e-mail spam

I have a question to ask the mod of the forum here. One that will probably be of interest to others of this site. It was covered at an earlier date but I would like a new rundown, if possible.

I am besiged by spamming of my e-mail. It is almost totally unusable for 15 to 20 minutes while all the spam comes in that I don't want and did not request. It seems I am popular with the address sales department.

I know better than to answer them and ask removal. All that does is verify a good address and put you on another list for sale. How do I regain use of my e-mail without overuse of the deletion key?

 

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a few questions.
is this an email acct provided by your isp? work? web based? what client do you use to access email?

thanks

 

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There are a few solutions

Depending on what program you use to get your e-mail, and your e-mail address itself, you can set up different things to block spam, and filter it out.

You can also sign up with a new e-mail address that you only hand out to people you trust. Alot of people have multiple accounts they use, like, one for close friends, one for business, and one for garbage.

 

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The e-mail account is the one provided by my isp.

I use XP as an OS and Outlook 6 for the accessing of it.

Using indirect accounts seems to just set you up for more spam. It seems a shame to have to pay my IP to set up another account for recieving e-mail every year or so. I don't want this stuff, didn't ask for it, and resent their take over of it.

 

You can set up a hotmail account for free. If you don't give the address out to anyone you don't trust, you shouldn't get too much spam.

In Outlook Express (version 5.5 anyway) there are some different options, there are message rules for mail, news, and there is a blocked senders list, that allows you to block a specific address, or even a whole domain.

 

http://www.myrealbox.com
http://www.softhome.net/

i use these. they are pop3 enabled so you can set em up in outlook. do not use to sign up for any web services or spam will find you again. use it for personal/business reasons and you should be fine (i think) i have noticed a few spammy shit coming thru in one of them but it is negligible. best of all they are free (few restrictions!)

as for the isp thing, like claren suggested, filtering is your best bet. block senders thru domains if you can. individual addresses might be tedious. by watching out for domains that seem to spam the most, blocking them would produce visible results. reserve about ten minutes every day to work on filtering and maybe in a few weeks you would see a noticeble difference.

use web based email for general use. ie: signups


ps: my major acct is configured to let only email addresses that i have specified ie family, friends, associates. (when these people decide to send me a joke or chain lettter type shit, i mail bomb their ass!)

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E-mail "Spam" is a problem that anyone with an e-mail address either has had problems with or will potentially have problems with.

<CENTER><H4># Where does spam come from? #
-------------------------------------------</H4></CENTER>

Spam can arrive at your mailbox for multiple reasons, from "Bots" (automated scripts) mining them from websites, to ISP's not securing their E-mail user list.

There are two main sources of SPAM, one is E-mail marketing to which you might find a bunch of adverts for Penis enlargement devices and Other sexual devices. The likelihood of where they originate from if you were to source telephone numbers is from the Back of dodgy porn magazines (If they could be linked together you would then know the distributers).
<HR>
The other main source of SPAM is MALICEmail, e-mail generated to either attack a server or "smoke screen".

Some MALICEmail is created through I-Worm virii pregnating vunerable Mail servers, the most insecure are seemingly ones that people run through Cable modems on their own home computers, and the occasionally misconfigured server nodes.

I-worms have been written to seek vunerable servers, although there are whole groups of people using particular programs to scan the net for vunerable servers for use in "Anonymous Mail".

I-worms were really used to help "hide" what programs and processes hackers were using through the mail gateways, making something look indestinguishable in the sense that you wouldn't know from "packet scanning" (eavesdropping a connection at some point between the communicating machines), which connections were Automated or "human" (hackers).

<CENTER><H4># What can I do about spam? #
-------------------------------------------</H4></CENTER>

This is something that no one can tell you a complete answer to irradicate spam, in fact it's up to you to work out the best strategy.

I will however mention a few things.

Firstly if your PAYING for your ISP and the e-mail address that comes with it, you should check their Terms and Conditions to see what they suggest they do if your suffering from the "Harassment of spam".

Hopefully they will tell you the following:
(Check the related links at the bottom for more details)

I would create a FORWARD of the E-mail (Including it's full HEADER, that the information that e-mails are sent with to track where it's been and who connected).

Send the FORWARD to:
Your E-mail provider (ISP etc) at abuse@theirdomain.com (Or their alternative address)
Send the FORWARD to the Offending E-mail Service provider (Namely abuse@spammersdomain.com)
If you can read the header you can even FORWARD the mail to the very NETWORK Providers (The people that the mail is sent through).

You will need to source the Mail like:

DO NOT:
Never reply to Spam addresses ever, I did a study of this using a particular web e-mail provider and an AWAY message designed with REMOVE added to the "subject and body".

The SPAM has increased to double it's amount within a matter of months. (In fact the e-mail box has now been rigged to delete incoming mail straight away)

Never post your E-mail address on websites or put it into any applications you design, or you might find yourself inendated with SPAM.

You should probably set up a "SPAM" account (check www.spamhole.com)

Keep your ADDRESS BOOK EMPTY!, that way if you get a virus, you address book isn't used to send out files across the net, which in turn could get you on a SPAM list.

Never FORWARD to large numbers of e-mail addresses (Like those E-mail Snowball fights or "supposed" Partitions for keeping Sesame street running etc.)


