posted on November 12, 2000 07:21:21 PM
Getting very sick of it. On a "good" day I only get two or three spams, but sometimes it's five or six or more a day. Can I stop these jerks? We never answer the crap and delete most or all of it, but it never stops!!
To add insult to injury, I even got spammed last night by an ebay seller trying to sell me something similar to what I had bid on a couple of days before (he used his seller email). He said he would accept my bid on the other item plus shipping. Very freaking nervy. But this kind seldom happens, it's the other kind I need some advice on.
[ edited by loosecannon on Nov 12, 2000 07:36 PM ]
posted on November 12, 2000 09:38:10 PM
You can report them to spamcop, but they'll just start sending from another email address. The most practical solution is to set up mail filters to catch the spam. My filters caught about 20 this weekend.
It's easy to do in Outlook Express. I don't know how easy it is with other email programs.
posted on November 12, 2000 09:59:27 PM
I don't mean to be a bother but I don't quite know how to do it and I'm thinkin if you know how to set it up telling it here would benefit a great many people. http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/[email protected]/
Not a bother, just not sure how well my filters are working since I have it set to delete it at the server rather than let it through to my email.
Click on "Tools", then "Message Rules". You should get an option to click on "Mail", "News Groups" or "Block Senders List".
If you click on "Mail", another box opens & you can click on "New". Another box opens & you can see the options you have at what you want to set as the "rules" to handle mail.
For example, if you want to filter incoming credit card offers, you could check the "where the subject line contains certain words", then in section 2 decide what you want done with such mail (put it in a separate folder, delete it at the server, etc.), and in box #3, you get to type in the particular words you want it to be filtering. In this case I have "Credit Cards" in this section.
It filters out most but not all.
Then, over in the "Block Senders List", you can actually enter the entire email address of the person(s) you want blocked or enter in just the domain name, such as "hotmail.com".
You have to be careful because you could block out someone you want coming in, so I just put in the domain names of the ones that DO get through & I know are just major spam accounts.
Hope that helps some. It's a trial & error thing & it won't get them all but it helps.
posted on November 12, 2000 10:24:57 PM
About 95% or more of spam isn't addressed directly to you. It gets redirected to you and won't have your email address anywhere in it.
To make filters, select Tools from the menu bar, Message Rules, Mail
To catch this in Outlook Express:
NEW
1) Check 'Where the TO or CC line contains people'.
You'll see part of your new rule in box #3, click on 'contains people', enter your email address, let's say it is [email protected], press ADD, press the OPTION button, and select 'Message does NOT contain the people below'
Now, any email that isn't addressed to [email protected] will be caught by this and now you have to tell your rule what to do with it.
2) I just send it to a Spam folder.
Check 'Move it to a specified folder', click on 'specified' down in box and select the folder that you want it moved to.
I also check, 'Mark it as read' and 'Stop processing more rules'
And, now, all email not addressed to [email protected] will go to you spam folder.
Of course, you may be on some mailing lists that you want to be on and those will also end up in your spam folder. So, you'll have to make a rule to catch those first.
Let's say you want to see special ads and offers from Amazon.com
Make a new rule
1) Check 'Where the from line contains people', click on 'Contains people' in box #3 and enter Amazon.com
2) Add an action that moves it to the appropriate folder.
Use the 'Move Up' button to move this rule to the first position so that it doesn't get caught by the Spam rule.
Now, the only email that will get past these 2 rules is email that has [email protected] in the TO or CC line.
You can make more rules to handle spam that is addressed directly to you. In the conditions box, you see that you can make rules based on the subject line or the message. So, you can move email that has XXX in the subject line or obscene words in the message to your spam folder. Of course, if you buy porno videos, email from the seller may end up in your spam folder. Which is why I have a spam folder. This allows me to check that my spam rules are only catching spam and not good mail. Once you're confident that your rules are working properly, you can change them to delete the spam instead of moving it to your spam folder.
posted on November 12, 2000 10:39:46 PM
There is an easy way to test your rules.
Click the 'Apply Now' button, click the 'Select All' button to test all your rules.
Click the 'Browse' button and selct your 'Deleted Items' folder. If you're like me, you have hundreds of old emails (good and bad) in there.
