From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
these?

Adrian

--

acrafer@spam/orpheusmail.co.uk

Adrian Crafer <acrafer@spam/orpheusmail.co.uk> wrote:
> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
> emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
> these?

It's coming from Google Groups and is affecting large numbers of newsgroups.
Google don't care, in fact they don't even know what newsgroups are. This
group is not moderated and so there is no way to filter it at source. Your
news provider could decide to do so, that is up to them (ie probably they
won't).

I have a filter set for
Message-ID: *googlegroups.com*

which zaps all of it, although it does zap the legit posters from Google
Groups too. I unblock specific From: addresses which helps get a few of
them back, but that's a manual job (and I only find out about them when
somebody quotes them enough to include their email address, otherwise they
are completely hidden)

Theo

In article <+tF*Zi-sz@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

> I have a filter set for Message-ID: *googlegroups.com* which zaps all of
> it, although it does zap the legit posters from Google Groups too

So far, Ctrl-selecting the whole bunch in one move and bin it, is good
enough for me.

Paul

On 18/10/2023 12:30, Adrian Crafer wrote:
> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
> emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
> these?
>
> Adrian
>
I get the odd few. Two yesterday for example but nothing before that for
a good while.

--

In article <ugoqsa$3mtaq$1@dont-email.me>, Sniffer
<sniffer@dewberryfields.co.uk> wrote:
> On 18/10/2023 12:30, Adrian Crafer wrote:
> > From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of
> > junk/scam emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who
> > could block these?
> >
> > Adrian
> >
> I get the odd few. Two yesterday for example but nothing before that
> for a good while.

I got several as well.

--
Chris

In article <abbf3ff55a.bz36@orpheusnet.co.uk>,
Adrian Crafer <acrafer@spam/orpheusmail.co.uk> wrote:
> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of
> junk/scam emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who
> could block these?

Sure are a nuisence, I have now set a filter in !Pluto to dump anything
containing #### in the subject and will se what happens.

--
Stuart Winsor

Tools With A Mission
sending tools across the world
http://www.twam.co.uk/

On 18 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
Adrian Crafer wrote:

> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
> emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
> these?
>
It's Usenet, not e-mail (your news client is downloading a distributed
public newsfeed rather than messages being sent out individually by
e-mail to everyone on a list - it's more like an RSS feed), and there is
no moderator.

Some Usenet groups, like comp.sys.acorn.announce, are moderated, in that
any message you attempt to submit via the news protocol gets diverted to
a human moderator instead and has to be manually vetted *before* it gets
into the news spool, but this one isn't. You can get Messenger to
filter the messages it debatches for you, though, or NewsHound to kill
articles based on keywords in the title or the number of groups they are
cross-posted to....

That said, I've only seen a couple of spam messages in the group and
they are both from today. Different news providers are clearly
blocking/filtering out different messages.

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

The only rose without thorns is friendship.

In message <765798f55a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

> On 18 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
> Adrian Crafer wrote:

>> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
>> emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
>> these?
>>
> It's Usenet, not e-mail (your news client is downloading a distributed
> public newsfeed rather than messages being sent out individually by
> e-mail to everyone on a list - it's more like an RSS feed), and there is
> no moderator.

> Some Usenet groups, like comp.sys.acorn.announce, are moderated, in that
> any message you attempt to submit via the news protocol gets diverted to
> a human moderator instead and has to be manually vetted *before* it gets
> into the news spool, but this one isn't. You can get Messenger to
> filter the messages it debatches for you, though, or NewsHound to kill
> articles based on keywords in the title or the number of groups they are
> cross-posted to....

> That said, I've only seen a couple of spam messages in the group and
> they are both from today. Different news providers are clearly
> blocking/filtering out different messages.

- but what's their purpose? Co.uk domains, which must have been purchased,
are easily filtered out; but the rest have me perplexed, and if I'm not
being drawn in, what's their point other than being annoying?

--
Mark J
Using RISCOS 5.28 on RaspberryPi3B+ and Linux on RaspberryPi4B+8GB
Rest in peace Beagle and Pandaboards

In message <765798f55a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

> On 18 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
> Adrian Crafer wrote:
>
> > From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
> > emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
> > these?
> >
> It's Usenet, not e-mail (your news client is downloading a distributed
> public newsfeed rather than messages being sent out individually by
> e-mail to everyone on a list - it's more like an RSS feed), and there is
> no moderator.
>
> Some Usenet groups, like comp.sys.acorn.announce, are moderated, in that
> any message you attempt to submit via the news protocol gets diverted to
> a human moderator instead and has to be manually vetted *before* it gets
> into the news spool, but this one isn't. You can get Messenger to
> filter the messages it debatches for you, though, or NewsHound to kill
> articles based on keywords in the title or the number of groups they are
> cross-posted to....
>
> That said, I've only seen a couple of spam messages in the group and
> they are both from today. Different news providers are clearly
> blocking/filtering out different messages.
>

In NewsHound I have added an additional 'Kill line' to the 'GlobalRule'
file.

