Spam E-mail

[ratchpot]

Ok, so probably most people here get spam e-mails from time to time.

For years I had never received any spam, but over the last few weeks I have suddenly been getting around 10-15 e-mails a day at my personal e-mail account. This is strange because I am quite careful about whom I give my personal e-mail address to. I suspect someone may have entered my e-mail address (or just the domain) at websites without my knowledge, because I certainly haven't.

The Outlook XP rules and filtering feature is next to useless, because I still have to download the spam e-mails, and nearly every single time I have to add a new rule or keyword to block the spam.

I found a program called Mailwasher, which has a "bounce" feature. This supposedly tells the spammer that my e-mail address doesn't exist, in the hope that the spammer will stop sending e-mails. Unfortunately the feature appears to have had no overall effect. It's also annoying to have to use two programs (Mailwasher and Outlook) to get to my e-mails.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how I can stop the spam?

[Usil]

95 % of my dail email is spam. The new gif with text is now the default format. As I sit here typing this 5 more just slid in at one time making me think that this is coming from all the same source.

Do they think that they are endearing themselves to us or that anyone will actually use thier adds to buy something when they are responcible for completely ruining the email system daily with crap?

Usil

[Lyndonville]

Most of this actually depends on your providers ability to block SPAM coming into your email box. There are a great many providers that do a great job with this, one of which (here in the US) is Earthlink. They're on top of it. In addition, Earthlink also provides you with a safety net. That "safety net" is providing you with five (5) anonymous email addresses. With those five email addresses (free to users) you can go into sites that you might be concerned about taking your email address and selling it to others or simply laying dozens of unwanted emails in your box. They can't be traced back to you. Earthlink will BLOCK any and all email coming into your Outlook in box as long as their names you NOT in your mail box at the source (provider). Another provider is AOL, but, I wouldn't wish that outfit on my worst enemy. AOL absolutely sucks hind [censored] big time. Want a memory eater? Get AOL. Tim

Ok, so probably most people here get spam e-mails from time to time.

For years I had never received any spam, but over the last few weeks I have suddenly been getting around 10-15 e-mails a day at my personal e-mail account. This is strange because I am quite careful about whom I give my personal e-mail address to. I suspect someone may have entered my e-mail address (or just the domain) at websites without my knowledge, because I certainly haven't.

The Outlook XP rules and filtering feature is next to useless, because I still have to download the spam e-mails, and nearly every single time I have to add a new rule or keyword to block the spam.

I found a program called Mailwasher, which has a "bounce" feature. This supposedly tells the spammer that my e-mail address doesn't exist, in the hope that the spammer will stop sending e-mails. Unfortunately the feature appears to have had no overall effect. It's also annoying to have to use two programs (Mailwasher and Outlook) to get to my e-mails.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how I can stop the spam?

Edited January 26, 2007 by 28277

[Pugwash]

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how I can stop the spam?

Lots. I block over 100,000 spams a day at work.

Firstly, you told us what you have on your PC, but you've not mentioned what your mail server is. Almost all the succesful anti-spam techniques are implemented on the server.

If you can't do anything on the server, for $DEITY's sake, get rid of outlook. It's a pile of stinking festering sploitable vulnerability. Use Thunderbird and turn on the heuristic mail filter. Get bayesian on its ass.

[KB]

When you say what mail server do you mean like POP3 or the actuall E-mails name?

Ken

[Lyndonville]

As an example, I never go into Outlook to view any emails after I turn the PC on. I will go to the providers on line web mail server and check it FIRST. Can you do that?

When you say what mail server do you mean like POP3 or the actuall E-mails name?

Ken

[Pugwash]

When you say what mail server do you mean like POP3 or the actuall E-mails name?

If you're asking questions like this, it's clear you don't manage your own mail and these are questions you should be asking whoever does manage it.

Say you're getting mail at @plook.net, then you need to go to the plook.net admin and ask him if anything can be done about the spam. If he says no, then there's very little you can do server-side. If you get mail from your internet provider, and you get too much spam, it's time to tell them you've had enough and they're going to lose you as a customer f they don't fix it.

