[amsat-bb] Microsoft et al throw AMSAT baby out with the bathwater.

[Joe Fitzgerald]

On 6/18/2014 9:07 PM, Jim Sanford wrote:
> Comcast is blocking a bunch of stuff as well.
>
> The spammers are winning.
>

We are doing OK with garden variety spammers ... so far this week the 
AMSAT mail server has blocked   97,257 spam e-mails.

It is the "phishers" variant of spammers in this particular case .... 
those guys trying to trick you into thinking that your bank is sending 
you an e-mail, and getting you to click on a web link that goes to a 
fake site that looks like your bank, and then harvesting your username 
password, account number etc.

Many large e-mail providers including Microsoft, Yahoo! amd AOL have 
responded by refusing to accept mail that has a "From:" address that 
does not match the domain of the server that is actually sending the 
e-mail.    This is a business decision ... they want to prevent their 
customers from getting malicious e-mails, and don't want to see their 
company's name in the news.     AMSAT's mailing list and aliases "look 
like" phishing attempts since they say they are from one domain, but are 
actually sent from another.

There is no easy solution - every alternative has some sort of downside, 
but we are working on alternatives for affected AMSAT members.

If you are curious for more details, put "Yahoo! Breaks! Every! Mailing! 
List! In! The! World!" into your favorite search engine.

-Joe KM1P