OT - B****y Spams

Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?

Michael Hobby wrote:
Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?

Many ISPs offer spam filtering which, generally, works quite well.
Usually they will use a Bayesian filter, which tends to prove quite
successful. In practice, once your email address is out there, this is
the only way to stop the spam getting to you. If your ISP doesn't do
spam filtering then find one that does.

Colin

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:29:01 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
wrote:

... Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
... software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
... Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
... spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
... the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
... stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
... technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?
...
Not really .... prevention is better than "cure".

I only slightly munged my email address in the past and an Amercain
sicko troll in an XP newsgroup, unmunged it.
He thought it funny to plaster it over his his next post and it was
picked up by the "robots".
I now get all the stuff you mentioned and fear I will have to change
my address in the end.
Pity, as it was a squeaky clean spam free address for years. I used a
hotmail address for non personal contact, so I expected it on there.
Once your address is being used it will probably be a target for more
spam.
So help yourself and munge your email address if you can.

Mike P

In article . com,
says...
Michael Hobby wrote:
Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?

Many ISPs offer spam filtering which, generally, works quite well.
Usually they will use a Bayesian filter, which tends to prove quite
successful. In practice, once your email address is out there, this is
the only way to stop the spam getting to you. If your ISP doesn't do
spam filtering then find one that does.

Colin



Indeed. Or use a temporary throw-away address like mine. It will
accept whatever number of incoming mails I preset - in the case of the
current address, 3 - and all subsequent incoming mails are deleted on
receipt by the server. I can create an unlimited number of addresses,
don't have to register the address or anything, just invent it and use
it immediately. The preset number of incoming mails arrive though POP3
to my designated permanent address and the rest I never see. Oh, and
it's free! It does at least limit the amount of spam that can get
through, while allowing me to use a legitimate email address for
newsgroup postings, replies to web-based traders, web forms etc. If
anyone is interested take a look at www.spamgourmet.com
--
Sid B

"Mike P" [email protected] wrote in message
...
On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:29:01 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
wrote:

.. Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me
to buy
.. software packages(all the same software - different "selling"
companies) and
.. Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package
into my
.. spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to
me in
.. the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some
means of
.. stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is
the
.. technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?
..
Not really .... prevention is better than "cure".

I only slightly munged my email address in the past and an Amercain
sicko troll in an XP newsgroup, unmunged it.
He thought it funny to plaster it over his his next post and it was
picked up by the "robots".
I now get all the stuff you mentioned and fear I will have to change
my address in the end.
Pity, as it was a squeaky clean spam free address for years. I used a
hotmail address for non personal contact, so I expected it on there.
Once your address is being used it will probably be a target for more
spam.
So help yourself and munge your email address if you can.

Mike P

Pardon my ignorance - what is "munge"?

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 12:08:19 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
wrote:

...
... "Mike P" [email protected] wrote in message
... .. .
... On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:29:01 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
... wrote:
...
... .. Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me
... to buy
... .. software packages(all the same software - different "selling"
... companies) and
... .. Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package
... into my
... .. spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to
... me in
... .. the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some
... means of
... .. stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is
... the
... .. technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?
... ..
... Not really .... prevention is better than "cure".
...
... I only slightly munged my email address in the past and an Amercain
... sicko troll in an XP newsgroup, unmunged it.
... He thought it funny to plaster it over his his next post and it was
... picked up by the "robots".
... I now get all the stuff you mentioned and fear I will have to change
... my address in the end.
... Pity, as it was a squeaky clean spam free address for years. I used a
... hotmail address for non personal contact, so I expected it on there.
... Once your address is being used it will probably be a target for more
... spam.
... So help yourself and munge your email address if you can.
...
... Mike P
...
... Pardon my ignorance - what is "munge"?
...

Well .... somehwere you should be able to alter your email adress ..
in your newsreader perhaps.( I use Free Agent) here you can
alter(munge) your address so it can be deciphered if someone wants to
email you.
For example ... could be changed
to and a the bottom of
your post ,,, you might put "remove trousers to reply" .. not joking
:-)
the robots will find your non existant munged address

Perhaps you have already done it as I see there is no
@freeserve.co.uk?
But this might not be suffficient.

Mike P

Michael Hobby wrote:
Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?

