Junk e-mail

[Guest zipperzone]

Can anyone help?

 

I receive a huge number (over 15 a day) of stock tips trying to get me to invest in penny stocks. They come from a variety of addresses.

 

They get right into my main mail box, somehow they avoid the spam and junk mail filters.

 

I have tried the "return to sender" ploy by replying but that doesn't work as they are bounced back as undeliverable.

 

Does anyone have a solution as to how to stop this crap? Thanks...

[+ deej]

>Can anyone help?

>

>I receive a huge number (over 15 a day) of stock tips trying

>to get me to invest in penny stocks. They come from a variety

>of addresses.

 

You can NEVER stop it completely. Welcome to our modern digital age.

 

>I have tried the "return to sender" ploy by replying but that

>doesn't work as they are bounced back as undeliverable.

 

NEVER REPLY. EVER. I'm not sure what you mean by "return to sender" (is that an AOL thing?). Any reply from you verifies that they've found a valid email address and opens the door to more.

 

It takes some serious self-control, and you have to be as liberal as Ghengis Khan about what links you'll click. But you CAN reduce your spam just by opting out of the whole trap-fest. Just don't go there.

[SoCal]

Not sure if you're on AOL, or who your email provider is. I use Outlook, and pick up my mail from a POP3 server. I currently use a service called "Spamarrest", that does charge a (very reasonable) annual fee. They collect mail from your POP3 mail server, clean it up, separate the good from the spam. Then you point YOUR email software to the Spamarrest POP3 server to pick up your spamless email.

 

Friends and others who you WANT to receive email are added to a list that immediately authorizes that email as valid. Others do not. You can import your email address book when you set up the account to authorize all your current email addresses.

 

If someone not in your authorized users list sends you a new email - they are sent a "challenge" email, requesting the sender confirm who they are. The challenge email point to a website where the sender types in those funny litle 5-6 character squiggly numbers/letters...and that's it, they're added to your authorized sender list.

 

The reason this system works so great - the spammers don't respond to the challenge email 99.99% of the time, so you never see the spam.

 

For a much more detailed explanation, and a trial go to http://www.spamarrest.com

 

I signed up one account for myself about 18 months ago and have *never* regretted it. I was receiving over 120 spam emails daily. Just recently added two more accounts for my mom and dad who told me they didn't need viagra, stock tips, or penile enlargement

 

Tom

 

P.S. BTW, if you travel and use your laptop a lot...this service is SO much better than spam software on the laptop itself, since the spam never even get downloaded to you...you save a lot of connection time.

[Guest msclonly]

RE: Junk e-mail and OUTLOOK EXPRESS!

 

It's the slimy SEX email with all associated similiar email and bad stock tips, that are wearing me down!

The BLOCK MESSANGER has limited value, since the addresses are different so often.

 

Unfortunately, some of my good Email Sender's Addresses gets thrown into the Block Messenger list.

 

I can't find that list to remove those good Sender's name, that I DO want to receive their Email. Can anyone tell me how to find that list to Edit it, so I can start getting that desired mail again!

I think I did see that list once, many years ago.

 

 

}( :+ }(

[Guest zipperzone]

>NEVER REPLY. EVER. I'm not sure what you mean by "return to

>sender" (is that an AOL thing?). Any reply from you verifies

>that they've found a valid email address and opens the door to

>more.

 

No I don't use AOL.

 

By return to sender I meant that I click on reply and type as the message "return to sender". Obviously it does no good and as you pointed out, might even encourage more such spam.

 

There is a "do not call" registry for telephone calls - I think we need a "do not mail" one for the internet. Bet that ain't going to happen.

[+ deej]

>By return to sender I meant that I click on reply and type as

>the message "return to sender". Obviously it does no good and

>as you pointed out, might even encourage more such spam.

 

Yes, that's absolutely the worst thing to do. All it does is verify your address as legitimate and therefore open season.

 

I use a tool called MailWasher. It pre-processes your inbox and based on your whitelist/blacklist settings and some heuristics enables you to "bounce" undesireable email, or simply delete it, before it ever gets downloaded. The "bounce" looks to the sender like no such address exists.

 

Opinions vary on bouncing email. Some say it just clogs up the internet backbone and increases the burden caused by spam. But I've seen my volume of spam diminish steadily over the last 3 years. Every time I stop bouncing, the volume increases until I start bouncing again. Currently, I get maybe a dozen spam messages/day, down from hundreds when I started bouncing.

 

>There is a "do not call" registry for telephone calls - I

>think we need a "do not mail" one for the internet. Bet that

>ain't going to happen.

 

Won't happen and wouldn't do any good anyway. The only thing "do not call" (and "do not mail") registries do is keep the honest guys from doing business. Spammers are generally on the more shady side and will ignore any such registry.