Spam is out of control and at an all time high

[avenuegirl]

Ok, I've now had it.

I don't know how this is done, but I am getting tons of pharmacy and penis stuff, and there is no return address on them - they have my personal email as the reply address, but different names are used. So the name is from Janella Mongeon for example, but shows my email addy.

I have postini right now, but not sure if that is enough.

What are you all using for spam? It has been sucking up a great portion of my day just to get rid of what keeps coming through.

[MichaelHiles]

Our servers are getting sledgehammered right now.

My barracuda stats are showing around 80,000 a day.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

Ok, I've now had it.

I don't know how this is done, but I am getting tons of pharmacy and penis stuff, and there is no return address on them - they have my personal email as the reply address, but different names are used. So the name is from Janella Mongeon for example, but shows my email addy.

I have postini right now, but not sure if that is enough.

What are you all using for spam? It has been sucking up a great portion of my day just to get rid of what keeps coming through.

Paul Meyers turned me on to using Gmail as a free spam filter. It works really well. You don't have to change email providers, you simply read your email in Gmail. The gmail account email can be anything and secret. You can even reply using your old email address.

1. Get a Google Mail account
2. Go to Settings: Accounts and Import: Check mail using POP3
4. Add the account you get mail from

Google is very good at filtering spam. I used to pay for a service and they are better and free.

[avenuegirl]

Does anyone know how to track this stuff down from the IP? Would I be shooting myself in the foot to block IP's?

I know there is another service where someone has to do similar to what a double optin does to get through. Can't remember what that one is right now - anyone know which one I'm talking about?

What really disturbs me too is if my email address is being used to spam other people. I get emails from other folks who say "If you got an email from me that said I was selling xyz, it did not come from me" - So I can only wonder if others are getting crap that looks like it is coming from myself. Part of me wants to just delete that original email addy I use for personal stuff, and the other half is reluctant to do that because of old contacts that might want to get ahold of me, not to mention there are some lists I am on that I want to keep up on.

Grrrrrr.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

I know there is another service where someone has to do similar to what a double optin does to get through. Can't remember what that one is right now - anyone know which one I'm talking about?


Grrrrrr.

Here is one. It is what I used before I changed to gmail. Don't expect to stay on Paul Meyer's list however if you use it. He hates it.

Spam Arrest - Take Control of Your Inbox®


These services are called "challenge response" . You can search for that on Google.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

Our servers are getting sledgehammered right now.

My barracuda stats are showing around 80,000 a day.

That's a whole problem in and of itself. There are things an ISP can do to cut those down. Mine blocked certain addresses for one. I forget all they did, but they can help you with that.

[adamv]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

Ok, I've now had it.

I don't know how this is done, but I am getting tons of pharmacy and penis stuff, and there is no return address on them - they have my personal email as the reply address, but different names are used. So the name is from Janella Mongeon for example, but shows my email addy.

I have postini right now, but not sure if that is enough.

What are you all using for spam? It has been sucking up a great portion of my day just to get rid of what keeps coming through.

I'm getting hammered with the pharmecutical emails too. The same thing happened about a month ago but at that time the unsubcribe button was clickable, not anymore. I'm getting refill your prescription emails and get yourself a nice watch emails.

If I log into my email account every 10 minutes I have a entire page of emails to delete each time.

[Kelly Verge]

I second what Scott says. Use gmail.

If you have an email account you're already using, you can route it through gmail and their spam filters will clean it for you. You can keep using that email address as both the incoming and outgoing address. You can then point your email client to the gmail server so that you'll still be able to use your client of choice (I assume you use the email client built in to your Mac?).

This way you don't have to change the way you do things at all, yet you have the benefit of the excellent gmail spam filters.

I never get spam, nor do I get false positives.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by Kelly Verge

I never get spam, nor do I get false positives.

Agreed! They are excellent. Rarely, rarely, does spam get through and rarely do I find anything in the spam bucket that I wanted to keep.

I went from battling spam to actually reading email that mattered. It is a total relief.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

What are you all using for spam? It has been sucking up a great portion of my day just to get rid of what keeps coming through.

I use Thunderbird. My mail server has filters that block a lot of spam. What gets through generally gets caught by Thunderbird. And, Thunderbird will learn from messages you mark as spam and you can add your own filters.

It does get annoying though. My main address, which I've had for 13 years or so, gets hammered with spam.

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

What really disturbs me too is if my email address is being used to spam other people. I get emails from other folks who say "If you got an email from me that said I was selling xyz, it did not come from me" - So I can only wonder if others are getting crap that looks like it is coming from myself.

It happens a lot. They just use forged headers.

Originally Posted by adamv

I'm getting hammered with the pharmecutical emails too. The same thing happened about a month ago but at that time the unsubcribe button was clickable, not anymore.

