribed from her work address > that it was (I presume) her boss and not RW who has rejected her incoming > mail, ultimately causing her to bounce off not only my list but others as > well? I keep all bounce and sub/unsub notices for several weeks for just > this reason, and she clearly bounced off the list because her ISP (her > employer) began returning her list mail as undeliverable, not only for my > list but for an unknown number of others, and she wants me to put her back > on them. :-( > > I've explained I am only capable of doing that for one of the lists that I > happen to admin, but suggested she might want to resub herself using a > personal email account. I am not sure I want to suggest talking to her boss > about it at this point, although I suppose that is an option. :-( > > Several years ago, I had a sort of similar situation only I had received a > message from a manager or some such in the asking me to unsub an address > from a business account. I got advice at the time from RW asking what I > should do, because I was not comfortable doing on request of "a third party" > and I was told to go ahead and do it, or the Listmaster (not the current > one) said he would do it if I preferred. Interesting situation, to say the > least, but as a former employee of the Pentagon I know some organizations do > monitor (AKA read it) incoming and outgoing email for security reasons. > > > David E. Cann > decann@infionline.net > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

On 7/17/2012 5:28 PM, David E. Cann wrote: > Jim, > > I didn't mean to leave the impression this was a government office, because > it wasn't that I know of. In my own personal case it was DOD and we all > knew the security rules and that there is little expectation of privacy, > except on a secure account. The earlier example happened to be a lawyer's > office who asked me to unsub their employee, but that kind of surprised me. > This one today with the lady complaining at being unsubbed was just a > commercial business of some sort, nothing out of the ordinary. > > > David E. Cann > decann@infionline.net David: Most commercial organizations these days have "use policies" regarding IT assets, including bandwidth, which either prohibit or limit personal use. Enforcement is highly variable. The only thing that surprises me about an employer requesting an unsub is that it doesn't happen more often (especially when employees leave). There are any number of legitimate reasons why an individual's e-mail address would stay active after termination. Darrell

The people that use their business email accounts are the ones most likely to send "Out of the Office" replies. And as we know, that is a vicious cycle. Get them on moderation right away. Gene At 03:35 PM 7/17/2012, David E. Cann wrote: >How do you explain to a subscriber who is subscribed from her work address >that it was (I presume) her boss and not RW who has rejected her incoming >mail, ultimately causing her to bounce off not only my list but others as >well? I keep all bounce and sub/unsub notices for several weeks for just >this reason, and she clearly bounced off the list because her ISP (her >employer) began returning her list mail as undeliverable, not only for my >list but for an unknown number of others, and she wants me to put her back >on them. :-( > >I've explained I am only capable of doing that for one of the lists that I >happen to admin, but suggested she might want to resub herself using a >personal email account. I am not sure I want to suggest talking to her boss >about it at this point, although I suppose that is an option. :-( > >Several years ago, I had a sort of similar situation only I had received a >message from a manager or some such in the asking me to unsub an address >from a business account. I got advice at the time from RW asking what I >should do, because I was not comfortable doing on request of "a third party" >and I was told to go ahead and do it, or the Listmaster (not the current >one) said he would do it if I preferred. Interesting situation, to say the >least, but as a former employee of the Pentagon I know some organizations do >monitor (AKA read it) incoming and outgoing email for security reasons. > > >David E. Cann >decann@infionline.net > > > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Companies have the right to set limits on use of email for non-company business. To date, over 10 years, I received 2 or 3 requests to remove such email addresses from mailing lists. Lucky ones? owners of businesses can use business account for their own ends and they usually set examples to employees on when to use for personal matters. David Samuelsen On 7/17/2012 4:28 PM, David E. Cann wrote: > Jim, > > I didn't mean to leave the impression this was a government office, because > it wasn't that I know of. In my own personal case it was DOD and we all > knew the security rules and that there is little expectation of privacy, > except on a secure account. The earlier example happened to be a lawyer's > office who asked me to unsub their employee, but that kind of surprised me. > This one today with the lady complaining at being unsubbed was just a > commercial business of some sort, nothing out of the ordinary. > > > David E. Cann > decann@infionline.net

How do you explain to a subscriber who is subscribed from her work address that it was (I presume) her boss and not RW who has rejected her incoming mail, ultimately causing her to bounce off not only my list but others as well? I keep all bounce and sub/unsub notices for several weeks for just this reason, and she clearly bounced off the list because her ISP (her employer) began returning her list mail as undeliverable, not only for my list but for an unknown number of others, and she wants me to put her back on them. :-( I've explained I am only capable of doing that for one of the lists that I happen to admin, but suggested she might want to resub herself using a personal email account. I am not sure I want to suggest talking to her boss about it at this point, although I suppose that is an option. :-( Several years ago, I had a sort of similar situation only I had received a message from a manager or some such in the asking me to unsub an address from a business account. I got advice at the time from RW asking what I should do, because I was not comfortable doing on request of "a third party" and I was told to go ahead and do it, or the Listmaster (not the current one) said he would do it if I preferred. Interesting situation, to say the least, but as a former employee of the Pentagon I know some organizations do monitor (AKA read it) incoming and outgoing email for security reasons. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net

