Stopping Spam?

from WinCustomize Forums
Hiya people...

Just a quick question... Is there any way to effectively combat email spam?

Lately, I've been finding my inbox increasingly flooded with totally useless emails and it's just about reached the point where I can't ignore them anymore... it's getting annoying, really annoying.

Now, I know it's suppose to be a criminal offence to spam in most places, and they all have that 'remove' thing at the bottom of them - but does that actually work?

I mean has anyone had any luck manually going through and replying to all of their spam to try and get it stopped? I have always been lead to believe that doing such things just confirms to them that your account is active, and they send more

This is my main personal account as well (I also have a hotmail account for sign-ups and major spam), I try to be careful where it gets exposure, but it's about 2 years old now, so it's probably been around a bit.

What's everyone else view on this? I'm not that interested in email filters, blockers etc... I just want to cut it down to the way it was about 6 months ago...

Thanks for your help.
6,965 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Never respond to a spam...or click on the 'remove' button...it's a way to prove they have a legitimate target...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Create a hotmail account and use that to fill out forms and for other commercial purposes.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo: Yeppp.. I reckoned that was what they did too, so I think I'm not even going to bother on that front

Third Eye: Yeah as I mentioned above, I have a hotmail account for filling in forms & sign up junk... but since my main account has been around for a while even that is starting to get hit now...
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use http://www.spamcop.net (spamcop) for most annoying stuff to my main addy. It's free and fairly effective.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There used to be only two things in life that were certain, death & taxes. I guess it's time to add a third...

I would suggest creating a new main account and notify all your freinds, family, etc.. Once everyone locks in the new address just ditch the old one.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Helldragon, I am sick of it also. thats why i got mailwasher. you can bounce the spams right back at 'em. so your email address looks dead. takes a while but worth the trouble.

http://www.mailwasher.net
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Noticed that, too. Most of them go to the adress I use to subscribe to skin sites... And that's also the one, where most of the viruses try to arrive...
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the URL's and help everyone... I'm going to check out that MailWasher thing and see if I can cut the spam back down to 'acceptable' levels again.

I like the program's feature for 'bouncing' the spam back at them
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
http://www.cmsconnect.com/Praetor/prMain.htm

If you have an email server.

I used to work for them.

Jafo was right about removing yourself. Most mass mailers just add you to a list of people they know are there.

*Do your part to fight spam*
Check to make sure your companies e-mail server does not relay. Exchange 5.5 defaults to allow relaying. This is where someone sends an e-mail to that server with a list of names for it to send the message to. By sending one message to that server they can have hundreds of messages delivered for them. I have heard that they can increase their output by a factor of 10 by using relays.

You can check this by sending an email to the server that is for a different site. For example, From home point your outlook or outlook express to send out using the server from work. Then send an email to someone outside the network. For this to work right you can't be logged into the system at work.

I hope this was not too confusing.