SPAM! How do YOU deal with it?

papasmurf ^ | 5/17/07 | papasmurf

[papasmurf]

I have 5 networked pc's here and a "floater" laptop, running a mix of XP Pro, Win2K, and Ubuntu.

My subscriptions for A/V, Firewall, and Anti-Spam are all up this month. Currently, I use paid-for full version/suites of ZoneAlarm and AVG. I also have MS Defender, and Ewido. I have a regular maintenance routine I perform once a week using spyware blaster, Opt Out, Spyware S&D, Black Light, and Crap Cleaner. I also use a registry monitoring app, and sysinternals process explorer.

I haven't had an infection in well over a year, and then it was so mild I've forgotten what it was.

I do have a moderate problem with SPAM. I have about 7 email accounts that I use regularly, and receive about 50 spams a day, on average. AVG and ZoneAlarm spam filters leave much to be desired.

So, I know there are some really high tech FReepers here, and I was wondering what you are using and/or actions you might recommend.

Thanks

papa

[Kevmo]

I have a couple of suggestions.

1) open up a google account that is ONLY for personal use. It is ONLY for giving out to your family, friends, etc. NEVER sign up for anything else and it won’t get spammed.

2) I got a lot of spam when I posted my resume on Monster. There are crawlers running through the web all the time and they look for Anyone@something.com or whoever@thisorthat.net, you get the idea. A computer will overlook Anyone at something dot com and whoever at thisorthat dot net, but a human will immediately recognize it as an email address, especially if you list it as an anti-spam email address. It will also make you look technically savvy.

3) For those of you who are webmasters, open up a white-on-white email address on the front page of your website. These crawlers constantly are looking for soandso@yourwebsite.com and will try sending emails to it. ANY server that sends email to that white-on-white email address should end up on the blacklist. It will knock out about 20-25% of the incoming spam.

[texas booster]

If you politely reply and ask them to stop sending you spam, then you will ...

be on every list known to man and will be spammed forever.

I haven’t found a good answer. I even read my spam folder just to check for false positives. Also, many email servers block gmail accounts, especially if you use a “reply as ...” to send email.

Good to see you again. Enjoy the world of long haul, buddy.

[Cindy]

I was getting over 500 spams a day for a period of time.
Spam comes in waves, usually.

Hitting the delete key was great.
I broke that computer key and eventually and got a new computer.
I have a junk mail system now that works well and keeps
it down to 50 or under a day.

Ditto for my husband who receives over 1,000 spams
or more a day on some days.

A well trained junk mail system works for us and my
garbage makes a great garbage eating sound when
I dump it into the trash and empty the trash.

[papasmurf]

Nice to see you again. How's everything and the Family?
I've still got one box folding. :)

I sold my trucking side and am only doing the logistics side now. It's slow, but appears to be steadily building.

"I even read my spam folder just to check for false positives"...you do that too? LOL

:O)

P

[texas booster]

It is insane that I end up scanning the titles for stuff I really, really do not want to read.

But when I catch an email I need to read, I just gotta do it.

It’s almost like the spammers and anti-spammers are in cahoots to make me look at everything at least once.

But, really, I do not need bigger breasts or bigger anything else.

[garyhope]

I like it with some eggs over easy and some more Spam, Spam, bacon and Spam.

Spam spam spam spam, Spam spam spam Spam.

[MrEdd]

I slice it very thin with a wire cheese slicing block

Then I fry it crisp with my panini grill.

Then I add cheese and bread and return to the panini grill for two more minutes.

[iowamark]

Yahoo Mail accurately filters out >95% of my spam. I spend a few minutes every few days scanning the bulk mail folder to make sure it is nothing I want to see.

[kingu]

I’ve gone to piping everything through either a yahoo address or a gmail address - both have been far more effective at nailing out spam than anything I’ve ever tried.

Since you have an Ubuntu box running, you could install spam assassin on it, and have it scan your remote mail box, scoring e-mails and putting probable junk mails with a leading tag of [junk] or the like - check the Ubuntu forums for instructions, there’s a zillion good guides out there.

As for all the windows programs you have going there - first thing I do with any new computer is install firefox, go to Mike’s Host List and install the blacklist of ad servers and malicious servers, and have a good firewall on my router. Haven’t had an infection in forever. For occasional scanning, I use CA Internet Suite which does a marvelous job of not just finding buggers, but eliminating them.

