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How do Spammers get my e-mail address?

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Noddy24
 
Reply Mon 1 Nov, 2004 12:04 pm
I'm rather fastidious about just where I enter my e mail address on the Internet. This summer I was flooded with offers to enlarge my manly beauty and buy cheap Viagra and talk dirty with hot chicks of various nationalities.

More recently I've heard from various individuals who are anxious that I help them loot a variety African nations.

Frankly I prefer the financial chiselers to the sexual panderers, but I could live without both sorts of low lifes.

What sort of spam do you get? How do you think they found you?

Is there any way I can prevent the Spam Sepcial for Winter?
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 3,205 • Replies: 23
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skot182
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 01:10 pm
I don't know how exactly they go around getting your email, maybe its from buying it of some so and so, or maybe they just take a lucky guess, but if it contains the a link "click here to un-subscribe" or "reply to un-subscribe" DON'T, unless you know you definatly did sign up.

This just confirms that your email address is active, leading to more and more spam, instead just try and set up filters to filter out keywords such as "penis" or "porn". Problem is, you may also end up filtering out content you want if you use to many keywords.
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Montana
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 01:15 pm
I have always used the un-subscribe to stop getting the spam and things never got worse. After a few weeks, these places stopped spamming me and I don't get much spam anymore.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 07:34 pm
I get a bunch of spam that seems to hit possible email addresses alphabetically, what a delight. I use yahoo as a filter, and then look at the bulk mail in case they caught any real mail, and the inbox to see if there is any odd piece of spam in it, then shunt the inbox mail to my outlook express.
I know this sounds tedious, but it saves a lot of time and aggravation. I do the final shunt to Outlook Express since I prefer it for reading real email. I could also save aggravation by changing my email address, but I happen to like it.
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colorbook
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 07:41 pm
I basically do the same thing as Osso. I use my Yahoo account for almost everything. I use Outlook Express only for friends and family.
0 Replies
 
Thok
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 08:23 pm
Re: How do Spammers get my e-mail address?
Noddy24 wrote:

Is there any way I can prevent the Spam Sepcial for Winter?


The classical hint, try it with several email-accounts.
Basically they getmail adresses with "robots",which search for it on the Net.
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Mr Stillwater
 
  1  
Reply Tue 2 Nov, 2004 08:30 pm
Re: How do Spammers get my e-mail address?
Noddy24 wrote:
offers to enlarge my manly beauty and buy cheap Viagra and talk dirty with hot chicks of various nationalities


It strikes me that all three of these offers could be rolled into one package, saving one time and money.
0 Replies
 
moxiac
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Dec, 2004 09:18 am
im very much happy to find this thread... my yahoo email add got spammed and more to say even my email add was used as a spamming agent.. i got that complaint from frens.. how do i stop that? can anyone help me plZ?
0 Replies
 
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Dec, 2004 09:26 am
colorbook wrote:
I basically do the same thing as Osso. I use my Yahoo account for almost everything. I use Outlook Express only for friends and family.


Me too. I also use OE for important stuff. I set up a Yahoo account in the beginning, for subscriptions and such. At one time I went over my 100 allowed blocked addresses in Yahoo. I have noticed lately though, that I am not getting a lot of spam at Yahoo.

I have a Hotmail account, first for Abuzz, and then A2K stuff. I never subscribed to anything by way of Hotmail, and I get practically no spam on that.

A few months ago I started to get Viagra etc ads on OE. I blocked a few of these addresses, and there is very little coming in now.
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moxiac
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 08:11 am
wot bout mine? can ny one plz help???
0 Replies
 
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 08:17 am
moxiac wrote:
wot bout mine? can ny one plz help???



Unsubscribe to any subscriptions that you don't want. Use the "block" feature to block the addresses of the spammers. On Yahoo, even if you go over your "blocked addresses" limit, you can still inform Yahoo that a message is spam. Use that feature. If your Yahoo account is really out of control, open another web based account, with another company, and be more careful when using it.

