What can I do about spam on my Mailman list?

Answer

You can have any messages that come to your list from an unsubscribed address automatically rejected or discarded. This would be a good choice for lists that are mainly outgoing announcements, but would work for any list that does not rely on posts from non-subscribers. However, if you find that you regularly have to approve messages from subscribers using an address other than the one they are subscribed with, you may wish to merely reject instead of discard (see below).

From the web interface for your list(s):

  1. Select [Privacy options] and [Sender filters].
  2. Scroll down to the bottom. The second to the last option says: Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined. Change this to either:
    • Discard (the messages will be thrown away)   
    •  Reject (NOT RECOMMENDED! a message will be sent back to the sender alerting them as to why their message was rejected. This is only a good option if you have folks who send messages from a non-subscribed address. Messages from spammers generally come from bogus addresses and eventually your return spam will stop ping-ponging around the Internet. A better combination is setting this option to Discard and the next option to Yes- read on...)
  3. You might also change the next option, Should messages from non-members, which are automatically discarded, be forwarded to the list moderator? to No if you have no reason or care to see what might be being discarded.
  4. As always, scroll down and click Submit after making changes.

 

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