I, too, am annoyed by inappropriate newsgroup postings.  However, by 
posting your complaint to the newsgroup, although the complaint itself 
is justified, you are guilty of the same type of spamming about which 
you were complaining.  Keep in mind that the spammers themselves very 
probably never read the newsgroups they spam to, and even if they did it 
is obvious that complaints to the newsgroup do not significantly cut 
down on spams and in any case ANOTHER inappropriate posting, which every 
spam complaint is, is the last thing we want to read in a newsgroup.

I have sometimes had success by complaining to the postmaster of the
site in question.  The easiest thing is just to send email to the
address in the From: line of the posting, replacing whatever is before
the `@' sign with `postmaster'.  Some internet service providers have a
special account called `abuse' so you can try that as well.  However,
the email address of the spammer can be faked, and sometimes by looking
at the full newsgroup headers then you can discover the real email
address of the spammer (and his postmaster). 

What I do is email the newsgroup posting in question to the spammer and 
his postmaster, preceding it with a standard letter of complaint.  See 

   http://multivac.jb.man.ac.uk:8000/helbig/web/web.html

and feel free to use my examples.  This example is there too, as this
(like the other complaints I file) is an automated response so that not 
even more of my time is wasted.  Make sure you don't post to the 
newsgroup as well.


Phillip Helbig


--
Kapteyn Instituut                    Email .............. helbig@astro.rug.nl
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NL-9700 AV Groningen                 Web ... http://www.astro.rug.nl/~helbig/

******************************** formerly at ********************************

this will still work for a while -----> Email ......... p.helbig@jb.man.ac.uk
University of Manchester                Tel. ... +44 1477 571 321 (ext. 2635)
Jodrell Bank Observatory                Fax ................ +44 1477 571 618
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