How do I get rid of spam?

cp1969 · Jan 16, 2002

The credit card thread brought this issue to mind: Is there any way to restore sanity to my email account? I am currently bombarded with anywhere from 30 to 50 trash messages a day, from Viagra hawkers, hair growth formulas, wealth schemes, and pornograhy solicitations.

I've created a 'filtered' folder, which picks through the inbound stuff that is addressed to my email address and leaves the rest of the trash in the Inbox to be deleted in one big lump. But still, quite a bit of undesirable crap gets through.

Any suggestions?

Boondox · Jan 16, 2002

Have you considered changing your reply-to address to something like webmaster@tractorbynet.com..?

Just kidding, Muhammad! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Pete

MChalkley · Jan 16, 2002

Pete - Ooohhh! That'll get your TBN privileges revoked in a hurry! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

DrDan · Jan 16, 2002

LOL I have the same problem. Get a little irritated when I get 148 emails and 20 are breast enhancement cream. Frigging idiots ruin the net with this commercial crap. I guess I have to take down my website to avoid it.

DrDan

StoneHeartFarm · Jan 16, 2002

Darn, from the title, I thought this was about food /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif.

SHF

MChalkley · Jan 16, 2002

DrDan - Have you tried the cream? Oh, never mind - I guess I should start a separate topic for that... /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif I have the same problem (the SPAM, I mean). /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Boondox · Jan 16, 2002

Seriously, I wound up nuking an old account because of SPAM. I lurked and posted on several newsgroups that had binaries of woodworking projects...and was inundated with offers of **** binaries. Like they couldn't tell the difference between a table and smut!

I've used an alias via DejaNews to check the newsgroups on my new account, and in the past year have only received about a dozen low-key SPAM letters.

Pete

Bob_Trevithick · Jan 16, 2002

<font color=blue>...I've created a 'filtered' folder, which picks through the inbound stuff that is addressed to my email address and leaves the rest of the trash in the Inbox to be deleted in one big lump. But still, quite a bit of undesirable crap gets through.</font color=blue>

I did something similar. I have a filter set which checks to make sure my address is in either the "To" or "cc" field, and if not it dumps it into a Junk Mail folder where I can look at it at my leisure. This has worked pretty well.

However, there comes a point where you simply have to ask your ISP to change your account name. Notify all your correspondents of the new address, and so on. Very tedious.

You might consider what I suggested in another thread.. use a "throw away" mail account for anything questionable. You open a free mail account on some service like Hotmail or Operamail, and whenever anybody demands an email address, say for a purchase, you give them that email address. It will probably start getting heavily spammed.. in which case you either just delete it all monthly, or throw it away and create a new free account to begin using.

The biggest thing is never use your real address on Usenet. The spammers have bots that go through and "harvest" addresses to use. Oh, and if you get a spam that says click here if you want to be removed from our list, never respond to it. This just tells them they have a live account rather than an abandoned one. These people are scum.. don't ever trust them.

Hope this helps,
Bob

Bob_Trevithick · Jan 16, 2002

This doesn't answer your question, exactly, but it does give an interesting view of what the spammers are really like. Rather amusing in spots, rather depressing in spots.. but this is an Internet Classic that has been floating around for years. Enjoy!

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://belps.freewebsites.com/index2.htm>Behind Enemy Lines</A>

It has annoying pop-up windows on each page, but think of it as skeet shooting.. knock those windows down in the least time possible. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

DrDan · Jan 16, 2002

Heck yes I tried the cream McChalkley - [censored] suff just made my belly a little bigger... Hell I thought I'd have to strap em up on the rough ground next summer riding the Kubota!

DrDan