Hello David, As you probably remember it is officially fraud, waste, and abuse to use government equipment and time for personal use. It is up to each organizations management to dictate to their IT departments on how much they will tolerate. When use becomes excessive they must crack down on be subject to being accused of collaborating with miss-use of government equipment. I'm finally retired but where I worked there were filters for pornography but not for investments or for genealogy. There could have been filters on these or other topics but I didn't know about them. However our IT specialist monitored all use and would send out friendly notices to cut back or be reported to their supervisor or higher. This was enough to keep things under control. Our management did get reports on a routine basis of attacks from outside sources and abuse by employees. I worked as a civil servant for the U.S. Air Force. Peace, Jim -----Original Message----- From: listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of David E. Cann Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 1:36 PM To: Listowners List Posting Subject: [LO] Removed by her employer? How do you explain to a subscriber who is subscribed from her work address that it was (I presume) her boss and not RW who has rejected her incoming mail, ultimately causing her to bounce off not only my list but others as well? I keep all bounce and sub/unsub notices for several weeks for just this reason, and she clearly bounced off the list because her ISP (her employer) began returning her list mail as undeliverable, not only for my list but for an unknown number of others, and she wants me to put her back on them. :-( I've explained I am only capable of doing that for one of the lists that I happen to admin, but suggested she might want to resub herself using a personal email account. I am not sure I want to suggest talking to her boss about it at this point, although I suppose that is an option. :-( Several years ago, I had a sort of similar situation only I had received a message from a manager or some such in the asking me to unsub an address from a business account. I got advice at the time from RW asking what I should do, because I was not comfortable doing on request of "a third party" and I was told to go ahead and do it, or the Listmaster (not the current one) said he would do it if I preferred. Interesting situation, to say the least, but as a former employee of the Pentagon I know some organizations do monitor (AKA read it) incoming and outgoing email for security reasons. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I also receive unsubscribes all of the time, which I assume has been done because the address was sending out SPAM to some of the lists and ListMaster universally unsubbed the address. I have all of my lists set to notify me when a new subscription address is requested, and then I set the address for moderation until at least a couple of messages posted by them prove to be authentic and genealogy related. That way, even if it was one that was sending SPAM previously and had been unsubbed, I can control the messages and keep it from reaching the lists. Deloris Williams -------------------------------------------------- From: "Bradford H Miter" <bradmiter@earthlink.net> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 12:30 PM To: <Listowners-L@rootsweb.com> Subject: [LO] An automated unsubscribe > This morning I received notice of an 'unsubscribe' to one of my list > followers. It was followed almost immediately by a request to be > re-subscribed by the puzzled member. I did not see the offending spam > message so I guess the ListMaster did the deed. But, I think it would > behoove us to verify with an unsubscribed 'ex?' member whether they did > indeed wish to leave the list. And, I also placed the member on > moderation > to see what happens in the near future. > > > > I am also notifying my list of the possibility of an unrequested > 'unsubscribe'. > > > > Brad Miter > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

The person unsubbed is probably either the one with the hijacked account OR someone who erroneously reported the LIST spam as spam to their ISP. I know AOL and other ISPs keep a log and send their spam logs to RootsWeb and RW then unsubs anyone reporting list mail as spam from the list they reported. This helps to prevent the ISPs from blocking RW as spam. Joan In a message dated 7/17/2012 1:35:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, bradmiter@earthlink.net writes: This morning I received notice of an 'unsubscribe' to one of my list followers. It was followed almost immediately by a request to be re-subscribed by the puzzled member. I did not see the offending spam message so I guess the ListMaster did the deed. But, I think it would behoove us to verify with an unsubscribed 'ex?' member whether they did indeed wish to leave the list. And, I also placed the member on moderation to see what happens in the near future. I am also notifying my list of the possibility of an unrequested 'unsubscribe'. Brad Miter

This morning I received notice of an 'unsubscribe' to one of my list followers. It was followed almost immediately by a request to be re-subscribed by the puzzled member. I did not see the offending spam message so I guess the ListMaster did the deed. But, I think it would behoove us to verify with an unsubscribed 'ex?' member whether they did indeed wish to leave the list. And, I also placed the member on moderation to see what happens in the near future. I am also notifying my list of the possibility of an unrequested 'unsubscribe'. Brad Miter

Keep your fingers crossed! -----Original Message----- >From: Deloris Williams <del_williams@comcast.net> > > Now that would be something that could be a big help. That would give us >the flexibility to stop it before it reaches the lists. > >Deloris > > >-------------------------------------------------- >From: "Lynne" <lklein@mindspring.com> > >> Deloris, because of the proliferation of spam with no subject lines, I've >> asked that messages without subjects get bounced to our Pending messages. >> Listmaster said he would look into doing that. >> >> Best wishes, >> Lynne

