URGENT ASSISTANCE/HELP (fwd)

URGENT ASSISTANCE/HELP (fwd)

[Lorenzo Prince]

I need someone's help on this if at all possible.  I need to know how I
can set my Sendmail or Pine or something to automatically reject and/or
bounce messages like the one below.  I will spare you the entire message
and just post a small part of the message that will hopefully be enough to
understand the nature of this scam/spam that I get in my inbox nearly
every day.  I also need to find out if my SMTP relay is open and how to
close it if it is.  When I send messages to roadrunner mailboxes, they get
bounced back and say something about security.  Well, here is a piece of
the type of messages I need to have bounced before I see them.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 20:56:11 +0100
From: MRS AMINA MOHAMMED <mrsaminamohammed@myiris.com>
Reply-To: mrsaminamohammed2003@surfy.net
To: lorenzo@princenet.sytes.net
Subject: URGENT ASSISTANCE/HELP

Dear Friend

Greetings !!

I come to you with a sincere heart believing in Almighty God that you
will consider my plight and come to help and also benefit from me.
I am Mrs. Amina Mohammed, cousin and Personal Assistant to former
Nigeria Head of State, Late General Sanni Abacha who died on the 8th July
1998 while in power. Before I proceed please accept my apology for the
embarrassment this mail might cause you for coming from a total stranger
who you do not know. Actually I got your contact from the Internet;
please do not feel bad about it because I am compelled to reach you due
to urgent need to safeguard the money in question. (...*snip*...)

This message goes on and on forever, well, about two or three more pages
of this mess.  I saw a message similar to this forwarded to another list
as a warning that it was a scam, but I never got anything like this untill
I started using Sendmail and Linux to host my own mail server, so that is
one of the reasons that I think I may have an open relay.  Any help on
closing my relay and bouncing these unwanted messages would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,
Lorenzo

So in the future, one 'client' at a time or you'll be spending CPU time with
lots of little 'child processes'.
	-- Kevin M. Bealer, commenting on the private life of a Linux nerd

Re: URGENT ASSISTANCE/HELP (fwd)

[Rafael Skodlar]

When you have a problem with SPAM, please DO NOT send it in it's
entirety, nothing beyond first line of the body. We have enough of that
crap already. It's sad that Africans in this case, can't use their
brains for more than ripping off people around the world and killing
each other. I've seen my share of their stupidity.

I suggest you install Exim (http://www.exim.org) as a replacement for
(more than obsolete) Sendmail. Configure it to use spamassassin and
RBLs. Exim is much better and safer and easier to configure than
Sendmail. Postifix is another good alternative.

Using Exim I reject all email from spam pits like hotmail, yahoo, etc.
with exceptions of people I know. 

If you manage your own MTA you can experiment with blocking all email
from servers that do not have RRs for their IPs. That cuts out most
dialups and nonstatic DSL lines, that's over 90% of spam.

I also firewall some networks on port 25. Those that are mainly dialup
services and don't have usable RRs in DNS.

My spam level is about 3 a week lately.

Next step is "white lists" where the only email that gets through has to
have entries in the white list. First timers would need to manualy add
their address in order to get the message through.

Your server might be an open relay. There are many tests you can do in
order to find that out. Search for rlytest scripts on the internet. Some
websites provide that service too.

On Thu, May 22, 2003 at 05:06:56PM -0400, Lorenzo Prince wrote:
> I need someone's help on this if at all possible.  I need to know how I
> can set my Sendmail or Pine or something to automatically reject and/or
> bounce messages like the one below.  I will spare you the entire message
> and just post a small part of the message that will hopefully be enough to
> understand the nature of this scam/spam that I get in my inbox nearly
> every day.  I also need to find out if my SMTP relay is open and how to
> close it if it is.  When I send messages to roadrunner mailboxes, they get
> bounced back and say something about security.  Well, here is a piece of
> the type of messages I need to have bounced before I see them.
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 20:56:11 +0100
> From: MRS AMINA MOHAMMED <mrsaminamohammed@myiris.com>
> Reply-To: mrsaminamohammed2003@surfy.net
> To: lorenzo@princenet.sytes.net
> Subject: URGENT ASSISTANCE/HELP
..................
> 
> This message goes on and on forever, well, about two or three more pages
> of this mess.  I saw a message similar to this forwarded to another list
> as a warning that it was a scam, but I never got anything like this untill
> I started using Sendmail and Linux to host my own mail server, so that is
> one of the reasons that I think I may have an open relay.  Any help on
> closing my relay and bouncing these unwanted messages would be greatly
> appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Lorenzo
> 
> So in the future, one 'client' at a time or you'll be spending CPU time with
> lots of little 'child processes'.
> 	-- Kevin M. Bealer, commenting on the private life of a Linux nerd
> 

-- 
Rafael