Oh, running through gmail, I’ve got a pretty steady 30k spam mails in the spam folder, and have never had a false positive except if I train the software to recognize a valid email as being spam (happens sometimes... Sloppy me.) Yahoo is slightly worse, about 1 in a thousand false positives for unknown senders. Both handle the load of multiple mailboxes very well.

[Thrownatbirth]

Judging from my spam, trashing my credit rating and burning down my house would eliminate about half.

[TheRobb7]

Here's one way to deal with it:

[JRios1968]

I just laugh about it...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The best way to deal with spam is to not rely on filtering.

Use Mailwasher to view emails by subject and sender before it is downloaded onto your machine. Simply mark the offending emails for deletion and then process them.
Only the ones you want will be downloaded locally.

Another great way of stopping the spammers cold is to use Sneakemail . This service is free and allows you to generate an email address (in the form of "h3482jsl294@sneakemail.com") for giving out to whomever.
All return email sent to this address shows up in your normal mailbox for whatever account you have now. All it does is add one extra hop to the route. If you start getting spam to that address...just login to sneakemail and delete it. No more Spam!
Whenever I have to give an email address to a website or such, I use a sneakemail address. You can create dozens and label them and add filtering rules on their website for each address.

[papasmurf]

Do you use Mailwasher?

If so, can you tell me more about it, other than what I can read on their website? Thanks.

:O)

P

[papasmurf]

That was good. Thanks.

:O)

P

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I use Mailwasher everyday. I have the old original freeware version that supports multiple accounts rather than just one as the current freeware version does.
Their Pro version ($37.00) supports multiple accounts...which is what I think you'll need.

It works pretty simply. Here's a screen shot of the interface:

All you do is add accounts by giving the POP server name then user name and password. You can select to view all mail messages for all accounts or just specific accounts. When you do, it looks at the POP server and shows the messages. Delete them, blacklist them by filling in check boxes next to each message....or do nothing. When you click the Process Mail button it performs the appropriate action. You can also preview the emails if you like but it doesn't handle HTML and will only show you the body of the message in text if it exists that way.
When you click the Mail Program button, Mailwasher will launch your email client...if you use one and provide the path to the program. Technically speaking, you can use the email provider's web interface and do the same thing but Mailwasher lets you do it all from one screen...without downloading any messages to your machine.

I think that about covers it. Any other questions, lemme know.

[papasmurf]

I use OE for now. Only because I have 30,000 plus archived emails and it takes time to convert them to text.

So, Mailwasher will work through email clients, right? How 'bout right clicking an email and selecting black list this sender or ip or?, can I do that? Can I remove someone from a blacklist the same way? Or do I have to stop what I'm doing and open the mailwasher interface and add an ip or domain or ? to it's list, then save and close, and then close and re-open my email client?

What I just described is the procedure for AVG's anti spam, I hate doing that. I also hate, and this applies to AVG and ZoneAlarm, that when a program update comes in, I have to download the "free" version, and upgrade it to the paid for version. Gosh, I'm becoming a hater, aren't I?

Thanks for your input.

:O)

P

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

So, Mailwasher will work through email clients, right?
Well...no. It works independent of your Outlook client. It will look at the server same as OE but does not download the messages...just looks at them so you can do admin before opening OE which will then download them.
You set up an account by giving MWasher the POP server name, the username and password for that account....all of which are within OE's account preferences area.
When it checks mail, it goes to that server and peeks at what's there for that account.
For your next account do the same. If the screen shot I posted came through, you'll see a drop down arrow next to the Check Mail button. That will list all accounts configured. You can also set up the Check Mail button to check all accounts when mashed.

How 'bout right clicking an email and selecting black list this sender or ip or?, can I do that?
Yes. The interface also places check boxes next to each message. One for 'delete' and one for 'bounce' which adds the email add'y to the MW blacklist and then bounces the email back to the sender/spammer so that it looks to them as if it were never delivered. This will pare down the amount of spam over time as automated systems will remove your address after it keeps receiving non-deliverables.

Can I remove someone from a blacklist the same way?
Yes. I'm not sure about add/remove using right click. I never tried it but the blacklist is easily accesible for modification.

Or do I have to stop what I'm doing and open the mailwasher interface and add an ip or domain or ? to it's list, then save and close, and then close and re-open my email client?
Once you open the email client, it will download the messages on the server to your local machine and will no longer be viewable by MW. Unless you do not have that as the OE default, but the same thing will happen when you click Send/Receive in OE...unless you have selected to "Leave Messages on Server" within OE options.
You should do all such admin within MW before opening OE.

[papasmurf]

Ok, thank you for your helpful information.

:O)

P