[Momaw Nadon]

Six Spam Fighters Face Real-World Test

[Xenalyte]

Hint #1: do NOT use "unsubscribe" links. All that does is tell the sender that there's a human at your IP address who'll answer e-mails, and you'll never get off that particular list. Delete without opening.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Would someone please tell me why I keep getting this crap in my email? What is this language?

«Coâpeìåííûe PR-òåxíoëîãuè íà ïpegïpuÿòuè”.

Ñpîêè ïðîâegeíuÿ: 28-31 oêòÿápÿ
Ìåñòo ïðîâegeíuÿ: Îòåëü «CÏÓÒÍÈÊ», Ìîñêâà, Ëeíuíñêué ïp-ò, 38.
Íà÷aëî çàíÿòué â 10.00 ÷àc.

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Áuçíec-öeíòð «Âîcòoê-3aïàä» ïðèãëàøàåò Âaøux ñoòðóäíuêîâ ïpèíÿòü y÷àñòue â cåìèíàpå-ïpaêòuêyìe «Coâpåìåííûe PR-òeõíîëîãèu ía ïðegïðuÿòuu», êoòîðûé ñîñòîèòcÿ 28-31 îêòÿáðÿ 2003 ãîäa â Ìîcêâe ïî àgpåñy: Ëåíuíñêué ïpoñïeêò, 38, Oòåëü «ÑÏÓÒÍÈÊ».

 ïpoãpaììó ñåìèíapà âêëþ÷eíû âoïpîñû ðàçpaáîòêu è påàëuçaöuè còpaòeãuu ýôôeêòuâíûx êoðïoðaòuâíûx êoììóíèêaöèé, PR-êaìïàíèu, âíyòpèêoðïopaòèâíûõ PR-ìeðîïðèÿòué, òexíoëîãué ñoçäàíèÿ câÿçåé c oáùecòâåííîñòüþ, à òàêæå âoïðîñû, ñâÿçàííûe ñ èìugæeì pyêîâoäuòåëåé paçëu÷íûx ópîâíåé.

Ñòîèìîcòü ó÷àcòèÿ â cåìèíàpå-ïðaêòèêóìå îäíoãî ÷åëoâeêà coñòàâëÿåò 9500 ðóáëeé, âêëþ÷aÿ 20% ÍÄÑ, ÷òî âêëþ÷àeò îáó÷åíue, ðaçgàòî÷íûé ìaòeðèàë, 3-4 êoôe-ïàóçû â òe÷eíuå êàægoão ó÷eáíîãî gíÿ, oáeg, êîìïëeêò gîêóìåíòoâ, ïîgòâåðægàþùèx cïåöèàëüíóþ ïîäãîòîâêy ñëóøaòeëeé ïî gàííîé òåìe, ygocòîâepeíue ãocóäapcòâeííîão îáðaçöà. Ïðè íaïpaâëåíuu ía îáó÷eíue oò âàøeé opãaíuçàöèè äâyx è áîëåå ÷eëîâeê ìû ïðåäîcòaâuì 5% ñêègêè ía êaæäoãî y÷àñòíèêà ñeìèíaða.
Ïo âaøåé çaÿâêå ìû çaápoíèpyeì gëÿ âàc ãîcòuíuöy (ñòîèìîcòü ïpîæuâaíuÿ â oäíîìecòíoì íoìåðå â oòåëe ÑÏÓÒÍÈÊ ñîcòàâëÿåò 1600-00 â cóòêè ñ çaâòpaêoì â ðåcòîpaíå îòåëÿ).

Áógåì ðaäû âègåòü Âañ è Âàøèx ñïeöèaëuñòîâ ñpegè y÷acòíèêîâ ýòoão ìeðîïðèÿòuÿ.

Èñêpåííe æeëaeì óäà÷u è ïðîöâåòaíuÿ âaøeìy ïðågïpuÿòuþ
u âceãî íaèëy÷øåãî êaægîìó ñoòpógíuêó!

Ñäåëaòü çàÿâêó ía y÷àcòèå â ceìuíàpe âû ìoæeòe ïo òeëåôoíaì
(095) 930-6032-, 500-7864-, 930-4252-, 930-3172-.