Don't click "unsubscribe" links in spam messages when you never opted-in to begin with. All that does is let them know they've got a live one. Then, they likely sell your eMail address to others or start sending you more messages, because they know you have an active eMail address and you actually looked at the message.

[MichaelHiles]

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

That's a whole problem in and of itself. There are things an ISP can do to cut those down. Mine blocked certain addresses for one. I forget all they did, but they can help you with that.

Oh we already restrict traffic on SMTP from a lot of IP ranges on foreign networks.

[lgibbon]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

Would I be shooting myself in the foot to block IP's?

Most spammers are using someone elses IP address anyway.
Spam won't stop until people start complaining to the
payment processors who are taking the orders for them.

No cash = No spam.

[Thomas Belknap]

I am getting pm spam for product launches on this forum. What can you do, eh?

[Michael Mayo]

Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap

I am getting pm spam for product launches on this forum. What can you do, eh?

Hit the Report Spam Button on the PM.

Michael

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by Michael Mayo

Hit the Report Spam Button on the PM.

Michael

I did. The report button isn't working but my man Les is on the job.

[BizzyUK]

I too get emails every single day for penis enlargement products, generic viagra, slimming pills, height surgery, etc. The big question for me is: who is talking dog'garn it?

Mickey D.

[Michael Mayo]

Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap

I did. The report button isn't working but my man Les is on the job.

OK, GAME OVER FOR THEM THEN...

Michael

[Slin]

Don't open the emails either, if you do then they know you read them and keep sending them.

If you don't they will generally quit sending them to you, (you will still get them but not as many) this is because their program will show that you are an email account that is down or not used.

Just a little tip I learned awhile ago, I don't know if it still works, but I barely get any spam so I think it does.

[SusanneUK]

Totally agree with the gmail thing, love it, I have all my email accounts routed through it and can reply as if replying from whichever email account. Great time saver.

Sue

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

Ok, I've now had it.

I don't know how this is done, but I am getting tons of pharmacy and penis stuff, and there is no return address on them - they have my personal email as the reply address, but different names are used. So the name is from Janella Mongeon for example, but shows my email addy.

I have postini right now, but not sure if that is enough.

What are you all using for spam? It has been sucking up a great portion of my day just to get rid of what keeps coming through.

I thought it was spam too, until my wife admitted signing me up for all this stuff

Joking (maybe) - I agree with others...I've using Gmail since it first came out and it's spam filtering is the best there is.

Incidentally, you can connect your email client (like Outlook) to Gmail if you prefer, so you're not really forced to use it in a browser.

[Kelly Verge]

One other thing about routing mail through gmail even when using your own client:

I didn't bring a computer with me when I was on a mission trip to Nepal this summer.

Normally, if you use an email client, you have no way to remotely look through your old received mail and zero chance of looking through your sent mail. When you route through gmail, however, both your received and your sent mail can be pulled up from any browser.

I was able to log in at an Internet cafe and pull up an email that I'd sent via Outlook (saved much grief on the return trip concerning an India layover with no Visa).

Pretty cool stuff.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Use my main server email and I do not get spam ... As for tracking the "full headers" shows the IP where it came from but you are wasting your time if you want to sit there and report it...

James

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Use my main server email and I do not get spam ... As for tracking the "full headers" shows the IP where it came from but you are wasting your time if you want to sit there and report it...

James

I did that for a long time. I reported every spam message I could find to the ISP's. It is just useless for the most part. You can never seem to stop them.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

What are you all using for spam?

I outsource spam control to GMail.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

I did that for a long time. I reported every spam message I could find to the ISP's. It is just useless for the most part. You can never seem to stop them.

The way to control the spam is not use your main email for anything unless you are purchasing something from someone you trust and use it for your customers..

I get no spam at all on my main email.. I used to get alot of spam when I used a difference email and just like you scott, I used to spend hours reporting all for nothing..

James

P.S. I do not signup to anyone's list...

[Darth Executor]

I have my hotmail filter send everything that isn't on my safe list straight to the junk mail folder where they are automatically deleted every 3 days. I check it daily to make sure nothing legitimate went in there, but otherwise I don't bother with them and they don't bother me.

[GarrieWilson]

If you have a dedicated or VPS, login the WHA and activate some of the RBLs (spamhause for one) in your EXIM stats. And do some of the ACLs options.

This alone will kill 90% of it.

Then use GMail to filter and check your pop3 emails to catch more. But it flags some as spam when its not so you should check your spam folder on occassions.

Then use a pop3 desktop client to fetch mails from gmail and use AVGs spam checker to catch the rest.

I get less than 10 a day w/ the 3 tier method.

Garrie

[fthomas137]

I hear you. I run dedicated anti-spam services for several clients and it catches at least 95% of the spam that hits the device. On of them phoned me one day and was complaining about all the spam.

I logged into his computer and saw, oh, 10 spam mesages. I looked at the anti-spam device and for his account alone, it had eliminated well over 800 for the day.

They don't complain anymore, lol!

Frank