OT: working offline and desperate spambots

[AngeloMeola]

One of the most important things is to shut off the preview pane in Outlook or Outlook Express. Then none of the emails are opened until you click on them.

I filter into my inbox only messages from people in my address book. The rest go into a different folder. I look at the message headings in case one might be from someone I haven't yet added. Then I hold down Control and the A key. This sellects all the emails. Hit the delete key and they are all gone.

[NicoMoreno]

Hotmail is by far LESS safe than Outlook. But then again, it is all Microsoft...

The major disadvantages to hotmail are that you MUST be online to use it. (ie you can't fool the spammers by going offline, so any virus, worm, program or whatever that is in the email is run.)

As well, the block sender thing is 90% useless. Most spammer's return addresses are NOT real. ie they send from another address. The block sender only blocks the address listed as the reply-to address which doesn't help much.

Also you are limited to 200 addresses and 200 domains (useless because a lot of the spammers have @msn or @ hotmail domains, or others that are very common. So if you block those domains, you are blocking friends)

I use hotmail too, but I have my account set at exclusive. This means that unless the email address is in my address book, the email is put in a junk-mail box. This is supposed to be more secure, but I still don't open these emails. I simply empty the folder on a regualr basis.

Finally, I have recnetly changed my hotmail address because none of this slowed down the 50+ spam a day I was getting. Bottom line: NEVER give out an email address online unless you want spam. Once you tell a website (radio station, online games, less acceptable venues, etc.) that either isn't VERY secure, or is less than scrupulous ( or trustworthy) your email address, they generally sell it to spammers. Or use it themselves.

NEVER REPLY to a spam message.

[skh]

http://about.mailblocks.com/

looks like people who haven't sent you an email before have to respond once to a query whether they are real people or despicalble spam bots.

Anyone have experience with that sort of thing?

Yes, but only from the mailing list admin side. If you are on mailing lists and want to stay on them, make sure the software can handle them, and that you can whitelist sender addresses yourself. Ways it can go wrong:

1. Software sends challenge mail to list address, this is recognized as a "bounce" (address not reachable), filtered out by mailing list software and presented the list admin. No mailing list admin (remember, many lists are provided for free by people in their spare time etc.) will be happy to have to jump through whichever hoops these blocking software providers invent just that others can use their free service. On the lists I co-admin, we sent out a warning pointing out the problem, and from now on, these messages will be treated as normal bounces and the person eventually unsubscribed from the list.

2. Software sends challenge mail to the sender of the list mail, i.e. every list member who posts a message to the list. This is inacceptably rude and only happens if the software doesn't recognize mailing lists at all. I haven't seen this before, but I was told it has happened on other lists. Again, this should result in at least unsubscribing the person using this blocking software.

Remember, both scenarios can be prevented if the software is good. I am not sure how I would react if people I want to contact per mail were protected by such blocking software. I probably would think "Oh, this person just does not want to talk to me" and not response to the challenge email. This is especially true if they would be the ones doing business and earning money with me.

Sonja

[kkrell]

(you can have any message with specified words sent directly to your Trash file, for instance). I think you go under Tools, to Filters. I'll check when I get home, and see if I can set you up.

I set up a few filters that automatically trash messages with certain words in their subject line (you knw the words I mean) and which virtually no non-spammer would use, and spam all but disappeared.

How do you get around those which come in in html format? The filter "with specific words" as it looks to me does not work with those and they seem to get more and more, very annoying at times. I use outlook if this is important. Thanks a lot
Brigitte

I use Netscape's email reader. My filters first pull off the Lists I belong to (like "Woodenflute") into appropriate folders for later reading.

I then filter based on the message TO: field. If it's specifically addressed to my actual email address, I send it to the SPAM folder. This catches those that use a a long list or BCC: (blind carbon copy).

I use the free version of ZoneAlarm to Stop All Internet Activity (going off-line), while sorting through the spam. Thus, no web access for pictures being forced on me, and no being logged as a valid email address to the accessed site.

Kevin Krell

[Nanohedron]

I just realised that one can initiate working offline prior to opening the mailbox; my "File" option on the main window has it, too.

Wrong. This computer stuff is still all discovery to me, yet. If you're working offline before you access the mailbox, you can't receive new mail. Duh.

[Brigitte]

I wanted to pass a spamblocker-freeware address on to you which was recommended by my provider. It is http://www.spamihilator.com/index2.php?lang=en and I downloaded today to give it a try as 30 or more per day can be annoying at times. I should know more about its reliability by mid of this week

Brigitte


P.S. After only an hour or so and from what I have seen happening already, I would think it is perfect for my needs.

edited for the P.S.

[Brian Lee]

I got hit myself the other day with a couple of hidden installs. Apparently just by visiting the wrong website, or even having one of those annoying little pop up windows appear, they can download and RUN programs on your machine anytime you're connected to the net.

I found information on both here:

http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/nCase.html

http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/IGetNet.html

Well, after doing a bit of digging, I found out that these SOB's actually plant this thing DEEEEEP in your registry files so unless you know how to hack code, your only option may be a complete re-format.

I think I nailed the n-Case one, but I can't seem to get rid of the damn Clear Search one. My DOS code just isn't deleting the first set of files or associations or whatever.

On a side note, since you don't know if the thing is on your machine till it's too late, it also watched your pages and looks for your email address - as in when you log in to check it. You don't know you've been nabbed till after you start to see a wicked combination of both pop-up windows from out of nowhere, and start to receive spam in the inbox of your mail account. (I was virtually PERFECTLY spam-free for almost three years to date...)

Anyway I've bumped up my cookie handling and such to the next level, though I don't know if this will really do anything. XP offers some sort of rudimentary firewall protection, but I'm told it really doesn't do much. Apart from buying lots of expensive anti-spam software, I dunno whatelse to try...

B~ :roll:

[CTWhistler]

Hi Brian,

Ad-aware didn't catch those? I've had good luck with it, especially if I run it immediately after I notice something nasty -- something trying to download when I didn't ask for a download, out-of-control pop-ups, etc. I'm not sure, but I think I'm catching them before they get their claws too deeply into my system. I also finally sprang for a Norton firewall, but there are also decent freeware firewalls available. You might try one of those.

I also run ad-aware every few days, even if I don't see any reason why I should. 95% of the time, it finds *something*. Grrrrr.

Tery