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Áûcòpåíüêî oòêaçàòücÿ!
.mzekxvusbnjobjskbqhqidzufqawstlyhjwtgkm



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[MarkL]

For what it's worth, the best thing that you can do is to have both a private and (possibly more than one) public addresses...

First off, you can give out your private address to those you trust, who will not ever give that out or make it public. Be careful about sending it to family and friends, if they have a habit of forwarding jokes.

Then, create one or more "public" addresses. Create Yahoo or Hotmail accounts, and any time you have to give out an address, use one of those. Make it a "disposable" address, so if the spam gets out of hand, you just delete the address and create a new one. An added bonus is that these are web based mail systems, so you don't actually download messages to your computer, making things a bit more virus resistant.

If you ever post to discussion groups or blogs, be sure to either use a "dummy" address (like nobody@nowhere.com ) or use one of those disposable addresses.

For the most part, this works well for me. On the average, I get fewer than 3 spam messages a day to my "real" private address, while my public addresses typically get 20 or more a day. I don't think that I'd get any spam to my private address if it wasn't for using it normally a few years ago.

Mark

[steve-b]

I have tried creating mail rules, but they keep changing the spellings and punctuation, or use on and off caps to defeat this

The law needs to recognize the deliberate circumvention of anti-spam filters as a form of computer cracking, and apply the existing laws against this form of trespass.

As I recall, Kevin Mitnick got five years for this offense, even though Mitnick did far less actual damage than a typical spammer.

[Republican Red]

Haven't tried this myself but a techie on tv the other day suggested the best way to beat spammers was to create an email name with a combination of numbers and letters i.e. "12ABC3". These type of email names are harder to get on lists.

[BillF]

I have tried creating mail rules, but they keep changing the spellings and punctuation

Here is way that blocks upwards of 95% of spam in Outlook by setting up the rules below.

Rule 1 checks if a sender's address is in your address book. (Make sure that relatives, friends, and others who send email that you want to receive are in your address book.) If sender's email address is in your address book, rule 1 stops processing further rules.

Rule 2 checks for the real nasty words that are common in most porno spam or words or phrases that will never be in an email that you want to receive. (Some spam may evade this rule by the spelling tricks, but rule 4 will catch most.) It permanently deletes the email and stops processing more rules.

Rule 3 checks for sender's whose email address may change, but whose email you want to receive (i.e., sent from Amazon, your state Republican Party). Rule 3 just stops processing more rules.

Rule 4 checks message headers for "html or text/html or multipart/alternative or multipart/mixed." If the email does have such headers, it is most likely spam and you can set the rule to move it to your deleted files folder and stop processing further rules. This is the rule that should get 95 percent of the spam that use spelling tricks, etc. to get through rule 2.

Most spam will have at least one of the message headers and will be moved to your deleted file folders.

A stronger version of rule 4 can permanently delete all email with the listed headers, but might inadvertantly permanently delete email that you want to receive. By moving it to the deleted folder, you can quickly scan the sender's name of email in the deleted folder and "rescue" any email that you wanted to receive.

Importantly, you must have the rules work in order from 1 to 4 by moving rules up or down so that rules 1 to 4 are in order from top to bottom.

Rules 2 and 3 especially may require updating every now and again when a significant amount of spam is getting through.

It takes some effort, but above should help at least substantially reduce the problem.

[Grit]

Mailwasher Bump.

[BillF]

One of the best pieces of advice in the thread is to get a private email address that is only given to relatives and friends and a separate disposable email address such as hotmail, excite, or yahoo to use with companies.

Another idea: If you do post to newsgroups or put your email address on a website, use the form "userid@SHIELDyourdomain.com (delete SHIELD to send email)." Humans will know to delete "SHIELD" and can email you. Spammer's email address harvesting programs will send email to the phony domain.

Here is a tip for selecting an email address. Select an email address that spammers' email address guessing programs are less likely to guess. The spammers have programs that guess email addresses using first names, last names, and common words. Use uncommon words and numbers to reduce the chances that they will randomly guess your email address.

For example, suppose your name is Bill Clinton and you want to select an email address at your new domain "pardonsRus.com".

Selecting "bill.clinton," "bclinton," "billc" would increase the chances of getting the email spam promoting the enlargement of your favorite, albeit inadequate, part of your anatomy.

If you select "DIRTXPOTUS@pardonsRus.com" instead, you are less likely to have your email address guessed by spammers.