On Tue 21 Apr 2020 at 09:01:35 (+0200), to...@tuxteam.de wrote: > On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 04:15:00PM -0500, David Wright wrote: > > [...] > > > > If I receive spam and wish to report it to my ISP, I BOUNCE the > > > message, so as not to disturb the "evidence" or "scene of the crime". > > > > I remain unconvinced. If you forward an email as an attachment, then > > its containment in the attachment protects it from modification. > > OTOH if you bounce it, the header that you received can be modified, > > and have lines added in the normal course of transit through MTAs. > > They are easy to sort out automatically. Unless some agent in transit > intentionally munges them, but then, any mail could -- unless it's > signed. So what?
You snipped this: > > > […] BOUNCING or REDIRECTION relays a message in the > > > most pristine form available, preserving the header […]" Obviously we differ over the interpretation of "pristine", "preserve" and "disturb". > > In addition, if the original email contained a malicious gotcha, you > > expose the recipient of the bounced email to the same risk that you > > presumably have just avoided. > > Mail? Malicious? Gothcha? You gotta have the wrong MUA ;-) No, I avoided the risks by running a good MUA (mutt by then, and before that, Pine on Unix, VAXmail and Phoenix/MVS). The main hazard at that time was still, I believe, viruses that would infect Windows systems, which most people ran on their desktops. The abuse-reporting account was probably run on a Unix box—I never checked. Most of the support staff were unaware that I was a maverick running linux on my desktop and around the labs. They would get somewhat neurotic about people sending or receiving infected emails, and were much happier receiving versions attached, with a covering message. Cheers, David.
