Re: Which E-Mail Address is Reported to ISPs?

Dick K wrote:

> I use the Email Submission System to forward
> spam to SpamCop.

Which means that your submission corresponds to a registered reporting
account, which is also true if you used the webparser on your spam.

> I note from SpamCop FAQs that
> "All spam reports include a valid email
> address for you".

You are referring to those words in
http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/168.html  How is my personal data
used (not used)? (privacy policy)

The par in question sez...

Privacy Limitations:
Information you submit in your spam reports is considered to be in the
public domain. This information may be shared with others - in fact,
that is the entire purpose of SpamCop. SpamCop makes some attempt to
conceal the identity of the recipient of the spam, but this method is
not foolproof and should not be relied on. All spam reports include a
valid email address for you and the IP address which you used to submit
the report.

... which doesn't make any sense to me as I'm reading it -- so I'll
explain how it is in my own words.

When you submit a spamcop report, the standard SC configuration is that
the submitting reporter's address is 'blinded' from the recipient who
gets the reports.  That is, SC has an automated mungeing system which
replaces obvious instances of your address with x and SC uses a reportid
address instead of your own to provide an address for the recipient to
reply to.  So, a recipient would email to the SC reportid addy and then
SC would forward that reply to you.

There are many ways you can provide some identity to the recipient who
is getting a copy of the spam.  First, you can choose to do your
reporting unmunged, which many reporters do.  Some providers will not
accept munged, and some reporters don't want to be munged.  In addition,
even the reporters who choose to have their address munged, may be
uniquely identified from something obscured in the headers or body of
the spam evidence -- a condition which SC can't prevent.  As long as you
or SC are providing the recipient with a copy of the spam evidence there
is potential for communicating the identity to the recipient -- so total
prevention of that problem would require not sending any evidence.  That
is the condition of mole reporting -- which is really non-reporting.

> I'd be grateful if anyone
> could tell me which address this is - the
> e-mail address I've registered with SpamCop
> or the sender's address from the e-mails
> which I use to submit spam?

The registered address is what is the registered address.  Nothing about
your sending from ie submitting from address to spamcop is going into
the report.  However, what /is/ going into the report is whatever is in
the spam evidence which hasn't been munged.


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin