Spam! I'm sick of it!

[Michael Lee]

Hi guys,

I'm getting around 5 to 10 spam emails a day before, which is ok. But for the past few days, I'm getting more than 60 spam emails a day, which is getting very irritating. (some of them even from my own email address, which I did not send of course)

Is there a way for me to stop these spammers from getting their messages to my inbox?

Thanks for the help,
Michael

[Adrian Cooper]

Originally Posted by Michael Lee

Hi guys,

I'm getting around 5 to 10 spam emails a day before, which is ok. But for the past few days, I'm getting more than 60 spam emails a day, which is getting very irritating. (some of them even from my own email address, which I did not send of course)

Is there a way for me to stop these spammers from getting their messages to my inbox?

Thanks for the help,
Michael

Wow - a whole 5 to 10 spam emails per day?

Joking.

Well let me put this in perspective for you then you will see how fortunate you are.

I created my domain and personal email address in early 1996 just for email - I guess that must be 13 years ago.

My email address must be on every spam list in the world ten times over.

I operate my own Internet servers, one of which exclusively manages email for myself and family. It runs QMail with many mods.

On an average day the server blocks between 8000 and 10000 spam messages. Around 1000 make it through for one reason or another where my PC anti-spam defences filter around 850 of them, so I end up seeing about 150 per day - and spam is getting progressively worse.

My advice is just live with that number of spams and just delete them.

I was once a notorious anti-spammer, I was based on the spam-l list, and had input in to various anti-spam systems as well as tracking and closing down numerous spammers and their servers, but I came to realise that while messages are being sent in the same way they have been sent from day one of the Internet, it is a war not worth fighting.

The solution is in a whole new replacement for the current archaic email system - it will happen one day.

[geekspeak]

Are you using a verification code / system on your contact page?
Also have you made your email visible on your website such that bots could pick it up?

[Smokey_Joe]

Originally Posted by apc01

The solution is in a whole new replacement for the current archaic email system - it will happen one day.

Hmm. There was the time when having e-mail was classy - now it's archaic. What do you thin the replacement is going to be?

[AnneE]

I have two things that help. Microsoft Office and the Norton products that include an anti-spam filter. And I've beefed up both products by indicating additional emails that are SPAM to the Norton anti-spam filter, so it will add those senders to the blocked list and adding additional Microsoft Office rules that if the title contains certain key words that it should go directly to the Junk Email folder. This helps. It certainly helps in terms of not having an Inbox filled with disgustingly graphic email titles for sexually oriented products.

I also have an AOL account and a Gmail account. The Gmail account gets little SPAM, but I don't know if that is because I use it very little, or because it has anti-spam working. I'm sure more active Gmailers can tell you.

AOL delivers me maybe 5 true SPAM messages a day. I used to get almost none on that account. Perhaps all the complaints they had about their SPAM filter stopping good emails made them loosen the controls a bit. I really never have a problem with AOL not delivering a good email and I do NOT whitelist all my friends and family the way everyone always claims that you have to with AOL.

Hope this helps!

[Adrian Cooper]

Originally Posted by Smokey_Joe

Hmm. There was the time when having e-mail was classy - now it's archaic. What do you thin the replacement is going to be?

It will be web based or maybe software client based.

Either way the mail will be hosted on a server, but the server network will be database driven with lots of security. Collecting mail will probably not look too much different to now.

The reason spam is such an issue is because SMTP mail was never designed for the Internet - it was designed to send messages to different people in the same building - Universities, Government etc. SMTP is really crude.

The technology is really simple to do, the main issue is that email as it is now is so huge that it would take a coordinated effort to switch systems.

It has got to happen - but who will take it on?

[Paul Myers]

I was based on the spam-l list

I find that hard to believe. You seem entirely too reasonable to have been a denizen of that particular sewer.


Paul

[Niche]

I get a couple of hundred a day
Not to bothered about it. Have had some really good ideas from some of there headlines

[Paul Myers]

Billy,

"Hi My name is Paul and I am one of those Interent guys...."

Is this from you Paul? I grt about 5+ per day and it goes to a web site offering I.M from Paul Myers? is this you or someone copying you?

Not me, and no connection to me. I don't know anything about him, except that he's a spammer.

I don't think the guy's trying to copy me, as the picture is waaaay off. The name is quite common.


Paul

[Michael Lee]

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by geekspeak

Are you using a verification code / system on your contact page?
Also have you made your email visible on your website such that bots could pick it up?

I'm not using a verification code. I've made the email format on my sites (AT) instead of @. Can that still be picked up?

Thanks,
Michael

[Adrian Cooper]

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

I find that hard to believe. You seem entirely too reasonable to have been a denizen of that particular sewer.
Paul

That was many years ago Not sure how many years now - at least 10 anyway.

Back then it wasn't a sewer, it was a group of dedicated spam fighters, many of which were Internet pioneers, committed to keeping the 'net clean.

After being involved in the 'net for 21 years and helped it to grow up to what it is today, being involved in first web servers, web browsers etc, I didn't appreciate the spammers causing havoc.

Many of the anti-spam systems came out of there in one way or another.

I left when everyone started arguing among themselves 10 or so years ago and it completely fell apart.

I realised that my time was better spent on marketing.

[WendellC]

Whenever possible, I don't put my email as text. I use Photoshop and just create a text graphic of my email address so the automated programs can't pick it up.

If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express, a great spam filter is Cloudmark. 30 day free trial and costs $40 / year. Well worth the price for the amount of spam it blocks.

Wendell

[HeySal]

Yeah, I used to get fried out on spam, too. But then I got introduced to a real treat - HACKERS. Now spam just doesn't seem to matter as much any more.

[Adrian Cooper]

For IM purposes, just create an email address at GMail or wherever for each site.

Simple as that really.

On my sites I have contact forms so no email address is listed for harvesting.

[melanied]

I find that gmail has a pretty decent spam filter - catches the majority of the spam while still letting my real email come through (which others have a problem with). I use gmail for most of my work, including business.

[Colin Evans]

The gmail spam filters have caused me a quite few headaches...

I now use a PHP script to forward whitelisted emails to a Gmail account (the whitelist is all subscribers, customers, those from contact forms and personal) the rest get sent to another gmail account which I check from time to time. Any emails from me to me are deleted immediately by the script...

[Lady NaNa]

Originally Posted by Smokey_Joe

Hmm. There was the time when having e-mail was classy - now it's archaic. What do you thin the replacement is going to be?

I believe the replacement begins with a T and ends with an R. Any guesses? lol

[morry]

HeySal, I feel your pain. I got hit by hackers a few weeks ago and I'm still finding web pages that have trojans installed on them...

As for spam, definitely give one of those captcha verification things a go. I don't get too many myself and quite a few of them are good for a laugh. .

Sean