a thunderbird extension
A thunderbird (and possibly Firefox too) extension that I think would rock:
Notify the user with an information bar that says "This email with an unsubscribe link appears to be a scam" when ever a link matched up with one of the bad guys listed in Lashback's database.
Anyone out there want to tackle that one?
reactions, thoughts, comments, etc.
Hmm... could be a fun one. Do you think it should look at the URLs in "unsubscribe" links only or within every link in an email?
Posted by: KevinFreitas | February 2, 2006 11:07 AM
Proof that Mr. Dotzler here reads Digg. :-P
Sounds like a good one, but I don't think I'd be up for it.
Posted by: DrBob | February 2, 2006 11:43 AM
Or better yet, an indicator in the pane view for each email that it contains a nasty URL.
Or BEST, add that to the auto Junk feature.
Way cool.
So who's going to do it?
;)
r
Posted by: Ron C | February 2, 2006 12:32 PM
Is there any published information on the .sfd file used for SpamAssassin integration? I tried to modify it to pick up the headers sent by my ISP, but Thunderbird doesn't seem to be using the information.
Posted by: Tom Mack | February 2, 2006 1:49 PM
Lashback has a database of "Receivede From:" IP Addresses, so it's just another RBL. But it would be nice if Thunderbird also supported URIBLs (www.surbl.org).
Phil
Posted by: Phil Randal | February 2, 2006 2:32 PM
Or better yet... When there is a valid unsubscribe link add an 'Unsubscribe' button in the information bar. If it is invalid mark it as scam.
Posted by: Erik Arvidsson | February 2, 2006 3:18 PM
You should start with atleast ONE extension for FX which looks for emails beside GMail. Stupidly I have to run TB in background to get informed.
Over 1000 extensions and no one is able to inform me about new emails.
Frustating.....
Posted by: 666 | February 3, 2006 11:32 PM
As per http://lashback.com/ubl.htm, there are 4 categories of "bad guys", and Lashback only provides cat 4 data for free. Cat 4 are senders who use addresses acquired through unsubscribe links for sending spam. Cat 3 are senders who share addresses acquired through unsubscribe links with third parties. So, basically cat 4 data is only good for identifying spam, not for deciding whether you can safely use an unsubscribe link or not.
If the other data was free also I would be in for writing an extension. But cat 4 data is basically RBL, and as such is dealt with best by spamassassin etc. Access to the complete data set is $3.99 per month :(
Michael
Posted by: Michael J Gruber | February 6, 2006 6:26 AM
How about a feature that notifies the user when a hyperlink's actual target doesn't match the hyperlink text. This is one of the nastiest phishing tactics: a link says http://www.ebay.com in the e-mail but when you hover over the link and look in the lower left in the status bar the actual URL is some obscure URL that is not ebay.com. The feature (screw extensions, this is too critical) could pop up and say "This e-mail contains disguised URLs..." or some such thing.
-JR
Posted by: James "Kovu" Russell | February 7, 2006 7:31 PM