Now that would be something that could be a big help. That would give us the flexibility to stop it before it reaches the lists. Deloris -------------------------------------------------- From: "Lynne" <lklein@mindspring.com> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 4:20 PM To: <listowners@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [LO] Preventing Spam on Lists > Deloris, because of the proliferation of spam with no subject lines, I've > asked that messages without subjects get bounced to our Pending messages. > Listmaster said he would look into doing that. > > Best wishes, > Lynne > > -----Original Message----- >>From: Deloris Williams <del_williams@comcast.net> > >> >>AOL users were by far, the majority of the SPAM that I saw last week. >>They hit not only my lists, but just about all of the additional 50 or so >>lists I'm subbed to. What I'd like to know, isn't there some way that RW >>can prevent messages with "No Subject" hitting the lists? In my own email >>client, I have set such messages to go to my junk mail folder, so I don't >>see why it would be so difficult to set the RW filters for something >>similar. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Deloris, because of the proliferation of spam with no subject lines, I've asked that messages without subjects get bounced to our Pending messages. Listmaster said he would look into doing that. Best wishes, Lynne -----Original Message----- >From: Deloris Williams <del_williams@comcast.net> > >AOL users were by far, the majority of the SPAM that I saw last week. >They hit not only my lists, but just about all of the additional 50 or so >lists I'm subbed to. What I'd like to know, isn't there some way that RW >can prevent messages with "No Subject" hitting the lists? In my own email >client, I have set such messages to go to my junk mail folder, so I don't >see why it would be so difficult to set the RW filters for something >similar.

Deloris, People responding to those darned links are not so surprising when you consider the large number of newbies, people who truly believe "it can't happen to me," and yes even some who truly do not know better. There are far more of them than you might think, and they are most likely the "lurkers" on the average list who we as Admins never hear from until a certain message appears on the list with no subject line and little more than a link in the message body. What I am amazed at is the fact that I am personally aware of at least three of my fellow List Admins out there (no names mentioned) who have been globally unsubbed from RW (yes, including all of the lists they administer) for the very same reason. It can happen to anyone, including another admin, but in that case it is hard to understand how it happens. :-( Just my two cents worth, FWIW. It truly CAN happen to anyone though, and if you think it can't happen to you then you are just plain wrong. I confess that some time ago I myself was caught by a virus no less than twice in a span of a single month. I definitely knew better at the time, though it was many years ago, and both times it happened 100% because I let my guard down at the time and I let them both in. I am speaking from experience when I say I truly dislike seeing it happen to anyone, no matter the circumstances. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net -----Original Message----- From: listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Deloris Williams Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 3:56 PM To: listowners@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LO] Preventing Spam on Lists It's such a shame that something that seems so simple is so complicated. And what's so bad, there are still people out there who don't use any caution when they see those messages come through with just a link and no explanation, they click onto it without a second thought. I've seen where people who see those messages also pass those same links on in other lists just to ask what do others think about the link. Talk about going viral! Deloris

It's such a shame that something that seems so simple is so complicated. And what's so bad, there are still people out there who don't use any caution when they see those messages come through with just a link and no explanation, they click onto it without a second thought. I've seen where people who see those messages also pass those same links on in other lists just to ask what do others think about the link. Talk about going viral! Deloris From: JYoung6180@aol.com Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 12:02 PM To: del_williams@comcast.net Cc: listowners@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LO] Preventing Spam on Lists Deloris- I beat you to it on this suggestion...quite some time ago I requested that they block ALL messages going to lists that 1) have no subject AND 2) have ONLY a link in the body of the message. I realize that some posters leave the subject blank either by accident or they just don't know better. BUT, I've never seen a legit post with both no subject AND only a link. These are always spam. Listmaster had already spoken with board techie staff when I asked about it and he told me that the time involved with setting that up would be prohibitive and that it wasn't as easy as we might think. So I doubt it will be happening. Joan In a message dated 7/16/2012 12:51:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, del_williams@comcast.net writes: AOL users were by far, the majority of the SPAM that I saw last week. They hit not only my lists, but just about all of the additional 50 or so lists I'm subbed to. What I'd like to know, isn't there some way that RW can prevent messages with "No Subject" hitting the lists? In my own email client, I have set such messages to go to my junk mail folder, so I don't see why it would be so difficult to set the RW filters for something similar. Deloris Williams

Deloris- I beat you to it on this suggestion...quite some time ago I requested that they block ALL messages going to lists that 1) have no subject AND 2) have ONLY a link in the body of the message. I realize that some posters leave the subject blank either by accident or they just don't know better. BUT, I've never seen a legit post with both no subject AND only a link. These are always spam. Listmaster had already spoken with board techie staff when I asked about it and he told me that the time involved with setting that up would be prohibitive and that it wasn't as easy as we might think. So I doubt it will be happening. Joan In a message dated 7/16/2012 12:51:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, del_williams@comcast.net writes: AOL users were by far, the majority of the SPAM that I saw last week. They hit not only my lists, but just about all of the additional 50 or so lists I'm subbed to. What I'd like to know, isn't there some way that RW can prevent messages with "No Subject" hitting the lists? In my own email client, I have set such messages to go to my junk mail folder, so I don't see why it would be so difficult to set the RW filters for something similar. Deloris Williams