If you click on 'Apply Now', your rules will be applied to all the mail in your 'Deleted Items' folder. Unfortunately, your old deleted mail will be mixed in with your recent undeleted mail. So, you might want to create some test folders first.
Make the following folders:
Good mailing list - to collect your Amazon.com mail and other desired email not addressed to you
Bad mailing list - for spam that isn't addressed to you.
Good personal - for email addressed to you that you want
Bad personal - for spam addressed to you.
Modify your rules so that your email is moved to the appropriate test folder and then test your rules.
Examine the mail in each test folder. If something isn't in the right folder modify the appropriate rule.
Delete the email in your test folders and try again.
Once your rules are working properly, empty your test folders and delete them. Also, modify your rules so that they move your email to the real folders.
[ edited by bkmunroe on Nov 12, 2000 10:40 PM ]
posted on November 13, 2000 01:52:48 AM
Also, try Brightmail, at www.brightmail.com
My ISP recommended it to me after I reported spam, and it seems to work pretty well. You download a program to work with whatever mail system you use, and it sends potential spam to a mailbox on the web you can go check on every few days and see if it caught anything else inadventantly.
posted on November 13, 2000 03:25:30 AM
ONLY FIVE?
There are several things you can do:
If the spam is from an eBay seller, who scavenged your email address from another auction, forward it to [email protected] and they will get a warning. If they repeat, they will be NARU.
Set your EMAIL filters to send ALL emails where your name does not appear in the TO: field to go to the "spam" folder. Much spam is sent BCC and will get dumped by this.
IF you get email from mailing lists you have subscribed to, these are also BCC ... filter them out first, then send the rest to the spam filter.
Ask your ISP to subscribe to the MAPS RBL list (ISP would be able to refuse to accept email from known spamfactories)
and the DUL (ISP would be able to refuse to accept email from spammers using their accounts to send direct to the recipient mail server ... something legitimate emailers never do)
and the RSS (ISP would be able to refuse to accept email from known open relays)
If they do all of the above, you will be down to one or two a week.
posted on November 13, 2000 04:01:38 AM
The mail rule that controls incoming emails that don't have your actual address listed took a ton of emails out of my inbox. I also use POP3 Scan Mail Box, which accesses your mail server before you launch your email program. You can see the list of emails that are waiting, and selectively dump the ones you don't want. You can also read them from within this program if you're not sure. It takes an extra step, but really helps keep your inbox cleaned out.
If you post on various newsgroups, mung up your reply email address as well. Spammers harvest emails from those. For most programs such as Outlook Express, the fake address needs to be written like a normal address, such as [email protected] That stopped a good deal for us as well.
When you sign up on any web site, don't use your main email address. Sign up for a yahoo mail or hotmail address. That way, it's not your everyday email address that is getting the spam that signing up on a web site will create. It's also good to have another email address or two incase your main email has problems. My address are similar enough so that when I've had to use my HotMail address to mail bidders, they were more assured that it was actually me.
"Professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built the Ark."
posted on November 13, 2000 05:40:13 AM
This was a great thread! Much more informative than the Help section of my email program!
My ISP uses Spaminator from Bright Mail to filter spam and it does an excellent job. I can go look at the spam and then either delete it or forward it on to my email box. It usually catches around 20 or 25 spam emails per day. I've never had but one email that wasn't spam end up in there.
I also turn my spams that do get through into Spam Cop and then block the sender. However they usually just get another address. If the mail is particularly bad from a certain domain name (UU.net for example) I just block that domain name.
I haven't gotten into more sophisticated filters yet because I wasn't clear on how to do this. This thread has definitely cleared that question up for me.
posted on November 13, 2000 06:03:06 AM
Abacaxi, sometimes more than five. Probably an average of 30 or more a week. Maybe that's not as bad as some, but it's bad enough for me.
posted on November 13, 2000 07:48:12 AM
Or, you could just hit delete until all the spam is gone!
Repeat as needed!
P.S. Please don't auto-block Hotmail accounts.....lots and lots of legit buyers and sellers use it for eBay, especially those with MSN as a primary account! MSN recommends Hotmail all over the place (since they own it) and many many newbies DO NOT KNOW its rep as a spammer's domain so they use it! i fell into that trap and am now switching over to another free domain but it takes time!
posted on November 13, 2000 07:55:21 AM
Those who use MSN as their ISP will soon have to migrate all of their email through Hotmail. The newest upgrade to MSN changes a great deal for those users. Don't upgrade unless you know what you are in for. My understanding, from someone who works for MSN, is that you will no longer be able to use Outlook Express for your emails with the newest upgrade.
posted on November 13, 2000 09:01:15 AM
Another common technique is to get one "public" email, typically a throwaway Hotmail or Yahoo address, that you give to companies but otherwise ignore, but that you also have a more "private" email address you use with family, friends, or others you are certain would never spam you. You may need to dump your current, spam-ridden address first, or relegate it as the "public," mostly ignored address.
If you don't do that, and don't want to deal with extra software, the only other way to avoid spam is to start with a new address and limit its use to only trusted people and locations.
I do not trust companies to not sell me out to direct marketers (spammers in this case), so I rarely register anywhere, prefering to keep shopping offline, where I can better control whether I'll get sold out. I am certainly glad I'm not registered at Amazon, given what they recently said in regard to their customer's information. Hopefully, online (and offline) companies figure out that most people just want their product and/or service, not a growing side dish of spam. Unfortunately, many "extras" come with direct marketing strings attached.
I do not consider eBay a very secure location either, if for no other reason than buyers' email addresses can be retrieved by any other eBay member, and not just the seller whose stuff they bid on. I am 99% certain that this is how spammers finally "found" me after 19 months of flying below their radar (I'm actually now surprised it took that long, considering I have been an active buyer on eBay the whole time).
There are several Unsolicited Commercial Email (the formal name for spam) bills somewhere in Congress, but two of them are weak opt-out things, and neither they nor the stronger third bill seem to be going anywhere, last I heard. It seems there are the direct marketing lobbies are active in Washington, trying to prevent consumers from gaining more effective power to block direct marketing they do not want.
However, the good news is there are steps that can slow, to some lesser or greater degree, the amount of junk you receive, and maybe even stop it if you are careful. Unfortunately, all of them require you to waste some of your time, and possibly some of your money (e.g. software, CallerID), to do so. This is true of the vast majority of direct marketing (anything not based on confirmed opt-in).
I've learned to do so because I am just so sick of all the junk, pushiness, and time wasting nature of it. If I'm going to have to spend time dealing with direct marketers (essentially impossible to avoid at this point), I'd much rather spend it fighting to (and largely succeeding at) getting them off my phone, and out of my e(mail), then letting them continue unchecked -- and sometimes telling other people so they know what to do without spending all their time learning what I have.
(The most shocking one is how pharmacies often sell their customer information to direct marketers, since they are not bound by the same doctor-patient confidentiality rules that doctors are. At least one state legislator campaigned on the promise to block such (IMO) unethical sales of such personal information, and I believe he specifically mentioned pharmacies. He won by an upset over the incumbent in the election last week. I cannot, of course, say whether that one promise was a major factor or not, I just found it interesting that someone used such concerns in a campaign. )
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
[ Edited to make "19" be "19 months" ]
[ edited by dc9a320 on Nov 14, 2000 07:32 AM ]
posted on November 13, 2000 10:25:40 AM
Thanks for the great thread and super answers...Like paintpower, my ISP uses Spaminator; the residuals get sent to SPAMCOP.
A special thanx to abacaxi for the tip about reporting Ebay Seller SPAM...
I just received one from someone I never purchased from, but who must have
found me by checking various XXXXXX listings to find out who bidders were. I did not report it this time, but will in the future.
********************
Gosh Shosh!
posted on November 13, 2000 10:43:39 AMThis is fantastic information! Just want to
thank every poster on this thread!!!
I have been receiving over 20 emails a day for viagra...same message...20 copies per day.
posted on November 13, 2000 11:30:09 AM
I have been actually getting pronographic spam which I find highly insulting. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now I copy the headers and send a note to [email protected] complaining of spam. I am holding my breath. It appears I have killed off the worst spammers (no spam for a week).
Yes, you can reduce the spam by a 98% How? by giving exactly what you are offering. I have noticed that many buyers will submit your email address to dozens of lists in retaliation if you don't satisfy them. The real spammers are all extinguished, due the high tech filters that is used by many ISP in order to protect its users. What you are getting is spam directly from companies that can't be blocked. Example: eBay can send millions of emails a day to AOL without any problem, but AOL refuses to accept more than 5 thousand emails a day from certain domain names and ISP.
posted on November 13, 2000 06:08:10 PM
Most of the porn spam I get, and the Shamballah herbal...whatever, comes from foreign countries: russia, danemark, the UK. Since I have turned it ALL, every single one over to SPAMCOP, I am getting less and less nasty stuff.
About the "being single", I was just teasing I am sure they send their garbage to anyone with a mailbox....If my dog had an Email address, he, too, would be getting hit...
posted on November 14, 2000 06:37:05 AMloosecannon
Thanks so much for starting this topic.
And a special thanks to eventer and bkmunroe!!!
I used your advice and it worked...know you must think I'm dumb but
computers were not available when I was in school so I'm learning from
scratch. I really appreciate the time that you took to post this info.
posted on November 14, 2000 08:16:17 AMShoshanah: Like the TV ad where the dog gets credit card offers? I hope the dog is shreading those particular offers.
Spammers are the least discriminating of all direct marketers, but the rest aren't a whole lot better. "Better" targeting can be even worse of a problem, however, for if you respond positively to even one telemarketer or spammer, for example, your volume of junk calls and junk email stands a good chance greatly increasing, because you get "known" as responsive to this method.
Same thing for the TV ads for cheesy products. I've come to think those are not really about the product, but about finding people who are responsive to such pitches, and adding them to mailing/calling lists. The product is merely the bait, IMO. You usually can't get just the one product and be done with it.
Unfortunately with spam, the problem even includes responding to even the supposed "unsubscribe" address, which is rarely about unsubscribing you, but about finding which addresses are "alive" and spamming them more. Never respond directly to spam (not even to unsubscribe or otherwise complain to the sender); only respond indirectly, such as sending it to Spamcop.
Targeting also translates to tracking and profiling, which on the Web means outfits like DoubleClick expanding their network in an attempt to track as many of your clicks as they can, as quietly as possible, including at job and house hunting sites, and health sites.
The other thing that makes spam the worst form of direct marketing is that most spam is also scam. Spam is still, however, just the latest extension of how out of hand direct marketing has gotten.
Another tip: do not list your email address inside your web browser software (i.e. in web browsers that also feature email management), for there are ways for websites to access this information, and once they have your email address, guess what is many of them are likely to do... spam it. I know some people may like the convenience of such integration between web software and email software, but more spam will be one of the prices.
Even if you don't use your browser's email handling abilities, you may have entered your email address at installation time, and thus be leaking it without your having realized.
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
posted on November 14, 2000 09:03:11 AMdc9a320... I can just see my dog coming home, dragging a HUGE bag of "treats" and singing the kibbles slogan: "Kibbles'n'bits"..I'm gonna get me some Kibbles'n'bits"....
posted on November 14, 2000 09:23:46 AM
This is probably a stupid question, but here goes...
Since everybody complains about spam (I haven't yet read a post fron anyone who said they enjoy getting, let alone reading, these emails), what are spammers thinking? Is this, in any fashion, a sucessful marketing strategy?
posted on November 14, 2000 10:09:48 AM
I am an AOL member since version 1.0 (black and white) The spamers era is gone, I don't get one single spam anymore. I used to get dozens a day but not any more. When I was a new member I was sad, very sad because didn't receive emails from anybody, I felt this way for about 4 to 5 months, then the chatrooms were introduced and I spent my time there, then a few weeks later after chatting almost daily I started to receive hundreds of emails from all over, so I felt some kind of sick of it, so I decided to create a new email address, and I did, BUT didn't enter the chatrooms with my new screenname. BUT one day I desperately needed help that I posted my message on the message boards, but I completely forgot to use my other screenname, then again in matter of days I started to receive junk email in just matter of 3 days.
I understand that you can't change your email address for one or another reason, but if you keep getting junk email is because you made mistakes like I did in the past, at this time your email address is already distributed all over the Internet, and you won't stop getting junk email. So the best way to stop this is by changing your email address. It's up to you
You can send your email address as many person as you want and you won't get spam, BUT if your email address is displayed in forums, chatrooms, etc. It will be collected by professional spammers, who later sell these list for big bucks. They don't just collect any email address, they target their lists. Example: If they want new Internet members, they will go to the AOL chat rooms, why> because is the first place where new members spent their time. etc.
