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Spam
2/29/04

Posted on 02/29/2004 7:15:24 AM PST by pabianice

Since the federal legislation was signed making spamming and spoof address emailing crimes punishable by large fine, my spam email has increased 20%. Has anyone else had the same experience? I use two good spam filters but the stuff keeps coming in carloads.

Let me propose that it be made lawful to flog spammers through the streets. Opinions?


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To: Blue Screen of Death
The bounce does little or no good.

True enough but it seems to have reduced the spam I receive.

Another tactic I use is a free Sneakemail account.

When I must leave an email address online I use a randomly generated Sneakemail address.
Sneakemail adds 1 hop to the path before it gets to my ISPs server or my PC. Sneakemail allows me to create a nametag for that address so I can identify the place I used that address on, such as, "Staples Rebate Submission".
When that particular Sneakemail address starts getting spam sent to it, I simply go to Sneakemail.com, log in and delete that particular address. (After I get my rebate of course.)

Works like a charm. Heck, even the email address I have to leave for places like FR sign up is a Sneakemail address.

41 posted on 02/29/2004 8:31:04 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Do a little dance...make a little love...get down tonight.)
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To: ysoitanly
LOL!
42 posted on 02/29/2004 8:33:36 AM PST by null and void
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts; Eric in the Ozarks
The junk faxer hides its telephone number so that *69 and caller id don't work.

I had to disconnect my fax machine and only plug it in when someone has arranged in advance to send a fax.

The junk faxers are violating the law. FTC or FCC just fined a notorious junk faxer (think it was Fax.com) several hundred thousand dollars or more.

Go to www.junkfax.com for more info.

43 posted on 02/29/2004 8:42:15 AM PST by BillF (Fight terrorists in Iraq & elsewhere, instead of waiting for them to come to America!)
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To: devane617
I have MailWasher, which is pretty good, but even with that, it takes too long to sort through it all. So I changed my isp--for that, and other reasons. So far, it's been lovely and quiet, but no doubt they'll find me again one day.

44 posted on 02/29/2004 8:42:31 AM PST by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts; Blue Screen of Death
bounce the spam back to the source

No, don't do that! You're just adding to the problem.

The reply addresses for both spam and e-mail viruses are virtually always bogus. You're just sending unsolicited e-mail, aka spam, to somebody who had nothing to do with the mail you received.

The idiots who built these bounce options into their spam filters have made the spam problem significantly worse. Bounces to forged addresses constitute some substantial portion of the spam out there. The same goes for viruses and the ill-conceived bounce functionality in some virus filters.

45 posted on 02/29/2004 8:46:05 AM PST by Mitchell
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To: MizSterious
I forward the Spams I get to my ISP....I only get 2-3 a day....but they are irritating....and my ISP has not requested I stop.....I believe they use the info to help track them down or send to a depository being built to "kill," or at least identify, spammers.
46 posted on 02/29/2004 9:18:46 AM PST by goodnesswins (If you're Voting Dem/Constitution Party/Libertarian/Not - I guess it's easier than using your brain.)
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To: pabianice
I have been using POBOX.com as a virtual email address, keeping my email friends from having to see all the ISP's that I have had over the years.

A side benefit has been a spam filtering service that I have slowly ratched up from it's 10 levels to near level 1 to 2 now (have to check) since I have learned to trust it so explicitly.

At the same time I have been sending my spam to SPAMCOP, a great blacklist service (among others). I just discovered (as needled on from this thread) that my great POBOX.com service is now tied to SPAMCOP and a lot of other black list services (Spamhaus, MailPolice, Not Just Another Bogus List, etc.), as well as other outright blocking abilities (e.g. don't send me anything from Nigeria, etc.)

It has greatly expanded it's spam prevention services so I have just turned it all on. And all for $15 a year, for three 'logical' addresses pointed at one physical. More logicals are available at 3 for $7.

I have been shopping all sorts of tools but now that my existing tool has just been upgraded tremendously, I am quite hopeful that I will have the best of all worlds with POBOX.com.

47 posted on 02/29/2004 9:24:07 AM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!! But don't turn your back on America with "immigrant amnesty")
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I have been shopping all sorts of tools but now that my existing tool has just been upgraded tremendously, I am quite hopeful that I will have the best of all worlds with POBOX.com.

