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junk email flood?

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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Just in the last two or three days I've received unusually high numbers of computer-generated email with the following subject line in every one (altho' one or two words and letters are always changed to prevent "spam filters" from catching them:

RE: inflammable, ClAcLlS - $1. 5, hysterics, VplAGRA - $1. 3

The "to" field of the email contains a long string of email addresses - not just mine.

I'm sure we've all seen gazillions of these. But my questions are:

1. Have you seen an unusual increase in these lately?

2. If so, which ISP (internet provider) do you use? (Charter, verizon, etc.)

3. Who would ever "bite" on these things? Why are they event emailed?

I realize that just one "bite" might pay for the idiot sender's investment of $50 in a CD containing "millions of valid email addresses!", but c'mon now - do people really buy "enhancement products" from overseas internet sites? Thinking they're really getting valid medications - and not powdered goat nuts or newt knuckles?

Yeesh.

Tom
 
Not seen an increase in "enhancement" junk, but my legitimate e-mail addy has been 'spoofed' again recently and I'm getting a ton of "undeliverable" notices just now. 80~100 a day, easily.

...lucky I ~can't find~ the perps, actually... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif
 
A few weeks ago, my server had a flood of spam designed to deny service through it - they tightened up their spam filters causing me to have ot rebuild all mine...right now I have 66 processing rules dsigned to block spam - & I still had 38 spam messages this morning....most were using made-up words or words they mispelled on purpose (I never knew there were so many ways to spell 'sex').....but, if I reinstall the big overriding spam filter - the one designed to block messages with nonsensical words - I also block some of your valuable messages! So, I have to live with some spam.
 
Hi Tony,
That is why I like Cloudmnark so much. It does not use "rules" to block spam. It uses digital ID's of actual spam submitted by all the users. They are then compiled into a db that is sent out as an update from time to time. When spam does get through all I do is highlight it and select "block" it gets sent to my deleted folder, I no longer have to deal with it and it is sent in to the db. It is extremely effective.
 
Where do I find 'Cloudmnark', Tom?
 
This is exactly why you should NEVER EVER post your email address in a publicly readable forum or post on a publicly readable web site of any kind for any reason - because if I can read it with out logging in, then so can SPAMBOTs that crawl the internet collecting email addresses.

That is why I modified this forum software so that if you type in your email address into a post, it will replace the "at" sign with a small .gif of an "at" sign so that the SPAMMERS will not see it as an email addrress. Yes, some other forums do the same thing, or similar, but most do not. HOWEVER, if you use the email button on the editor to post your email address, it will get posted and Spam Bots can read it. So if you must post your email address in a thread here, just type it in directly to your post, like this:

somebody@somewhere.com

AS you can see the "at" is an image. Note that the image will only appear once your post is actually saved - when doing a preview of your post, it will look like a normal address. The "at" does not get replaced with the image until the final save of your post.

Also, If you keep a "public" email address in your profile here, remember that only members who are logged in can view member's profiles, so those are safe from spambots also, but its a good idea to use your real address for the admin email, but use an alternative (like hotmail) from your public email in your profile.


Basil
 
If you figure out how to find the perps that spoof your servers email, let me know.... I'd like to get even, all those undeliverable emails are frustrating! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif
 
I get tons of those emails (and others). I even get them on email addresses I never EVER post anywhere or use for general email. I'm not sure how they get the addresses, but they do.

I've tried different email filters and spam blockers, all of them turned out to be a pain and in the end not all that effective. Finally I set up a gmail account and let it do the filtering for me. It's free, it gives me web-based access to my email, gives me an off-site archive of my mail, but doesn't otherwise interfere with my regular email access (using thunderbird, outlook, etc). My in-box spam went from 20-30/day (or more) to maybe 1-2 a week.
 
Aerog - exactly the same here. I have *never* (knock wood) received junk mail on my gmail address. They do a fantastic job of filtering, especially considering all the mail that's being routed through them. Their other bells and whistles (archiving, large storage space, etc.) are just icing on the cake.

I use that gmail address for personal, relatively important correspondence. And my other address is for online ordering, etc.

But I'm still wondering why people bother to send junk mail in the first place. Sure I could send gazillions of stupid messages to addresses like:

idiot1
idiot2
idiot3
idiot 57
etc.

all at the same domain (whacko.kom)

and it costs me nothing.

But why bother doing that - if no one ever reads it or clicks the link for cheap mail-order goodies? Rampant public domain email robots sending messages to other robots now? Good grief - a friend operates a large corporate backoffice IT system; says over 90% of incoming email is pure robot-generated spam. No wonder the 'net often slows to a crawl. Oy.

T.
 
NutmegCT said:
I use that gmail address for personal, relatively important correspondence. And my other address is for online ordering, etc.
Click to expand...

More importantly you can use gmail to filter your regular email address too. I have a gmail address but I never use it for anything. My gmail account reads my ISP's email, and my own domain's email. The spam is yanked from the server, but everything else is left so I can still get mail using my mail readers.

Works great!
 
But I kind of like the idea that thousands of Russian women may find me irresistable... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

...not many others do.... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif
 
Use gmail to filter my other email - having the other isp forward incoming to the gmail address.

Never even thought of that - thank you!

Just set the forwarding. Will be interesting to see how the filtering succeeds.

Thanks!
Tom
 
Just make sure you tell it to leave mail on the server. Works great for me, I don't do any other filtering now! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Ya mean I really DON'T have all those "secret admirers" out there???!!! DANG!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
aerog said:
Just make sure you tell it to leave mail on the server. Works great for me, I don't do any other filtering now! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Click to expand...

That's the way I set it up, so I could look back and see how it was working (what is gmail actually "catching").

But ... is that the reason you suggest leaving it that way?

Thanks.
Tom
 
> ...thousands of Russian women may find me irresistable...

Plus, we have our new-found Nigerian friends who are eager to send us Millions of Dollars so we can afford all those Russian women.
 
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