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Community Newsletter: Q&A: What can I do to stop spam?
- 10/11/07 12:57 PM
Simple.
by J Stuart - 9/28/07 8:09 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Purchase Mailwasher Pro.
Responding to these emails is the WORST thing you can do!
by jskrenes - 9/28/07 8:10 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Jo,
Whatever you do, do not reply to these emails. Spammers use programs to generate emails to thousands upon thousands of probable email addresses. When they send out these messages, whatever addresses don't fail are keepers and spammers keep sending to those addresses. When you respond, that is further proof that your address is a real address, and that will only result in more spam.
Changing your email address will temporarily deter spammers until their email generators pick up the scent again. So even though you feel you you have no other option, this one isn't going to help much.
The best thing you can do is report these messages as spam. See if your Internet Service Provider has the ability to allow you to do this. AOL, Yahoo, and MSN all do, and I am sure other internet and email providers do too. Believe it or not, there are people who track spam and block the sender's addresses, and the more they know the better they can track and block.
You can also see if you can create some safe lists of messages to receive and filter rules for messages to delete. Different email and internet providers have different filters and none of them are perfect, so if you do this you'll have to check your junk mail box to make sure that wanted messages are being properly delivered (large distribution lists, e-receipts, and messages from cell phones are often accidentally filtered out, and you can flag those messages as not junk so they can be properly delivered in the future).
300 spam messages in the course of a month isn't out of the ordinary, but you should be able to reduce this number by reporting messages and using filters.
Multiple email addressses
by vex1 - 9/28/07 8:10 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Many ISPs allow for 6, 8 or more addresses. Use them. Have one for your friends/family, one for your bank accounts, one for registered spam as I call it (example: cnet forums), one for your hobby/activities (scrapbooking, job search, side job, spouse/kids, sports/fantasy league, etc). If you run out, create a free account such as hotmail or yahoo. That way, you can change the ones receiving spam more often.
Answer to Jo B.
by JoAnn White - 9/28/07 8:11 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I just hate that stuff! I am not a wizard at this,either, but, I just send unwanted mail into Spam. Eventually, it will stop. Also, don't answer chain letters or add to survey lists. They are just fishing for s/n's. If it keep up, go to your security settings, and key in words or phrases that you do not want sent to you, i.e. size, lotto, dating, lonely. Hope this helps. It won't happen overnight, but, it will lessen it overtime.
Spam
by thening - 9/28/07 8:13 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Rule 1: Don't open any mail unless you know the sender.Even at that you can be conned if somebody's computer has been taken over( zombieised). The fault lies in your mail provider, if your mailbox doesn't have proper protection ie. an active spam filter, you're open season to anyone who gets their claws on your e-mail address.The solution is use a program like Mailwasher.I've been using this for about a year & because I use a couple of addresses for different stuff, I bought the full version. It shows everything in your mail BEFORE it loads into Outlook & gives you the chance to bounce,delete or accept mail. There's also a database which flags known spam.I'm not getting paid by these guys by the way - just works great for me.Oh! it's free if you just have one account.
Unsolicited E-mails
by rcsteinbach - 9/28/07 8:17 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You didn't specify how you are access your E-mail. I tend to use the Web interface while many people like to use Outlook or Outlook Express while others may use AOL, Lotus Notes, Eudora, or other special Email clients. It is important to know which method you use because each one has very different methods to filter unsolicited E-mails.
These unsolicited E-mail to buy non-existent lottery tickets, enlarge your nose, receiving fraudulent coupons for fruit, buying destroyed timeshares, or such stupid stuff, are often called Spam. Unfortunately, this Spam is not edible in the least, unlike the real Spam(TM), and is often no good for anything other than clogging up your E-mail inbox.
The usual method for dealing with spam is to set up a Spam filter since trying to click on any link to unsubscribe often only adds your E-mail address to the spammer's E-mail list (yes, I did try this back in 1995 with horrendous results). Chances are that your Email program, or E-mail web site, has an option to turn on a spam filter. If so, do that and, for a few days, make sure the real E-mail you want does not end up in the "unsolicited" or "spam" folder.
In some versions of Outlook Express, there is not a spam filter. You can sometimes create a rule that filters out E-mail from that particular sender. But what I suggest is to upgrade to a version of Outlook Express or Outlook that does automatically filter spam E-mails and then you can adjust it accordingly. As for AOL, they should be filtering it at AOL's end unless the spam filter accidentally got turned off. I have not seen that happen after working on people PC with AOL from 2002 to 2006 so I don't think that is a common occurrence, at least back then.
Now why on earth do these people want to fill up your E-mail inbox? I guess if they can send 10,000,000 emails a get 50 suckers...er...people to buy their product or service or scam, its worth it to them. It doesn't matter that the other 9,999,950 people are angry that their Email inboxes is full of this junk and they would NEVER buy their products in a million years.
Being a Spam Killer
by robrob8 - 10/6/07 6:27 PM In reply to: Unsolicited E-mails by rcsteinbachI have had great luck with spam, not in reducing the amount I receive, with over 100 websites and the same amount of email addresses I receive over 500 spam emails messages a day, and maybe 10 valid email messages. I spend a lot of time with the delete key but I am also proactive in getting rid of spam by going after the spammers domains.
I report spam to spam@uce.gov which follows up after many complains of spam and, more importantly, I report spam and the domains that are registered with fake information to ICANN.
I have had success with more than 200 domains being deleted from the internet.