Hmmm .. that last line about "my existing tool" sounds like I have been reading too much of the spam that HAS gotten through!! ;-)

48 posted on 02/29/2004 9:27:47 AM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!! But don't turn your back on America with "immigrant amnesty")
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To: pabianice
I have been getting about 4 spams a day recently. That's less than before the legislation, and I always add them to my junkmail list to "train" my screener. That's in addition to my ISP's screener. The problem seems to be spammers changing their email addresses frequently.
49 posted on 02/29/2004 9:45:38 AM PST by ampat (to)
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To: ysoitanly
My penis has increased 1000% and I'm female


That's too bad. I have always made it a point not to date girls that have a bigger penis than me.


but then again that's just me...
50 posted on 02/29/2004 9:50:18 AM PST by dagoofyfoot
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To: pabianice
Since the legislation, my spam with gobbledegook ISPs has stopped, but now it's all coming from yahoo.com addresses. I block them, but I don't want to block all of yahoo. Irritating. Wish yahoo would fix this. Seems that all the other ISPs have.
51 posted on 02/29/2004 9:54:56 AM PST by firebrand
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To: pabianice
I register at sites I wish to register at, and have only one email address.

But I don't get ~any~ spam. I figure either spam is only a problem on "FREE" email accounts, i.e. hotmail and yahoo, because premium services like Comcast filter it (and AT&T before that) or folk that get a lot of spam get it because they registered at naughty places.
52 posted on 02/29/2004 10:04:14 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: Mitchell
The reply addresses for both spam and e-mail viruses are virtually always bogus. You're just sending unsolicited e-mail, aka spam, to somebody who had nothing to do with the mail you received.

Good tip. I shall cease and desist forthwith.

53 posted on 02/29/2004 10:18:32 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Do a little dance...make a little love...get down tonight.)
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To: ysoitanly
Quit whining. My penis has increased 1000% and I'm a female!

LOL!

54 posted on 02/29/2004 10:36:31 AM PST by pabianice
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To: All
Try this: go buy a domain name and redirect your emails.

I bought a domain name (my last name) and have the emails directed to my REAL email account (a local ISP). True, it does cost me another $15/year but it give me a practically _infinite_ number of email addresses to use: one for family, one for friends, there's a jcpenney@{name}.com, sears@[name].com, and so forth.

Part of the redirection service is the ability to have a list of locked-out names. If I start getting pornography addressed to, say, acme@[name].com then I'll lock out 'acme' (and email acme themselves to change the email they use to acme1, or something, if I still want to receive emails from them). My kill list has about 15 names on it at the moment - one or two are companies that I still want to get email from (sales, discounts etc.) and the other names were SOLD by the companies to spammers.

There's a counter associated with every blocked name and I can see how many emails have been refused (the sender gets a reply saying "name does not exist". It's also possible to have a list of 'accepted only' names and have everything else blocked.

The best thing about having your own domain name (you don't have to be a guru - it's surprisingly simple to set it up) is that if/when I decide to drop my current ISP and move to another, I can send all my mail there and STILL keep my domain name (so I don't have to notify everyone-and-his-brother when I change ISP's). You can 'split' your emails too: say you're going on vacation. You can receive the email on your home account and forward a copy of it to a temporary web-based emailer that you can reach from anywhere. And even more stuff. Consider purchasing your own domain name to avoid junk emails. I think it's money well spent. (No, I don't represent a domain name service or provider.) Feel free to Freep-mail me if you have questions.

55 posted on 02/29/2004 12:00:48 PM PST by solitas (sometimes I lay awake at night, looking up at the stars, wondering wherethehell did the ceiling go?)
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To: BJungNan
That's the whole thing about this fax. (And this is the third or fourth one.)
I can 'disconnect' (have my number removed from their automatic dialer) but how'd they get my number in the first place ?
56 posted on 02/29/2004 12:10:10 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Good tip. I shall cease and desist forthwith.

For the really obscene stuff, or the Nigerian scams, I have forwarded to postmaster@their ISP with a notice warning. .... I have gotten "thank you, we have deleted their account" messages back from the ISP.

57 posted on 02/29/2004 12:14:06 PM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: pabianice
Did someone say... SPAM?
58 posted on 02/29/2004 1:03:58 PM PST by Preech1 (There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.)
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To: frithguild
You can actually categorize spam under the classic definition of trespass.

Spam that contains any feature that can be identified as an attempt to bypass spam filtering (forged headers, word garblings, random text attachments, etc) ought to be punished under the existing computer cracking laws.

59 posted on 03/01/2004 7:50:03 AM PST by steve-b
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To: proxy_user
people no one can catch

Follow the money. It would be trivially easy to trace checks or credit cards drawn on special accounts set up for this purpose by law enforcement (and, no, it's not "entrapment" if the spammer takes the first step of soliciting the transaction).

60 posted on 03/01/2004 7:52:11 AM PST by steve-b
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