Where I used to get about 200 e-mails a day I am now gettng well over 400.
Is there a sight anyone can point out
that covers the latest computer upgrades
and technology?
The one that gets me is the "Nigerian" scam.
You wouldn't believe the number of, mostly elderly
people, who fall for this perposterous diddle.
With ATT Yahoo DSL we get virtually zero spam, maybe five in one year. Guess someone's figgered it out?
Know Your Enemy.
The vast majority of spam comes not from real servers on the Internet, but Windows PCs that have been owned. Since they aren't real mail servers (they just blast spam out to real servers) the trick is to set your mail server to initially reject all mail and tell the originating server to try again later.
My mail server gets a request from a sending host, records the IP address, then boots the email back with a 450 error. Since an owned Windows box doesn't queue mail, it just drops the spam on the floor and I never see it. When a real server gets this, it queues the email and sends it again in about 5 minutes. When my mail server sees that it's a real mail server, it takes the IP, adds it to a "known good" list and accepts the message.
There are some rather broken systems out there that don't behave properly and have to be manually whitelisted, but there are scores of ready-made whitelists of servers that don't work. They are known to be real servers so it doesn't really increase your risk of getting spam.
Using this method my site went from several thousand spam messages a day to less than 5 a week.
After a year of getting about 80 spam mails a day on my office computer (over 300 over the weekends), all of a sudden, about two months ago - it dropped to approx. 15 a day. In fact, for the first time in ages, one morning, I turned on my computer to find NO spam at all! I don't know what happened. Just glad it's dropped.
The worst spammer I've found is TRACFONE.
I bought one of their cheap phones last March to try out. Had to register landline, email and Tracfone. Got spam after spam after spam. Got 2 email offers every other day on each--landline, email and Tracfone.
I called and emailed to get off their spam list. I didn't renew the time on the phone, so it ceased in May. In August, I was still getting spam email offers.
I have them blocked.
That's bad when one wants to use a 'utility company' but quits because the company is so irresponsible.
But...But...WE PASSED A SPAM LAW!
I setup a filter at work and it blocks around 5-6 thousand messages per day. We have one user who has over 400 spam messages per day sent to them. It has gotten far worse over the last couple of years.
The courts aren't helping the fight against spam:
http://www.spamhaus.org/legal/answer.lasso?ref=3
I have had an idea on this problem for years. It seems to me a different approach might work better. I think of it as similar to the notion that, to curtail illegal aliens, we choke off the jobs by nailing the employers.
In order for spammers to make money, there has to be somewhere for them to receive money. Now, all spammers are not Nigerians or Chinese. A lot of legitimate companies are stupid and pay bulk emailers to send out ads. If you call them, they alwasy claim that they have no control, that they only use mailers that send to "opt in" lists. Which is total bull.
For example, I had one spammer bombarding me with ads for a particular company. I called their marketing dept. and told them, getting the same line about opt in. I politely but firmly explained that I was going to sue them because it was legally their responsibility for hiring the spammer. I faxed this notice to the appropriate person (faxes now being legal documents). I asked for and received a written acknowledgement of my request.
Here is the interesting part. I stated to the marketing director that not only would I sue if I continued to get spam with their ad, I would sue if I continued to get any spam from that bulk mailer, since they had hired them in the first place.
Not only did I get a notice from the company that they were following my directions, I also received contact from the spammer stating that they would leave me alone. I called the contact at the company at that point and she told me that she had called the spammer and told him in no uncertain terms that she would fix his wagon if they didn't leave me alone.
Now, I'm sure they continued to use this spammer, but they left me alone after that.
My point is that any real & legit company that is using 3rd party outfits to spam, and claiming no responsibility, should be held legally liable for the spamming. Choke off that source of revenue to the spammer. Obviously, that is only one segment of the spam we get, but still a significant one. And I am fed up with companies knowingly using spammers and then denying any culpability or knowledge that they are doing so.
I had a run in with Columbia Records some time ago just as I described above. They cussed me out, but damned if the spamming didn't stop. Columbia was dumb enough to give me the marketing department's fax number so I could fax them my request to stop. After doing that, I posted the number in a newsgroup on spam. Suggested that those receiving Columbia spam bombard them with faxes on the subject.
Follow the money. Hit them in the pocketbook.
Here is my end user anti spam strategy: get yourself at least two email addresses- one preferably from a free service such as hotmail (public) and the other from your isp (private). Use only the public address when registering for accounts/ products etc. and use your private address for friends, family and business (do not publish your private email address on any websites, use the public address or create a sub account with your isp for that). This way you can disregard 99% of the email going to your public address, pick out the emails you wish to keep and dump the rest.
Use outlook, not outlook express (MS users). Outlook 2003 has some very good spam filters built in. Make sure to update outlook regularly through microsoft updates (windows update site, top bar, office family button). Set up message filtering rules in outlook for any spam that still gets through (tools drop down, rules and alerts...if subject has "viagra, money, XXX" etc. send to deleted items).
If you do not have outlook get yourself a spam filter add in, Qurb is a good example, and let it help you.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I have several e-mail addresses and invariably I get these spam messages and they use all these tricks. I just delete them. However, in my opinion this is a political problem. Spammers should be put out of business permanently and either sentenced to life in federal penetentiaries or outright execution. If the politicians see this as a political problem they can act and enact strong laws that will put 99% of these clowns out of business.
But the one thing that REALLY concerns me is phishing. I nearly fell for one of those the other day after being on the computer for several hours. That was a real wake-up call.
Every day I have 12-45 new spams, almost all with no text. I guess the spammers are simply looking for good email addresses.
I maintain a dummy e-mail folder for sites where I have to register but don't want to give out my real e-mail address. I get very little spam in that account as well, about 30-40 a week but that is why it is there.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)