Dealing with SPAM

[+ deej]

I already have fairly active spam-blocking in place and I'm still inundated. I get more pictures of "hot young babes" "taking big cocks" and "facial cumshots" in a day than I really care to think about, and I've HAD IT!

 

Now, I've started to get messages from e-mail servers about mail addressed to undeliverable addresses for messages I DID NOT SEND OUT. (About 3 dozen in the last few hours.)

 

My MSN account (which I only keep because I get it free) has become spam-central. I don't really even use it for much, but it appears that someone is using that address! I'm actually considering turning off the MSN account just to be rid of the spam. (Does anyone know if they'll turn off an account for 5 days and then turn it back on?)

 

What do y'all do to control spam e-mail? I can block certain words, but some I have to let through because of mail from THIS SITE. x(

 

I'm just tired of hitting the delete key.

 

Suggestions?

[Guest roninx]

I agree! I hate email SPAM! (although I like Spam, the food ). I've heard that hotmail (which is owned by Microsoft) is notorious for getting lots of SPAM and since MSN is also owned by them I would think that is the problem right there.

 

The only other free option is yahoo or if you own a Apple computer (Mac) you can get mac.com email using itools and they just introduced a webmail access yesterday so you can access it from any computer.

 

I've heard the best thing to do is keep two different emails: one for personal use and one for "internet" use. So the "internet" address is used for submitting for posting or when asked at websites. Most SPAM comes from "internet" use so if you need to, you can close the "internet" email at a moments notice and then just open another one.

 

Yahoo has less problems with SPAM then hotmail. Also, yahoo does its own filter and allows you to filter manual as well. I still get some SPAM but I think is less than I would normally get. Hope this helps a little.

[+ deej]

The MSN account is history. I *finally* found out (after two hours of trying) how to get an actual person on the phone and the only option he could offer was cancelling the account.

 

fine. gone. history.

 

It took about 5 minutes to write a program to scan my inbox to find out who was LEGITIMATELY using that address, and notify them that it was going away. (Turns out it was only two -- both of them escorts I've never hired but I do their websites and I talk to them on the phone more often than in e-mail anyway.)

 

MSN (and Microsoft in general) gives good lip service to privacy policies, etc., but the reality doesn't back up their words.

[Guest NakedTony]

This same thing happened to me and my hotmail account. x(

 

This was an account that I used for most of my "professional" correspondence. I started getting hundreds of e-mails per day for porn, debt consolidation, etc. I contacted hotmail and filed a complaint for fraudalent use of my e-mail address. It turns out that someone used my e-mail address and posted it on bulletin boards, free offer places, etc.

 

It took about 2 days for hotmail to get things taken care of. I started sending out a generic reply to all the spammers telling them that someone was using my e-mail address without my permission. I also threatened to take legal action against them if you used my e-mail address again or sold to others.

 

It was a pain in the ass, but the problem has been resolved.

[HooBoy]

This is not a Microsoft, MSN or Yahoo problem

 

It is the virus that infiltrates people's address books -- typically Outlook & Outlook express.

 

If ANYONE has your name and address in THEIR address book, you then become the "sender" of SPAM to everyone else in their address book and on and on.

 

The same thing is happening on my Earthlink account -- as well as any other account I have which someone else may have in THEIR address book.

 

I am constantly getting email from people wondering why I sent them the non-sensical crap that is going out. Your best defense is NORTON ANTI VIRUS -- but canceling your email accounts is not going to stop the problem.

[HooBoy]

SPAM Worm example

 

The W32.Klez worm.

 

This worm searches the Windows address book, the ICQ database, and local files for email addresses. The worm sends an email message to these addresses with itself as an attachment. The worm contains its own SMTP engine and attempts to guess at available SMTP servers.

 

The subject line, message bodies, and attachment file names are random. The From address is randomly-chosen from email addresses that the worm finds on the infected computer.

 

The worm will search files that have the following extensions for email addresses:

mp8

.exe

.scr

.pif

.bat

.txt

.htm

.html

.wab

.asp

.doc

.rtf

.xls

.jpg

.cpp

.pas

.mpg

.mpeg

.bak

.mp3

.pdf

 

The email message that this worms sends is composed of "random" strings. The subject can be one of the following:

 

Undeliverable mail--"[Random word]"

Returned mail--"[Random word]"

a [Random word] [Random word] game

a [Random word] [Random word] tool

a [Random word] [Random word] website

a [Random word] [Random word] patch

[Random word] removal tools

how are you

let's be friends

darling

so cool a flash,enjoy it

your password

honey

some questions

please try again

welcome to my hometown

the Garden of Eden

introduction on ADSL

meeting notice

questionnaire

congratulations

sos!

japanese girl VS playboy

look,my beautiful girl friend

eager to see you

spice girls' vocal concert

japanese lass' sexy pictures

 

The random word will be one of the following:

new

funny

nice

humour

excite

good

powful

WinXP

IE 6.0

W32.Elkern

W32.Klez.E

Symantec

Mcafee

F-Secure

Sophos

Trendmicro

Kaspersky

 

The body of the email message is random.

 

If the message is opened in an unpatched version of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, the attachment may be automatically executed. Information about this vulnerability and a patch are available at

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp

 

Virus Insertion:

This worm inserts the virus W32.Elkern.4926 as a file with a random name in the \%Program Files% folder and executes it.

 

NOTE: %Program Files% is a variable. The worm locates the \Program Files folder (by default this is C:\Program Files and copies the virus to that location.

[+ deej]

RE: SPAM Worm example

 

>NOTE: %Program Files% is a variable. The worm locates the

>\Program Files folder (by default this is C:\Program Files

>and copies the virus to that location.

 

Yeah, and Windows will obligingly cough up %Program files%, as well as %Temp files% and %Windir% and %Winsys% in any .cmd or .bat file.

 

It's been that way since Win 3.0. Programmers said they needed it, so they got it. That includes virus writers.

 

Meanwhile, since I dumped the MSN account 8 hours ago I've received EXACTLY ONE unsolicited e-mail, and that was from a list I think I signed up for. So it may not be unsolicited at all.

 

The test will be sleeping tonite and not hearing the "you've got mail" chime every 10 minutes.

[Justice]

Excellent advice, Tony. Thank you. I'm going to file a similar complaint with Hotmail. My Hotmail address is on just about every spammers list. It's gotten to the point to where I was going to stop using the account. Thanks again.

[+ deej]

Interesting that hotmail users can get spam filters but the people who *pay* for MSN access can't.

 

(I can't really complain about it because Uncle Microsoft pays for it, but there's a principle here.. AOL is actually looking better.)