Related Links:
A well documented explanation of how to Fight Spam.
http://spam.abuse.net/

Allows a free method to "Report Spam", although "commercialised"
http://spamcop.net/

Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
http://www.cauce.org/

SPAM laws, well the laws in different countries on SPAM
http://www.spamlaws.com/

MAKE A TEMPORARY e-mail address that forwards to your e-mail address for a couple of hours, after that anything sent there is deleted. GOOD for SIGNUPS
http://www.spamhole.com/

 

wet
anything been done? any improvements?

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Actually, I don't get to my home e-mail but every other week. I have give up on using e-mail. Short of just changing the e-mail addy, it is useless in any sense of the word. The first day takes about an hour or more for all the spam to come in and after that about 15 minutes per day. I am tired of dealing with it and shall just let it over load the system. The filter rules are over loaded with all the ones already earmarked for deleted files.

Truthfully, I have given up on using it as it more of a hassle to wait for all this crap to come in. If I need to talk with someone there are other methods.

 

Quick question ...

When I was looking at the Windows address book once, I found that some (randomly selected, it seemed,) of my MSN contacts had slipped in there. I didn't want to delete them in case I deleted them from my contact list.
1. How did they get there?
2. How do I stop more going there?
3. Can I have addresses saved in my hotmail accnt that won't get mail sent to them by a virus (I get at that accnt)?
4. Would the addresses in the Windows address book get virus sent to them?

 

Firefly,
Okay I'll try and answer your questions:

1. How did my MSN contacts get into Outlook Express's Address book?

Microsoft has always prided themselves on their ability to use multiple types of database. This means that some of their programs have the ability to "share" databases.

MSN messenger now merge's particular drivers with Outlook Express and this means that MSN Messenger is not a seperate program. This is why it loads with Outlook Express.

I believe the adding of the contacts to your "List" was to try and be helpful, but from a point of view when it comes to virii that can be bad.

2. How do I stop more going there?
It appears that MSN messenger will put your contacts in there no matter what. There isn't really a way of stopping that because your "Buddies" list is kept on MSN servers.

This means if you were to load MSN Messenger on someone elses computer, your buddies list would appear on their machine.

3. Can I have addresses saved in my hotmail accnt that won't get mail sent to them by a virus (I get at that accnt)?
I believe you can have contacts saved on Hotmail, but as for if Virii will get to them thats something else. Virus creators like working new methods to get around anti-virii programs and new methods of propagating themselves.

Since Microsoft is renound for being "targeted", there are likelihoods that eventually someone might write a virus to use addresses from Hotmail accounts.

4. Would the addresses in the Windows address book get virus sent to them?
It's totally dependant on if you get infected and what infection you get. Some viruses will run and create a secondary virus that will select a random page from somewhere like "My Documents" or "Temporary Internet Files", and they will send that with a (.pif/.exe/.bat).

Those files will be sent to everyone in your Contact book (via e-mail) so if they have Outlook they too would suffer the same fate.

This is why you hear stories of Men getting caught by their Wives for cheating (because a virus sent a love letter addressed to their mistresses to their wife's e-mail address).

Overview:
The way to deal with Outlook and MSN messenger would be to stop MSN messenger from loading:

(In OUTLOOK EXPRESS goto TOOLS > OPTIONS > untick "Automatically log onto MSN Messenger" and then Apply.)

Then use another messenger service like "Trillian", which can still allow you to chat to your contacts (But you might find your functionality lacks).

BTW always log out of Webmail accounts when leaving
I've seen exploits (HOTMAIL) used where the real owner of the account logs in, and a hacker can manipulate some data in a browser to look like the open session.

This means they can read your mail while logged in, and even read it when you haven't logged out properly.

 

Thanks for the tip! Though how do you not log out 'properly'? Click 'log out' then close the window before it's done?

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Uh, thanks, but I don't use Outlook. I meant the Address Book on the Start bar (somewhere). Or is that associated w/ Outlook?

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could the magic word be eudora?

 

To Logout of Webmail, there is usually a "Logout" button/anchor.

Usually it will take you to a page/website that the webmail provider has purposely pushed you to. (This is to stop session data being captured by the "next" site you go to.)

As for Address Book, as I mentioned its a kind of "database" that can interchange with programs, on it's own it's harmless but programs can access it through particular DLL's.

I should really look for something like this:
http://www.secureaddressbook.com/

Pity it costs.

 

I don't get spam, at all. I used to in an old account, then I realised I shouldn't post my email address on websites, and I shouldn't join *any* mailing lists. The only people who have my email address are those people I know, and sites like amazon etc.

 

It's totally dependant on how well known your E-mail provider is, You could sit there and get none for months with a little known one.

But if you have an e-mail account with a large ISP or telecoms provider, suddenly you have people realise someone must have some money, so they start using automated bot's to generate e-mail addresses, and rip usernames from mined addresses to aid with generating extra addresses.

Not if your going to create an e-mail account you might want to start it with zzzzz (five or so z's), because if they try generating e-mails Alphapetically they might never get to you.

 

I don't get spammed either (this is NOT an invitation

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) and i am subscriped to mailing lists (guess i supricingly chose good ones)

Other then that wasn't there a list of known spammer with their domains? Try to get your hands on that list and add them to blocked senders

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That's about the size of it. Only give out your email to people you trust with it, or those whose usage of it you can track.

Example, I am receiving no spam, I sign up to a forum and start getting spam. That webmaster sold my email address. That webmaster better have a well secured server.

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