Summary: No-spam gateways change headers to hinder address collection.

[edited by turing+apas-user-faq@eskimo.com (Computer Cryptology)]
On Fri,  9 Mar 2001, Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> wrote:
> What's the difference between these two?:
> mail2news_nospam@anon.lcs.mit.edu and mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu

The first is the no-spam variant of the same mail2news gateway.  

How does the no-spam variant work?

The address of my nym account is redbird@redneck.gacracker.org.  If I
had addressed my send request for this message to
mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu, my nym account address would have appeared
in the From header.  An address collector would be able to find it
easily, and I might end up receiving spam e-mail.

Instead I've addressed my send request to the no-spam variant,
mail2news_nospam@anon.lcs.mit.edu, and my message should include the
following From header:

	From: Redbird <Use-Author-Address-Header@[127.1]>

This header is added by the mail2news gateway.  The following portion
of it is standard: <Use-Author-Address-Header@[127.1]>.  And it
instructs the person reading it to use the Author-Address header (see
below).  The only thing that will vary is the name preceding it, and
this is determined by whatever precedes the @ in the real nym account
address.  For example, if the real nym account address were
ruth@redneck.gacracker.org, the From header would read as follows:

	From: Ruth <Use-Author-Address-Header@[127.1]>

My message should also include the following "Author-Address" header:

	Author-Address: Redbird <AT> nym <DOT> alias <DOT> net

This header is also added by the mail2news gateway and is the means by
which it provides my real address to anyone who might wish to reply to
this message by e-mail.

There are no-spam variants for all three mail2news gateways:

mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu
mail2news_nospam@anon.lcs.mit.edu

mail2news@dizum.com
mail2news_nospam@dizum.com

mail2news@mixmaster.shinn.net
mail2news_nospam@mixmaster.shinn.net

Redbird