* * =?UTF-* * * * * * none

The dotted lines are TAB key presses, hope they show up in this message.

The characters are at the start of 'From' as shown in the headers I
have looked at. Seems to be working so far.

--
Keith Pascall

Mark <mark@poppyland.plus.com> wrote:
> - but what's their purpose? Co.uk domains, which must have been purchased,
> are easily filtered out; but the rest have me perplexed, and if I'm not
> being drawn in, what's their point other than being annoying?

a) selling stuff
b) promoting their site up search rankings because more places on the
internet link to it
c) collateral from somebody misconfiguring a spamming toolbox, and not caring
about the consequences

My guess is it's an attack on Google Groups, which hosts a lot of mailing
lists. Maybe they have managed to crack the CAPTCHA and sign up for a
zillion accounts, and so they can flood GG with messages. All of those
messages appear on the GG website, which makes the site linked in the
message look popular. The spammers don't know that Usenet groups are
different, they just spam everything.

Although I suspect other non-GG Usenet spam is because some spamming toolbox
has a Usenet module, and users tick that option without knowing what they're
doing. For example all the 'solution manual' spam: there can't be many
students on Usenet wanting to buy knockoff answers to their textbook
homework problems, but maybe that's a byproduct of advertising them
elsewhere with the same spamming toolbox.

(The 'solution manual' spam seems very 1990s: maybe it's a rogue spammer
stuck in a timewarp?)

Theo

On 18/10/2023 15:42, Sniffer wrote:
> On 18/10/2023 12:30, Adrian Crafer wrote:
>> From the 12th onwards I seem to have received a large number of junk/scam
>> emails to this group. Is there a moderator of any type who could block
>> these?
>>
>> Adrian
>>
> I get the odd few. Two yesterday for example but nothing before that for
> a good while.
>

Indeed...
Some days I get a mass of them, then on other days just one or two.

Dave

On 19 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
Keith Pascall wrote:

> In message <765798f55a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
> Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

[snip]

> In NewsHound I have added an additional 'Kill line' to the 'GlobalRule'
> file.
>
> * * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
>
> The dotted lines are TAB key presses, hope they show up in this message.
>
> The characters are at the start of 'From' as shown in the headers I
> have looked at. Seems to be working so far.
>
Won't that kill *anything* using the UTF-8 character set?

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

Old Programmers never die. They just terminate and stay resident

In article <2dcff1f65a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>,
Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:
> On 19 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
> Keith Pascall wrote:

> > In message <765798f55a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
> > Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

> [snip]

> > In NewsHound I have added an additional 'Kill line' to the 'GlobalRule'
> > file.
> >
> > * * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
> >
> > The dotted lines are TAB key presses, hope they show up in this
> > message.
> >
> > The characters are at the start of 'From' as shown in the headers I
> > have looked at. Seems to be working so far.
> >
> Won't that kill *anything* using the UTF-8 character set?

I have set up a filter in Pluto searching the header for " =?UTF-" (not
including the quotes). The filter is only applied to News and places the
content in the Junk Box which expires in 2 days giving me a chance to see
what has been caught. So far the only stuff caught is the current junk in
c.s.a.misc. I guess most RISC OS originated postings do not use UTF-8
character sets.

Richard Darby.

--

Richard Darby.
website: http://www.rjdarby.co.uk
Do not reply to this address all mail is deleted.
Reply to: <my first name> at <my domain>

In message <2dcff1f65a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

> On 19 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
> Keith Pascall wrote:
>
> > In message <765798f55a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk>
> > Harriet Bazley <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>
> > In NewsHound I have added an additional 'Kill line' to the 'GlobalRule'
> > file.
> >
> > * * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
> >
> > The dotted lines are TAB key presses, hope they show up in this message.
> >
> > The characters are at the start of 'From' as shown in the headers I
> > have looked at. Seems to be working so far.
> >
> Won't that kill *anything* using the UTF-8 character set?
>
>
It does seem to be working most of the time making (had a few
failures today) what is left managable.

I have today found that the same characters are appearing in the
'Subject' line with a made up name in 'From' so I have added those
characters in the Subject section of an additional kill line.
Will have to wait to see if it works.

--
Keith Pascall

In article <cd1a47f75a%klp@klp.plus.net>, Keith Pascall
<klp@klpascall.plus.com> wrote:
> In message <2dcff1f65a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> Harriet Bazley
> <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:

<Snip>

> It does seem to be working most of the time making (had a few failures
> today) what is left managable.

