Am Looking for a Spam Stopper -- Recommendations Pleasd!!

04.28.03 | mlmr

[mlmr]

I have a mailbox full of spam. I didm't know how badly people want to sell me penis enlargment tool and cheap drugs, gambling. I am also supposed to be overweight and constantly looking for a hot date. Spammers also want me to see things that could be... well... overwhelming.

Sometimes the preview pictures curl my hair as I scramble to delete before the children run into the room.

I have an internet business and do get emails from unknown senders. But the email spam is mixed in. I have three mailboxes that sort into five on my computer. My former consultant suggesed that I read the Feb issue of PC magazine but I am not sure that the items that are recommended will help. I don't want to lose my customer's email.

Have any of you used anti spam software and what would you recommend??

[krb]

Sometimes the preview pictures curl my hair as I scramble to delete before the children run into the room.

It's actually more insideous than that even. A lot of the pictures in the emails (dirty or otherwise) are "tagged" with unique identifiers that allow the spammer to know if you have seen the email even if you do not click through.

Check out the "view source" option on some of those spam messages and you'll find tags that look something like:

< img src="http://servername.com/picture0234321.jpg >

where the "0234321" tacked onto the end of the picture name is intercepted by special server software that logs a note that "the spam we sent to mlmr got read, keep sending her spam, or consider her email more valuable to sell to other spammers"

[GovernmentShrinker]

I receive almost no spam despite not using any kind of blocking/filtering program, and I attribute this in large part to my ISP, RCN. I'm not running a business through my e-mail account, but I'm on a number of Yahoo groups that show e-mail addresses and also use e-mail to place orders with obscure internet merchants once a month or so. Every time I get a piece of spam (about once a month), I forward it to RCN's abuse folks, and I never see another piece that looks like it came from the same source. If RCN is available in your area, you might want to give them a try.

[Howlin]

OMG......I am IN heaven...........thank you all so much!!!!

[Howlin]

I'm going to look into that. I already have all of Norton except that!

Thanks.

[krb]

I just bought "ihatespam" which can be bought for free after a rebate from amazon.com. It works pretty well and I am pleased with the clean inbox now!

[martin_fierro]

Oddly, my spam dramatically increased AFTER I started using mailwasher.

I can see where that might happen if your e-mail/domain situation is similar to mine:

The idea behind Mailwasher is to help reduce SPAM by:

1. allowing you to delete it without downloading it to your computer; and/or
2. bouncing the SPAM back to the spammer as undeliverable (clog HIS mail server).

If you just delete the SPAM without bouncing it, the spammer will assume you received the message and will send you more.

But if you bounce the SPAM back (as I do), a different situation arises.

Mailwasher has you specify an e-mail address that will be shown to the spammer when Mailwasher bounces his SPAM back to him. It effectively tells the spammer, "No one here at this address." The brighter spammers know of this tactic.

If you have your own internet domain (e.g., "www.stolarstorm.com") and can receive e-mail there (stolarstorm@stolarstorm.com) or via the ISP that hosts the space (stolarstorm@hostingisp.com), you would specify ONE of those two addresses in Mailwasher as your "no one here" address.

Let's say you select "stolarstorm@hostingisp.com" as that address.

If the spammer sent the SPAM to stolarstorm@stolarstorm.com, Mailwasher would identify it as SPAM and bounce it back, saying, "there's no one here by the name stolarstorm@hostingisp.com."

But the spammer knows he sent his SPAM to stolarstorm@stolarstorm.com. So the bounce can tip him off to a connection between "stolarstorm@hostingisp.com" and "stolarstorm@stolarstorm.com". The spammer then has TWO e-mail addresses on you.

What to do? Here's what I've done, with good results:

• Specify a WRONG return e-mail address ("solarstorm@solarstorm.com") in Mailwasher.
• Customize Mailwasher to just bounce known SPAM and to NOT alert you when it comes.

Hope this helps. Mailwasher really is a cool utility.

[boris]

I use Pegasus Mail (it is FREE). It has a powerful spam filter, but you have to build up the filtering rules by hand (by which I mean you have to tell it what to filter).

Spammers are forever becoming more creative:

P0RN (zero instead of "O");
P*O*R*N (inserting asterisks) etc.

So it is a never-ending battle but over time I have cut my spam down significantly. You can lock out an entire ISP or lock out a name, "From" "Subject" etc.

--Boris

[two23]

I have an ISP, use Outlook and Windows 2000 Pro, and NEVER get ANY spam or unwanted emails. But I do not post my email address anywhere. Years ago, I set up a web-based email (yahoo or hotmail) to use for any online transactions/shopping or registrations (instead of using my home email address). And never click on the message at the bottom of an unwanted email that says "To Take Me Off This Mailing List, Click Here". All that does is confirm to the spammer that they got a hit. Many spammers are not only trying to sell something, they are also collecting confirmed HITS, compiling a data base and selling the data base to other spammers. I never use my ISP based, personal email address for ANYTHING but family and friends. ZERO Spam.

[Howlin]

Me, too. I have Road Runner and get virtually no spam email.

[Great Dane]

I tend to stop the page from loading, trouble is, if you stop it too early, you can't get what you want, but I am develpoing the skill. :-}

[Howlin]

This Popup Stopper seems to work. I'm killing popups and I still get my Windows boxes -- PLUS, when I click on a link in FR, I still get a new browser box.

This will work for me!

[MrConfettiMan]

Bump for later.

[StolarStorm]

Thanks. I'll try your suggestions.

[two23]

I've been using Pop-Up Stopper for over a year and it's getting to where it cannot stop some pop-ups unless I set it for "Enable Aggressive Pop-Up Control", which then disables my ability to open multiple browser windows or even view some web pages. After installing Pop-Up Stopper, its a good idea to go get SpyBot Search & Destroy to get rid of the cookies and programs that some pop-ups have already installed on your computer. (mostly dubious tracking programs)

[mlmr]

But my customers write me from the internet so I have a group of emails that come in for my work without any previous relationship you have freepmail

[martin_fierro]

Oh, and one more tip: Try adding some more SPAM blacklist servers to Mailwasher's customizable list.

These can help better identify incoming e-mail as SPAM, based on its point of origin.

[mlmr]

tagged" with unique identifiers that allow the spammer to know if you have seen the email even if you do not click through.



That is grim....

[redhead]

I have used Mailwasher for some time. I recommend it most highly. It doesn't do ALL the work, but it eliminates enough that it makes handling my email much faster.

[pops88]

I use a program to check the mail on the server, rather than opening my mail program. Poptray is a nice program that allows spam filtering. You can set it to poll the host(s) every few minutes, check mail and delete spam. If you're not sure about an email, it allows you to preview it as a text file. When you decide it's time to download your mail, it will open your mail program for you. Best of all, it's freeware.

http://poptray.crause.co.za/

[martin_fierro]

I've used Mailwasher for so long, and its filters/blacklists identify SPAM so well now, that I've configured it to not even notify me when blacklisted stuff arrives.

Mailwasher just automatically bounces/deletes it, and I notice a marked decrease in SPAM.