And be very judicious to whom you give your E Mail address. The more that you subscribe to things, the more chances that you will get spam. Before subscribing, read the site's privacy policy.
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cavfancier
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 08:27 am
If moxiac's e-mail is sending spam to others without his authority, he probably has a Netsky virus, or some variant. I hope the experts here can give some advice regarding removal of the offending program.
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 08:49 am
Well, get a good virus scan (I have Norton), and enable its auto-protect feature. You can download it from the net. Make sure that it is kept up to date, and pay when it is time to renew. It is money very well spent. In the meantime, you can scan your computer for viruses free on the net at:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/


While you are at it, download Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

and Spybot Search and Destroy to prevent spyware.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp

Also, I use Zone Alarm (for hacker prevention).

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/trial_zaFamily/trial_zaFamily.jsp?lid=2home_freedownloads

All three of these programs can be downloaded free from the net.
0 Replies
 
moxiac
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 11:01 am
thx a lot phoenix Smile
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 11:11 am
Oddly, I received virtually no spam in the several years my email was listed for the entire world to see at Abuzz, so sources like that seem to be overrated. I suppose some online vendors are selling lists, as I do a lot of online shopping.

Unsubscribe has always worked for me, but it's always from mailings form vendors with whom I've dealt. I never open the unsolicitated offers, and don't know whether they offer an unscribe option or not.
0 Replies
 
Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 11:15 am
Quote:
I never open the unsolicitated offers, and don't know whether they offer an unscribe option or not.


Rog- Agree. My attitude is, "If I did not ask for it, I don't want it"!
0 Replies
 
Don77
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 11:20 am
Good bit of advise from Phoenix32890

I was bout to type in the same, But I m too slow,
Also I use 2 different e-mail accounts as well. Helps to keep the spam from bouncing out to friends in the event get a nasty little virus thats using my account for sending it out in the first place.

Also I have notice that folks round here feel safe enough to post thier e-mail addy in the forums here at A2K and while your likely not to get spammed by members here the spam bots will be looking for any addy and guess what you leave it there for them ripe for the picking,,,
0 Replies
 
timberlandko
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 12:18 pm
A lotta times, spambots "generate" email addys by "brute force" - randomly stringin' together characters and appending them to a known email domain such as hotmail or Yahoo or AOL or whatever. Not much you can do abput that, short of spam-blockin' software. Most premium email provoders now offer some sort of spam filtering; check your "Preferences" or "Settings" from your user profile page. Another frequent occurrence is that your email addy may have been harvested by a trojan or virus runnin' on somebbody else's machine which had your addy among those in that machine's address book. Once its out there, its out there.

Somethin' you may find of interest: Stop Spam FAQ

Another good reource, with lotsa look-further-into-it links: Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email


A final observation - in most cases, usin' the "opt out/unsubscribe" link in a spam message does nothin' more than confirm to the sender they've hit a valid, workin' mailbox. Even if you get yourself removed from that particular advertiser's mailin' list, your addy goes on a "known active" list which is sold to others.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 06:01 pm
roger wrote:
Oddly, I received virtually no spam in the several years my email was listed for the entire world to see at Abuzz, so sources like that seem to be overrated. I suppose some online vendors are selling lists, as I do a lot of online shopping.

Unsubscribe has always worked for me, but it's always from mailings form vendors with whom I've dealt. I never open the unsolicitated offers, and don't know whether they offer an unscribe option or not.


Hmm - spam has only been a problem for me in the last year - and I have had the one address for the whole nearly 5 years I have been online.

I suppose I subscribed to some damn thing, and the email just keeps getting sold on, now.

I never click unsubscribe unless I know I really DID subscribe - because i have always been told doing so encourages the spammers.

Entering them on my blocked list seems to make no difference - since they use different names each time. Sigh.
0 Replies
 
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 25 Dec, 2004 06:02 pm
timberlandko wrote:
A lotta times, spambots "generate" email addys by "brute force" - randomly stringin' together characters and appending them to a known email domain such as hotmail or Yahoo or AOL or whatever. Not much you can do abput that, short of spam-blockin' software. Most premium email provoders now offer some sort of spam filtering; check your "Preferences" or "Settings" from your user profile page. Another frequent occurrence is that your email addy may have been harvested by a trojan or virus runnin' on somebbody else's machine which had your addy among those in that machine's address book. Once its out there, its out there.

Somethin' you may find of interest: Stop Spam FAQ


Ah - THAT makes sense - I often get spam which has also gone to heaps and heaps of weird names @ my ISP.
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