Re: [ga] Fake comments

[kent@xxxxxxxxx]

On Fri, Jan 11, 2008 at 01:20:16PM -0800, Karl Auerbach wrote:
> 
> 
> I just received a request from ICANN to confirm a comment on one of 
> their ongoing "forums".
> 
> But I neither wrote nor submitted any such comment.
> 
> In other words, there are comments being submitted under actual, but 
> usurped, names.

ICANN receives on the order of 100000 bogus email messages per day.  As is
common with malware generated messages, many of these messages use spoofed
"From: " addresses.  Most of the bogus messages are dropped by ICANN's
anti-spam measures, but some do get through to the comment system.

> Obviously, I'm not going to confirm that posting.  (It would be nice if 
> the confirmation message included the comment itself, otherwise we might 
> not be able to differentiate between real and fake.)

Including the message itself would turn the comment system into a spam relay. 

> Everyone of us should take extra care not to confirm a comment to ICANN 
> unless we actually submitted the comment.

That's precisely the point of the confirmation step, of course.

Best Regards
Kent