Email spam

September 21, 2003 | self / vanity

[The Other Harry]

Just in the past few days, the number of spam email messages I have been receiving has gone from an average of about 30 per day to well up over 100.

The additional messages are also different in character.

The old ones were mostly ads for Viagra, pornographic services, penis enhancement, printer cartridges, and things like that.

The new ones mostly pose as messages from Microsoft, "System Administrator", or something that is official sounding. They also usually contain file attachments which my Norton anti-virus program tells me are contaminated.

These are no longer simply spam. They are attacks. I don't understand the reason for it.

Watch out for these. Don't open anything that wasn't sent to you by someone you personally know. Whenever you're in doubt, delete the message.

[Rodney King]

Same thing has happened to me.

[boxerblues]

Theres a new virus on the prowl

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/986332/posts

[gitmo]

You need to update your virus files. If you're on WINXP or WIN2000, you need to get your OS up to date.

[Rodney King]

Oh, I'm all updated and totally protected from viruses. I am just surprised by the sudden up-surge in spam.

[judywillow]

The ISPs have to get bright enough to be able to cut this stuff off at the server. I should not have to log onto the server and purge this stuff before downloading email files.

[proxy_user]

I found this post in a web forum:

"I was doing some research and found out something most interesting.

"As you may know, the email client on your computer, such as Outlook Express, Eudora, or TheBat, uses the Post Office Protocol to send and retrieve messages. This protocol is documented in RFC 1939, which is available from many places, such as here.

"In order to answer a question on Usenet, I actually read the RFC. Among the many features offered by POP, there is one that would be very useful in the current environment. There is a 'TOP' command that downloads the header and the first 10 lines of a message.

"Why has no one implemented this in an email client? This is just what we need! Instead of downloading and deleting hundreds of megs of useless and evil viruses, we could be reading the first ten lines and seeing at once it's a virus. Then, if the email client was any good, you could use the POP 'DELE' command to delete the email on the server without downloading the whole damned thing.

"Instead, the email clients offer us flashy graphics and automatically decode and execute any viruses.

Kind of interesting, isn't it?

[tinamina]

I believe that's the new worm they've been warning about, my husband got that same thing, 30 of them a day a couple of weeks ago. Look up the worm at www.Symantec.com, they have a fix.

[LibKill]

Go here: Mailwasher. (Will open in new window.)

You will need to know your SMTP Server Address BEFORE you attempt install. If you don't know what that means get a techie friend to help you or call your Internet Service Provider.

This can be set to filter out messages with any given word, like 'Viagra' in the subject line.

It's not the most user-friendly interface but it works well.

Full disclosure: I don't have any connection with this website or the software writer or the company. I just use the software.

[martin_fierro]

FREE PC PROTECTION (not an exhaustive list): Alternative browsers: Mozilla Opera AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Free anti-viral protection Bayden Systems Popup Popper: Blocks popup ads well in MSIE Spyware removers: Spybot S&D AdAware MailWasher: Good for pre-screening & bouncing SPAM Windows Update: At least install the critical ones ZoneAlarm: Excellent Firewall Test your firewall from without with ShieldsUP! Test your firewall from within with LeakTest

[camas]

is McAfee a good name or should i go for norton. i know there
are antivirus programs you can down load for free but i like a CD
thanks camas

[Chemist_Geek]

Don't open anything that wasn't sent to you by someone you personally know. Whenever you're in doubt, delete the message.

Absolutely! I just wonder, though, since I'm single and all, all those spam e-mails about "make your wife happy," can I sue them for emotional distress? ;-)

[RLK]

The old ones were mostly ads for Viagra, pornographic services, penis enhancement,

--------------------------

I get about 10 of these per day. There are several different programs with several different formats for sending them. In some programs there is a list of people who were sent the messages. What I see is an alphabitized list of recipients at my ISP who were sent them. It leads me to believe my ISP sold someone a list of email addresses. From there they are resold and circulated.

My ISP has a filter and blocker on it for hackers and viruses. At one point they were getting 10,000,000 attempts to hack into their site per day. The site was slowed down to nothing during that period.

It's possible to hack into a site and get everyone's private site address. I once did it by accident when I hit the wrong key.

[backhoe]

FREE PC PROTECTION: ( credit- Martin Fierro )

• Spybot S&D: Removes lurking spyware.
• AdAware: Removes lurking spyware.
• Bayden Systems Popup Popper: Blocks popup ads well in MSIE
• MailWasher: Good for pre-screening & bouncing SPAM
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Free anti-viral protection
• Windows Update: At least install the critical ones
• ZoneAlarm: Excellent Firewall
• SpywareBlaster - Prevent spyware from ever being installed!
• http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/sdefend.htm

 

[lonevoice]

I have free online email through both yahoo and excite. It ticks me off that both of them have MUCH better spam filters than my ISP, qwest. Actually, I don't think qwest has any spam filtering at at all. I get at least 50 viagra, etc. spams per day and used to forward them all to abuse@qwest.net before I figured out they really didn't give a hoot and I was just wasting my time. I don't know the answer to this problem, but just need to vent once in awhile. :p

[jpthomas]

Here's a twist that has affected me several times recently. I get a Delivery Failure Notification email from a website's postmaster, indicating that I tried to send a message to a nonexistent email account. If they bounce the original message back to me, I learn from viewing the header that someone has forged my email address in the FROM line and sent out spam "in my name".

I have been able to determine the perpetrators from the embedded links in the original message. I look up the domains in the whois database, and complain to the registrar and ISP about the spam and fraud.

Normally I just delete spam, but when they forge my email address in their messages, I feel I need to take action.

[The Other Harry]

Here's a twist that has affected me several times recently. I get a Delivery Failure Notification...

I've been getting these too. I don't know whether someone has been forging my name on emails. I have just been deleting the messages.

I'll need to take a closer look.

But I don't know what you can do about something like that. Most of the crap I get comes thru to my old email address, which I would like to take down. That would take me about a day to do. It is fast becoming worthwhile to do that.

Thanks!

[Publius6961]

Watch out for these. Don't open anything that wasn't sent to you by someone you personally know. Whenever you're in doubt, delete the message.

No.
No
No.

Delete all emails period, if not from a known sender, and even then, check if it is genuine.

Neither Microsoft not any reputable company sends updates by email.

[PatrickHenry]

Among the many features offered by POP, there is one that would be very useful in the current environment. There is a 'TOP' command that downloads the header and the first 10 lines of a message. Why has no one implemented this in an email client? This is just what we need! Instead of downloading and deleting hundreds of megs of useless and evil viruses, we could be reading the first ten lines and seeing at once it's a virus. Then, if the email client was any good, you could use the POP 'DELE' command to delete the email on the server without downloading the whole damned thing.

There is at least one email program that uses this feature: Pegasus. And it's free! One option is to choose "Selective Mail Download" from the File menu. It gives you a list of the email headers only. You can select which ones to delete (at the ISP level) and which to download.

[shellylet]

Another website you can go to is, www.annoyances.org
click on "annoyances" and it tells you how to block pop-up spam.