RUFocused

I must be on some sort of mailing list and i am getting over 100 per day. I`m seriously thinking of changing I.S.Ps to get rid of them once and for all. Is there anything i can do in my settings to stop them, i`ve tried the message rules but they still find their way through.

Nick

If you're on a mailing list just remove yourself from it.

However if you're getting spam, then you need to change your email address. When you get your new address, don't post it on any open forums or newsgroups & NEVER reply to or open spam emails.

If you have a valuable email address, then look at getting some anti spam controls. If you want advice about this, you'll need to post more details about your systems.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Same here. I use mailwasher pro 3.1 to blacklist and bounce all the spam b4 I even open my email client. The bounce feature is suppose to make the spammer think my email addy doesnt exist, and hopefully then they will remove me from their list, it never happens though. Change of email address is the quickest solution.

lightning101

I you are using outlook 2003 and only receive mail from friends and known users, why not set it to allow trusted users only ?

RUFocused

Yes i`ve got mailwasher as well, and i`ve even tried to change my email address as i dont really need my current one, i just don`t want to go through the hassle of downloading all these everyday. If I am on a mailing list how would i find out and remove myself, i`m with NTL and using outlook express 6

elgordano

get yourself a decent ISP who already has anti-spam software installed on there email servers.

Iain Young

Only 100. I'm currently getting around 180 -200 spam emails a day at the moment

Luckily the anti-spam filters etc I've got installed seem to catch most of it, but I have had it incorrectly identify some genuine mail as spam, so I always make sure I check the spam folder every now and then...

what would scooby do

Another common gaff people make is to create a website and put their email address on it somewhere !! don't do it as you will get spammed by the web trawlers

Nog

Try SpamCombat from G-Lock software. Free, simple, and generally very good.

Oh, and if you use Outlook Express, turn off the preview pane, as some e-mails contain links that are unique to your e-mail. When Outlook caringly loads the image (for example) in the message body, the Web server at the other end says "yep, that's a live one", and adds you to that organisation's "e-mail lists to be sold" list.

Once again, how lovely the Internet is.

RUFocused

I changed my email address this morning, but because i have to put my user name and password in to create it 46 got through to me in the time from my 1st post. Is there any way to alter my email settings to stop these.

Will look for SpamCombat and see how that goes.

Nick

I don't think we're getting the whole story here mate. You can't get 46 spams to a new email address within a few seconds of opening it. Please give us all the info. What sort of email address, do you use newsgroups, do you have a web site, do you list your email address anywhere, who hosts your email, what mailing lists are you on, how do you collect email. You get the idea?

RUFocused

I`ve been with ntl for about 4 years now where i was issued an email address
?.?????@ntlworld.com "? are my inital.surname"
and a username and password.

This is my primary email. Now for me to add another address i still have to use my username and password, I can`t change or delete my primary email from the ntl server.

I dont use newsgroups nor got a website the only place i give out my address is to the few forums i`m registred with.

If I am on a mailing list how would i know and how could i remove myself from it.

I check my mail through mailwasher (just downloaded SpamCombat)
but tonight i checked my mail through outlook express.
What i did this morning was delete my primary address from them and put in the one i created this morning belive me 46 spam mails got through.

Nick

You almost certainly got mails sent to you old account.

Here's a couple or 3 options.

1. Take out a free account with Yahoo.co.uk, configure it for POP3 mail & download it as normal with OE. Stop downloading from your NTL account.

2. Buy a domain & host it with someone like Virtualnames.co.uk. Domain costs £18 for 2 years, advanced hosting costs £10 per year. They have spam filtering & you can download mail using OE by POP3 again. Stop downloading NTL mail.

3. Take out an account with Cotse.net. It's about £3 per month & gives you auto expiring email addresses & email addresses that you can turn off. So for instance, sign up with scoobynet using the email address scoobynet@yourname.cotse.net. If scoobynet send you spam (perish the thought), just cancel emails to that address & use another address within the @yourname.cotse.net domain. Stop downloading from your NTL account.

Oh, 4 options.

4. Cancel your NTL account & get an account with someone else because NTL are illegally selling their database to spammers.

I'm not associated with any of the above companies neither do I resell for them. I do however have a domain hosted with Virtual names & I use the Cotse.net email service - so I know they both work.
Stop spam in future. Never reply to spam email, never open a spam message, never post your email on a public forum, turn off the blasted preview pane in OE. If you can, buy Outlook 2003 which has the nice facility to not download inline images. In OE Tools, Options, Security set the zone to restricted.

Nog

Bit confused... you say

"I can`t change or delete my primary email from the ntl server."

...but then say:

"What i did this morning was delete my primary address from them and put in the one i created this morning..."

A couple of possibilites spring to mind: a) Your primary mail address still exists, and mail to this is being forwarded automatically to your new address (I don't use NTL, so I cannot comment any further), b) NTL have the same arrangement as Virgin.Net used to, where you could browse the parent directory of someones Web site, and get a directory listing of all users on that server. I doubt this is the case, as I would hope that ISPs are more aware these days!

Other than that, you must be unlucky.

RUFocused

Yes i deleted my primary from outlook express, its still there on the ntl server.
Also the new one i set up on my server that i had to enter my username and password to create was put into outlook express.

albob

could it be that the spam is targeted on your name in the email address??
i.e. "smith" = you receive spam addressed to any email with 'smith' in it!?!

try any email addy with -;:#==+%^$ (dont know what symbols are allowed - the theory is that the punctuation marks will confuse the 'spambots')

alan
p.s. I'm on NTL - never had any spam while on Claranet........?!

RUFocused

Could be, I have a very unique surname but I am getting emails that are sent to other people perhaps with only one letter differant.

Fox

For the last 2 years I have had an email account at btconnect.com which came as part of my ADSL line.

Until last week, this email address had never been used, either to send mail, newsgroups etc - in fact it had never been opened to check if messages were in it.

Last week, I opened it via Mailwasher Pro and found 2119 spam messages in it !!

So, how do the spammers get the address ?

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

The spammers dont get your address they use programs that generate random addys based on the ISPs domain. The programs used are similar to password crack engines and use dictionaries and alike to compile email addys. And with ISPs like Freeserve, that use a username as part of the domain/email addy its even easier for them, as they can send email for eg to user@userid.freeserve.co.uk, rather than having to know the actual full email address.

Then of course when they get a 'hit' back saying the account is active you will receive lots more mail from them, and other spammers as the original spammer will put your addy onto other lists.