Once a spammer registers a domain name with a false identity and email, if it is reported to ICANN then they send a notice to the domain registrar that the incorrect information needs to be changed. If the change is not made (and it isn't because the spammer used a fake email address so they never get the notice that their information needs to be updated) the website and domain is deleted from the internet after about 30 days.
There is more about how to do this here:
http://www.alovelinksplus.com/info/blacklist/how-to-combat-spam.htm
Go to it, you can make a difference in the fight against spam!
Spam in Email
by deadvolvoman - 9/28/07 8:23 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
dear jo b.,
your problem is not new & happened to me also, & yes you should have tried to unsubscribe first & yes it might be possible to undelete the emails that were deleted earlier as long as you have not deleted them from the trash can in your email reader, it should be held in a different area than the windows recycle bin, it will only go there if you have directed the email program in it's options. you didn't mention if you had an email reader or not but i use incredimail which i think can be found on cnet downloads, you may be using something else, it doesn't matter. try & get those deleted emails first if possible, unsubscribe. if to late to retrieve emails just wait for the next one & unsubscribe from them, but sometimes they make this very hard to do, also direct your email reader to the offending email & check it as junk mail & that should kill that. how it got there in the first place depends on what sites you may have visited & what got attached to your computer while you were there, & also depends on what sort of anti-spyware you are using. my missus laughed hard when i showed her my first xxxx enlargement email, so have a laugh first then kill it. good luck
SPAM, SPAN AND MOR SPAN
by Wally7 - 9/28/07 8:29 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First, never unsubscribe. That will just get you more spam.
Second, If you do not want to open and read (even briefly), just highlight the group of spam emails and hit the delete button. Magic, they will all be gone.
You can open and give a quick look to each, to be sure they are really spam, then close them and hit the delete button.
"increase your" Spam
by pozgayboi - 9/28/07 8:36 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I didn't hear anything about the program you were using to check your email, but am assuming you use a web-based (yahoo or hotmail) browser email. Most web email programs use what is called a spam box and yuo can report it as spam within these programs. As far as using any un-subscribe links in the email itself, I would not suggest using these. this will only verify your email address and open the door to more spam in your inbox. You can forward the message to the FTC (federal trade commission) at spam@uce.gov, but you will need to insert the full header into the email itself before sending. Otherwise, just delete the message.
Just some simple answers
by icurhuman2 - 9/28/07 9:19 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Some people use a spam-filter, which can be purchased either from your anti-virus supplier, or, sometimes from your internet server. I don't bother myself, I tend to create a rule from a repeated message in my e-mail program, though this doesn't always work with the spammers as they often use an embedded picture with their message written within.
How you get these unwanted messages is usually from pilfered, swapped or sold e-mail lists from all manner of subscriptions, sometimes from places you'd think would be "safe". As an example, I subscribed to the reputable Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper only to be followed by piles of Canadian spam offering cheap medicines. Subscriptions to financial sites will often be followed by spam suggesting you buy certain "surefire" shares etc. However, the Viagra spam and related stuff seems to come out of the blue and may be just a blanketing ruse that originates from swapping lists among spammers- I did have some success by chasing down the suppliers and threatening to shut them down at one stage, but they are persistent and the sites and suppliers shift like desert sands.
I suggest you consider a spam-filter and just delete the garbage that gets through. It's just one of the ongoing and endless annoyances you have to put up with I'm afraid, at least until international authorities get really serious and start tracking them down with super-huge penalties.
Don't open or try to UNSUBSCRIBE
by fomh - 9/28/07 9:32 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Something in an HTML email can can be hidden and blab a bit of info to alert the sender that the address is a valid working address just by opening the mail.
The same or worse can result in clicking on UNSUBSCRIBE.
Don't encourage these lame thieves and scamsters by doing anything to let on that their garbage was given even the slightest second thought!
Not to toot Microsofts horn, But I've been VERY impressed with the effectivness of the junk email filter built into Outlook 2007. Yeah, it's a slug to load and download mail. But for me, 95%+ junk email is caught & jamed into the Junk E-mail folder
anti spyware
by deaths_little_helper - 9/28/07 9:33 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Use it, know it well, and make it your best friend...Anti-Spyware software of your choice (you get what you pay for...) and then make sure to keep marking these messages as spam, you could always block these senders by address, but they change addresses so often that won't help much...
P.S. EVIL!
Spam and what to do about it.
by richande - 9/28/07 9:33 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Jo B,
The first thing would be to check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) whoever it is probably has some sort of spam blocker, your ISP may have unassociated your account with their spam catcher. Beyond that you need a very good spam checker on your pc, do a google search for anti spam software. It's best to have at least one paid scanner and a couple of free ones, the paid one acts in real time and you can schedule it to do a scan at night, run the 2 free ones about once a week each. You also need a first line Virus Scanner, and a good software firewall.
Hope this helps,
Rich
how to get rid of spam
by venkadig - 9/28/07 9:41 PM In reply to: What can I do to stop spam? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
first, go to your isp's website, login as master user (if more than one emails on the account), and see what anti-spam tools the isp has. most business class and several residential isps have something. configure those settings to the level you are most comfortable with (mine adds **spam** in front of the subject and send it to me).
logout of your isp website and then configure your email program to filter (mozilla thunderbird and outlook express) IN several senders you recognize and filter OUT several subjects/bodytext/etc. that you do not want to another location (e.g. trash in "local" folders). the advantage of using trash in any folder is you can "empty trash" without highlighting or checking each spam message.
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