First of all, never *ever* use your real email address in usenet. There
are robots out there that 'harvest' email addresses which are then sold on.
You could try using Mailwasher pro (see http://www.firetrust.com)which
is very effective at dealing with the problem. It allows you to use
various filters and blacklists to automatically delete and/or bounce
spam emails back to whence they came!
Effectively it sits between your ISP and your pc's inbox. It scans your
email inbox on the ISP every 10 minutes and automatically processes your
mail for delete &/or bounce or delivery to your pc's inbox.
Also, check to see if your ISP provides spam filtering. You may need to
go in to your email setup via a web browser rather than through Outlook
Express to turn it on.

--
Dave McLaughlin

Homo Sapiens Non Urinat In Ventum

"Mike P" [email protected] wrote in message
...
On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 12:08:19 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
wrote:

..
.. "Mike P" [email protected] wrote in message
.. .. .
.. On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:29:01 -0000, "Michael Hobby"
.. wrote:
..
.. .. Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to
persuade me
.. to buy
.. .. software packages(all the same software - different "selling"
.. companies) and
.. .. Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton
package
.. into my
.. .. spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting
through to
.. me in
.. .. the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be
some
.. means of
.. .. stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there
is
.. the
.. .. technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?
.. ..
.. Not really .... prevention is better than "cure".
..
.. I only slightly munged my email address in the past and an Amercain
.. sicko troll in an XP newsgroup, unmunged it.
.. He thought it funny to plaster it over his his next post and it was
.. picked up by the "robots".
.. I now get all the stuff you mentioned and fear I will have to change
.. my address in the end.
.. Pity, as it was a squeaky clean spam free address for years. I used
a
.. hotmail address for non personal contact, so I expected it on there.
.. Once your address is being used it will probably be a target for
more
.. spam.
.. So help yourself and munge your email address if you can.
..
.. Mike P
..
.. Pardon my ignorance - what is "munge"?
..

Well .... somehwere you should be able to alter your email adress ..
in your newsreader perhaps.( I use Free Agent) here you can
alter(munge) your address so it can be deciphered if someone wants to
email you.
For example ... could be
changed
to and a the bottom of
your post ,,, you might put "remove trousers to reply" .. not joking
:-)
the robots will find your non existant munged address

Perhaps you have already done it as I see there is no
@freeserve.co.uk?
But this might not be suffficient.

Mike P

Thanks - getting the idea now!
To reply - drop trousers

In article , Dave McLaughlin
writes
You could try using Mailwasher pro (see http://www.firetrust.com)which
is very effective at dealing with the problem. It allows you to use
various filters and blacklists to automatically delete and/or bounce
spam emails back to whence they came!

But please don't use it to bounce them back just delete them. Nearly all
spam has a forged return path which means the bounces go to innocent
accounts thereby increasing the spam problem for somebody else. At times
about 1/3 of the spam I get is that which has been bounced to a forged
return path at one of my accounts :-(

--

Dominic Sexton

Michael Hobby wrote:
Since 23rd December I have received 140 e-mails trying to persuade me to buy
software packages(all the same software - different "selling" companies) and
Viagra(don't need it anyway) These are filtered by my Norton package into my
spam bin. What annoys me however is that they are getting through to me in
the first place. Surely, in this day and age, there should be some means of
stopping them from getting to your computer at all. Surely there is the
technology somewhere. Anyone know anything?


It's a lot like the arms race, spam filters are released, spam
evolves, new filters are released but usually take a little while
to catch up.

I've never used my email address on Usenet and that helps
enormously in keeping spam to a minimum.

It used to be a pain back in the days of dial-up having to wait
while spam downloaded but with the advent of broadband it
shouldn't be an issue, be thankful that your filter is dealing
with it and that you don't have to. Most ISPs try and filter the
obvious stuff but as you are seeing a fair amount gets through.

I use Thunderbird as my Mail & New client and its built in spam
filters are superb, after only a few days training it what's spam
and what isn't it has never made a mistake. It uses a Junk folder
and a Junk Suspects folder, in the first week some good mail
ended up in the suspect folder but as I said with a bit of
training it's got it sorted.

By default any mail from people in my address book is allowed
everything else is filtered.

Prior to using Thunderbird I was using Outlook as my mail client
and I can recommend the Spambeyes plugin, it's free and it works
in exactly the same way as the Thunderbird filter, I'm not sure
if it works with Outlook Express, I've never been an OE user.

--
Regards

Nick