> I have today found that the same characters are appearing in the
> 'Subject' line with a made up name in 'From' so I have added those
> characters in the Subject section of an additional kill line. Will have
> to wait to see if it works.

Since that little flurry a few days ago, I haven't seen any more junk.

Why are some people getting more than others if we're all getting the
same mails on the same un-moderated group?
Is my provider (EternalSeptember) filtering some out?

--
Chris

On 22/10/2023 14:27, Chris Newman wrote:
> In article <cd1a47f75a%klp@klp.plus.net>, Keith Pascall
> <klp@klpascall.plus.com> wrote:
>> In message <2dcff1f65a.harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> Harriet Bazley
>> <harriet@bazleyfamily.co.uk> wrote:
>
> <Snip>
>
>> It does seem to be working most of the time making (had a few failures
>> today) what is left managable.
>
>> I have today found that the same characters are appearing in the
>> 'Subject' line with a made up name in 'From' so I have added those
>> characters in the Subject section of an additional kill line. Will have
>> to wait to see if it works.
>
> Since that little flurry a few days ago, I haven't seen any more junk.
>
> Why are some people getting more than others if we're all getting the
> same mails on the same un-moderated group?
>
> Is my provider (EternalSeptember) filtering some out?
>

I use EternalSeptember and see very little spam.

--

On 22 Oct 2023 as I do recall,
Chris Newman wrote:

> Since that little flurry a few days ago, I haven't seen any more junk.
>
> Why are some people getting more than others if we're all getting the
> same mails on the same un-moderated group?
>
> Is my provider (EternalSeptember) filtering some out?
>
Probably - I'm also on Eternal September, and I only ever saw the two
spam postings.

--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==

Laugh, and the world ignores you. Crying doesn't help either.

In article <uh3gs7$2fjbn$1@dont-email.me>,
Sniffer <sniffer@dewberryfields.co.uk> wrote:
> On 22/10/2023 14:27, Chris Newman wrote:
> > In article <cd1a47f75a%klp@klp.plus.net>, Keith Pascall
> > <klp@klpascall.plus.com> wrote:

> [snip]
> >
> > Since that little flurry a few days ago, I haven't seen any more junk.
> >
> > Why are some people getting more than others if we're all getting the
> > same mails on the same un-moderated group?
> >
> > Is my provider (EternalSeptember) filtering some out?
> >

> I use EternalSeptember and see very little spam.

You could well be right. I use Plusnet news which is Giganews and have
430 spam messages in my junk box since 20th Oct. All are spam and nothing
else, and no spam in the c.s.a.misc box.

Richard Darby.

--

Richard Darby.
website: http://www.rjdarby.co.uk
Do not reply to this address all mail is deleted.
Reply to: <my first name> at <my domain>

On Sun, 22 Oct 2023 19:27:32 +0100
"Richard Darby (news)" <news@rjdarby.co.uk> wrote:

>You could well be right. I use Plusnet news which is Giganews and have
>430 spam messages in my junk box since 20th Oct. All are spam and nothing
>else, and no spam in the c.s.a.misc box.
>
>Richard Darby.
>

I was about to ask if anyone was *not* using EternalSeptember!
Were you reading my mind?

--
Basic

In article <20231023105610.686ac3d0@devuan>, Folderol
<general@musically.me.uk> wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Oct 2023 19:27:32 +0100 "Richard Darby (news)"
> <news@rjdarby.co.uk> wrote:

> >You could well be right. I use Plusnet news which is Giganews and
> >have 430 spam messages in my junk box since 20th Oct. All are spam
> >and nothing else, and no spam in the c.s.a.misc box.
> >
> >Richard Darby.
> >

> I was about to ask if anyone was *not* using EternalSeptember! Were you
> reading my mind?

For those using NewsHound, version 1.54 (which works perfectly with
EternalSeptember) has been sanctioned for use by all. I contacted author
Josephe Heenan and he is happy that this version, which has Dave Higton's
improvements, can be circulated. See Aw software-discuss mail list thread
Can't post news.
Nobody is hosting it at the moment but I can send a copy, sans my
details, on request.

--
Chris

On 23 Oct, Folderol <general@musically.me.uk> wrote:

[snip]

> I was about to ask if anyone was *not* using EternalSeptember!
> Were you reading my mind?

I use news.individual.net who are usually very good at removing spam
posts, and I haven't seen any of the junk posts in the last few days,
although I did have a lot of them last week.

I added the following to Newshound's Global Rule file as belt and braces:

* *UFA* * * * * * * none
* *=?UTF-8?* * * * * * * none

and have not seen any since.
--
Brian Howlett - Email to From: address deleted unseen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Isn't it strange that the same people that laugh at gypsy fortune
tellers take economists seriously?

