Spam E mail

[2little2late]

Having trouble with spam email at the moment. Using Outlook Express 6. Have avg anti virus etc. Don't know how I have got them as I have never replied to any emails I am unsure of. I have deleted 107 spam emails today, just delivered since christmas eve. Quite pointless adding them to blocked senders list because all they seem to do is just change the domain name. I don't even open them, they are just deleted immediately.
Would appreciate some help.
Thanks in advance.

[Metalattakk]

OK, first things first.

You say you don't know where these spam mails come from as you've never replied to dodgy emails. But, have you ever posted your email address in a forum, or published your email address on any website at all? Have you even used your email address when registering with a forum or website? You'd be surprised at how many of these sites are more than happy to pass on your email address to spammers.

As for a solution?

Well, the simplest solution (although not the most popular) is to simply create a new email address, and then not use it to sign up for 'stuff'. Then get a separate Hotmail or Yahoo! (or any other free mail account provider) account for signing up for 'stuff', and leave your real email address for friends, family and people you are happy to give your email address to.

If you simply cannot consign your current email address to the 'e-scaffy-cart', then a free solution is going to be difficult to find (although I did use a rather nifty freeware Bayesian Filter for a while, called K9, by a company called KeirSoft. It took a fair bit of setting-up but once it had trained itself, it was simply brilliant).

The other option is to pay for an anti-spam solution, usually provided by your email provider. This is probably the best option, although it involves that dreaded word; pay.


Oh, hang on, just remembered - one of the most simple and straight-forward solutions is to stop using Outlook Express altogether, and start using Mozilla Thunderbird. It has a built in Bayesian Filter where you can flag each spam mail you receive and over time (a couple of weeks) it learns which mails are bad and which are good, and blocks the bad ones.

And it's free.

[paris]

OK, first things first.

You say you don't know where these spam mails come from as you've never replied to dodgy emails. But, have you ever posted your email address in a forum, or published your email address on any website at all? Have you even used your email address when registering with a forum or website? You'd be surprised at how many of these sites are more than happy to pass on your email address to spammers.

As for a solution?

Well, the simplest solution (although not the most popular) is to simply create a new email address, and then not use it to sign up for 'stuff'. Then get a separate Hotmail or Yahoo! (or any other free mail account provider) account for signing up for 'stuff', and leave your real email address for friends, family and people you are happy to give your email address to.

If you simply cannot consign your current email address to the 'e-scaffy-cart', then a free solution is going to be difficult to find (although I did use a rather nifty freeware Bayesian Filter for a while, called K9, by a company called KeirSoft. It took a fair bit of setting-up but once it had trained itself, it was simply brilliant).

The other option is to pay for an anti-spam solution, usually provided by your email provider. This is probably the best option, although it involves that dreaded word; pay.


Oh, hang on, just remembered - one of the most simple and straight-forward solutions is to stop using Outlook Express altogether, and start using Mozilla Thunderbird. It has a built in Bayesian Filter where you can flag each spam mail you receive and over time (a couple of weeks) it learns which mails are bad and which are good, and blocks the bad ones.

And it's free.

At last , some ome who explains things in my terms. Thanks metalattakk. jan x Im also having this problem .

[j4bberw0ck]

The other thing you might want to do is turn off the "preview" pane or "reading" pane which is "on" by default in Outlook Express. (I'm not generally sniffy about Microsoft software, but OE really is the most enormous dog's breakfast). If you're getting spam, and the preview pane is on, you're automatically opening the email, which can alert the sending mail server to send you some more.

I haven't used OE for years and it's entirely possible that Microsoft have fixed the security hole that allows previewed emails to talk to the sending server to download images, but whether it's OE or Thunderbird, keep the preview pane off. Can't remember how to do it; just look in "Help".

[badger]

To get rid of the Preview pane - open View Menu, Layout, deselect Preview pane.

I keep it switched off but don't know whether it does make much difference as have started getting spam again on my personal address. Annoying thing this is not one I ever use to register on websites and the one I do use doesn't get spam (yet!) although I've used it for ages.

[jimbews]

OK, first things first.

You say you don't know where these spam mails come from as you've never replied to dodgy emails. But, have you ever posted your email address in a forum, or published your email address on any website at all? Have you even used your email address when registering with a forum or website? You'd be surprised at how many of these sites are more than happy to pass on your email address to spammers.

Also be aware that if someone with whom you have exchanged emails gets infected the virus may well harvest their emails and address book.

I am also a great fan of the junk filtering function of Thunderbird.
Just be careful to check your Junk folder and un-Junk valid addresses. You may even want to add some of these to your address book and tell the filter to always pass them.

I'd also second the advice not to view images - if you hover your mouse over the link to undisplayed images you can often see long strings of characters which seem to correlate with your email address.

JimBews

[blueivy]

OK, first things first.

You say you don't know where these spam mails come from as you've never replied to dodgy emails. But, have you ever posted your email address in a forum, or published your email address on any website at all? Have you even used your email address when registering with a forum or website? You'd be surprised at how many of these sites are more than happy to pass on your email address to spammers.

This doesn't work for people who have their own domain name though as the spammers generally just 'spam' the domain name hoping to catch somebody's name - fortunately there is nobody working here called juan or frederico so little get's through! There are other easy and free ways to tackle this though.

You'll also find that it doesn't really matter if you sign up for stuff or not, you'll eventually get bucket loads of spam sooner or later. If you have a 'normal' email name, then again the spammers just spam the whole domain hoping some get's through.
[/quote]

Alternatively or even in addition, I use SpamGourmet.com (www.spamgourmet.com) which gives you a free throwaway address whenever you want it. For example if you signed up with the username joebloggs, then you would create an email address such as 'dodgysite.5.joebloggs@spamgourmet.com'.

• The first part is irrellevant but I usually use the name of the site in there (carinsurance or something)
• the next part (the 5) tells spamgourmet how many mails you want to receive from the site. This means you can sign up for something, get confirmation emails etc. and then after 5 emails (or whatever number you put in there) you never hear from them again.
• The third part is your username so SpamGourmet knows who to send it to.

Works a treat and it's free ...


Outlook Express does have a spam filter - it's a little bit pants though.

[blueivy]

The other thing you might want to do is turn off the "preview" pane or "reading" pane which is "on" by default in Outlook Express. (I'm not generally sniffy about Microsoft software, but OE really is the most enormous dog's breakfast). If you're getting spam, and the preview pane is on, you're automatically opening the email, which can alert the sending mail server to send you some more.

I haven't used OE for years and it's entirely possible that Microsoft have fixed the security hole that allows previewed emails to talk to the sending server to download images, but whether it's OE or Thunderbird, keep the preview pane off. Can't remember how to do it; just look in "Help".

Microsoft haven't fixed it, but they have made it more difficult.

The problem with this is that when you view an HTML email you are viewing them images that are downloaded from the spammers server. The spammer has put tracking links into your spam email so he/she knows when you download the images from his server. He/she then know your email address is alive and will then spam you a little bit more.

There is now an option in Outlook Express 6 which allows you to turn off images and external links in HTML emails. If you have this on it's pretty safe to use the Preview Pane without problems.