However, if you don't run your own mail server, the best way to get rid of spam is to move to Google mail.

[Lyndonville]

This is true. If you open an account in GMail then the known SPAMMERS out there will very likely be blocked at the source. They have a box that indicates SPAM. Open it and empty it. I use GMail and I have seldom ever seen any SPAM come into it. Over the past year I have seen no more than a half a dozen. They must be doing something right. To the newbie GMail might appear confusing, but, if you give yourself a chance you'll see how easy it is. Tim

If you're asking questions like this, it's clear you don't manage your own mail and these are questions you should be asking whoever does manage it.

Say you're getting mail at @plook.net, then you need to go to the plook.net admin and ask him if anything can be done about the spam. If he says no, then there's very little you can do server-side. If you get mail from your internet provider, and you get too much spam, it's time to tell them you've had enough and they're going to lose you as a customer f they don't fix it.

However, if you don't run your own mail server, the best way to get rid of spam is to move to Google mail.

[BMWrolex]

I agree with 28277. I use gmail as well and receive at least 25 spam emails a day. Those are automatically sent to the spam folder where I don't have to deal with it. My ISP also offers an antispam service and blocks spam emails before they even hit my box. Contact your ISP first to see whether there is something they can do about spam before you do anything on your side.

[ratchpot]

Thanks very much for the quick suggestions. I've installed Thunderbird and imported everything from that POS Outlook. I've also contacted my mail provider and told them to block the spam asap, like they had been doing until recently.

On reflection, I think the problem may be something to do with my original provider (Magic Moments) being taken over by those bastards Pipex/Webfusion. I remember Webfusion tying to get a few stragglers (like me) to migratate their MM accounts to Webfusion last year. I wouldn't put it past them to have deliberately turned off the anti-spam facility in order to nudge people into "upgrading" to the Webfusion accounts.

[piratedzeus]

spamgourmet.com for everything you cant trust 100% and done

[fotoman]

there are a few things you can do - Get a Gmail acct and have it forward to your real account - when you sign up for stuff on the internet use teh gmail - that operates as a pre-mail server spam filter

if you want a real solution - www.mxlogic.com is Freaking Amazing it is a real - preserver spam filter. if you use your own email server, i.e. yourdomian.com or yourcompanydomain.com integrate mxlogic - it rocks the hizous - i get 1 spam a week on average - it also strips out viruses -so they never get to your mail server, let alone yoru computer.

[shultzie]

It was quiet for sometime after the last round of legal actions - but I read an article recently that spammers were noticeably more active recently due to new techniques and I have been getting quite a bit of spam as of late.

Oddly - I received my first spam for "replica watches" yesterday :yucky: "bestreplicas.com" or some such nonsense

[swdivad]

I also concur with 28277 and BMWRolex... Gmail is great. Their spam filters are working very very well.

For years I was stuck with my providers' email address/server, spam would be coming through all the time. I finally migrated all my contacts over to my gmail address(es) and I doubt I have had 12 spams come through to my gmail inbox or my Thunderbird email client.

As for Outlook... Biggest pile of crap bloatware (did I mention pile of crap?) mail client ever Ever... EVER

Unfortunately though, some people that need access to some corporate applications need outlook as their mail client... So far, I've been lucky to be able to be using Thunderbird/Mozilla exclusively since it's inception (and never lost one email).

[Ozzy]

95 % of my dail email is spam.

100% of my emails are spam... i have no friends

[offshore]

2

[swdivad]

2

OK Offshore... what are you up to?

[offshore]

Sorry, I have been chasing Robi's posts around... counting down his entry to Postmaster....1000 posts.

( bloody tiring too... or just a slow internet connection) But chase I did... and the little bugger got there... way ahead of me... even though I skipped a couple

Just a bit of fun... which we all need from time to time.... sorry i can't give you any world shattering news.

YET

Offshore

PS And look the little bugger is now taunting me with it!

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=191766