On 2023-10-23, Chris Newman <mec@npost.uk> wrote:

> For those using NewsHound, version 1.54 (which works perfectly with
> EternalSeptember) has been sanctioned for use by all. I contacted author
> Josephe Heenan and he is happy that this version, which has Dave Higton's
> improvements, can be circulated.

Do you know if Dave is ever planning to make the source for his changes
available to commit into the SourceForge repo?

At present, the last commits still appear to be the ones that I made a
decade ago. If Dave's changes are useful, it would be shame for them to
be lost.

--
Steve Fryatt - Leeds, England

http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/

In article <bce3f3f75a.BrianNews@brianhowlett.me.uk>,
Brian Howlett <news-spamtrap@brianhowlett.me.uk> wrote:

> I added the following to Newshound's Global Rule file as belt and
> braces:

> * *UFA* * * * * * * none
> * *=?UTF-8?* * * * * * * none

> and have not seen any since.

I wish I understood this.

Looking at the Example rule file it suggests to me (wrongly
obviously) that the lines have a specific requirement using tabs as
field separators. The first 3 tabs are double tabs and the remainder
are just single tabs, I've no idea why.

An example given shows the subject "money" being blocked.

*[tab][tab]*Money*[tab][tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab] etc.

Yet info supplied by Brian and Keith don't to my eyes follow the
rules so what am I not understanding?

Keith suggested:
* * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
Which I believe displays as:
*[tab][tab]*[tab]=?UTF.*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]

And similarly for Brian.

*[tab][tab]*=?UTF-8?*[tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]none

Both cases break the double tabs rule if it is a rule??

Understanding would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Bob.

In article <5af84b79efbob@sick-of-spam.invalid>,
Bob Latham <bob@sick-of-spam.invalid> wrote:
> In article <bce3f3f75a.BrianNews@brianhowlett.me.uk>,
> Brian Howlett <news-spamtrap@brianhowlett.me.uk> wrote:

[snip]

> Looking at the Example rule file it suggests to me (wrongly
> obviously) that the lines have a specific requirement using tabs as
> field separators. The first 3 tabs are double tabs and the remainder
> are just single tabs, I've no idea why.

> An example given shows the subject "money" being blocked.

> *[tab][tab]*Money*[tab][tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab] etc.

> Yet info supplied by Brian and Keith don't to my eyes follow the
> rules so what am I not understanding?

> Keith suggested:
> * * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
> Which I believe displays as:
> *[tab][tab]*[tab]=?UTF.*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]

> And similarly for Brian.

> *[tab][tab]*=?UTF-8?*[tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]none

> Both cases break the double tabs rule if it is a rule??

> Understanding would be appreciated.

If you look at your working Global Rule file with an editor that shows
tabs you will see there are two tabs between the first field and the
second, and single tabs after that.

Hope that Helps

Richard Darby.

--

Richard Darby.
website: http://www.rjdarby.co.uk
Do not reply to this address all mail is deleted.
Reply to: <my first name> at <my domain>

In message <5af84b79efbob@sick-of-spam.invalid>
Bob Latham <bob@sick-of-spam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <bce3f3f75a.BrianNews@brianhowlett.me.uk>,
> Brian Howlett <news-spamtrap@brianhowlett.me.uk> wrote:
>
> > I added the following to Newshound's Global Rule file as belt and
> > braces:
>
> > * *UFA* * * * * * * none
> > * *=?UTF-8?* * * * * * * none
>
> > and have not seen any since.
>
> I wish I understood this.
>
> Looking at the Example rule file it suggests to me (wrongly
> obviously) that the lines have a specific requirement using tabs as
> field separators. The first 3 tabs are double tabs and the remainder
> are just single tabs, I've no idea why.
>
> An example given shows the subject "money" being blocked.
>
> *[tab][tab]*Money*[tab][tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab] etc.
>
> Yet info supplied by Brian and Keith don't to my eyes follow the
> rules so what am I not understanding?
>
> Keith suggested:
> * * =?UTF-* * * * * * none
> Which I believe displays as:
> *[tab][tab]*[tab]=?UTF.*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]
>
> And similarly for Brian.
>
> *[tab][tab]*=?UTF-8?*[tab]*[tab][tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]none
>
> Both cases break the double tabs rule if it is a rule??
>
> Understanding would be appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bob.
>

It is tricky to get it set up, if I have typed it right the kill lines
should be:-

*[tab][tab]*[tab]=?UTF-*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]none
*[tab][tab]=?UTF-*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]*[tab]none

One line works with header 'From' the other with 'Subject'.
The asterisk after the characters is to allow more characters to be in
the actual line.

So far it works for me (using Plusnet provider).

Regards,

Keith