Spam Spam Spam Spam

Steve Killingsworth · #1 12-19-2006, 08:08 PM

Starting about 6 months ago, I began getting an increasing volume of spam. It is now to the point where I get probably as many as 20-30 per day. They all have strange subject lines and are hawking everything from Nigerian money schemes to herbal ED remedies.

I suppose it is no big deal because I now just automatically delete any suspicious message without looking at it. However, it is just aggrevating to deal with.

Is there anything that can be done about this like the national don't call list for telemarketers? Or is this just another curse we have to learn to live with like "Reality" TV?

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #2 12-19-2006, 08:23 PM

No Longer to be covered in shame? All your *ss are belong to us!
DEAR KILLINGSWORTH, I am Barrister...

yadda yadda yadda. Oy.

Thankfully, Yahoo does a good job of filtering most of this bull**** to the bulk folder. What's really annoying is that most of it comes though my website, so I have to sift through the bulk folder every couple of days to see if any ACTUAL REAL ****ING PEOPLE are trying to contact me along with all of the weirdos with names like "Cornhole E. Filbuster" and "Cordelia J. Stringmuffin". *** is up with those ludicrous names, anyway? And who in the world would be stupid enough to fall for those phony "stock tips" from some random jerk with an absurd name?

I think that forcible testicular squashitude would be a fitting punishment for the idiots who create this stuff. And the slower, the better.

Jake deVilliers · #3 12-19-2006, 09:43 PM

Moderation, Fitzgerald, moderation!

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #4 12-19-2006, 10:12 PM

Actually, I thought my sentencing recommendation for the particular group of jackasses in question was pretty moderate.

Andy Allen · #5 12-19-2006, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

I think that forcible testicular squashitude would be a fitting punishment for the idiots who create this stuff. And the slower, the better.

Don't hold back. Chris, tell us how you really feel

I must say I find spam horribly, offensively annoying - it's strange that something so stupid and trivial can elicit such a strong response.

My old Earthlink email would stop the regular spam, but leave far too much obvious stuff in a spam folder for me to search through to find the odd misfiled email. I've had a much better experience with Google gmail - no spam to speak of so far, touch wood (my bass is next to me - that's quality wood I'm touching

).

Andy

Bruce Lindfield · #6 12-20-2006, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Killingsworth

Starting about 6 months ago, I began getting an increasing volume of spam. It is now to the point where I get probably as many as 20-30 per day. They all have strange subject lines and are hawking everything from Nigerian money schemes to herbal ED remedies.

I suppose it is no big deal because I now just automatically delete any suspicious message without looking at it. However, it is just aggrevating to deal with.

Is there anything that can be done about this like the national don't call list for telemarketers? Or is this just another curse we have to learn to live with like "Reality" TV?

This has become an increasing problem where I work - it has been the case, that SPAM filters worked on the Title - looking for certain patterns - but the Spammers have caught on to this with increasingly weird and random message titles to fool all the filters.

I work in an orgainsation of 30k users and we have asked people to report all SPAM for a period and then block all those addresses - but I think for individuals the problem has become impossible - whatever you think of - the SPAMMers will get round it!

Steve Killingsworth · #7 12-20-2006, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

And who in the world would be stupid enough to fall for those phony "stock tips" from some random jerk with an absurd name?

That's what stumps me about the whole thing. Who would??? But since the spammers keep on going, evidently someone does.

Bruce Lindfield · #8 12-20-2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Killingsworth

That's what stumps me about the whole thing. Who would??? But since the spammers keep on going, evidently someone does.

I think they all come from Direct Mail Houses who have a vested interest in discrediting email as a medium for advertising...

Mark Perry · #9 12-20-2006, 06:44 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7YedEopp4

**HeavyDuty** · #10 12-20-2006, 07:24 AM

I get about 150 spam messages a day, but I've had the same email address for over ten years. Yahoo does a good job diverting them to a spam folder on the server - I check it occasionally to find the real messages that got snagged.

**Damon Rondeau** · #11 12-20-2006, 07:37 AM

A couple of months ago, I turned into a spammer.

If you get your own domain, you'll likely turn into one too.

What happens is these pathetic excuses for world citizens start using your domain in the "REPLY TO" part of an e-mail message (they just make up the first part of the address, the part before the "@".) The ancient old design of e-mail allows this kind of spoofing to occur as a design feature.

Any internet expert I've talked to says you've just gotta live with it. My filters are constantly getting worked out with bounceback messages, sending "my" spam back to me.

My mistake? Putting my e-mail address on a webpage. It was harvested long ago. It's really annoying to receive spam, but to be wrongly thought of as a spammer actually disturbs me.

christ andronis · #12 12-20-2006, 08:56 AM

Yahoo actually has a pretty good filter called "Address Guard" in their "Options" menu. (IF you use Yahoo mail) It allows you to make up an alternate e-mail address, as many as you want. Works great! My spam is diverted into the junk folder.

TroyK · #13 12-20-2006, 02:18 PM

Hey not to derail this post, but has anyone tried the herbal ED product? Would love to hear a review of it.

Michael Case · #14 12-20-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroyK

Hey not to derail this post, but has anyone tried the herbal ED product? Would love to hear a review of it.

It's truly a stand up product.

Steve Killingsworth · #15 12-20-2006, 02:39 PM

**Damon Rondeau** · #16 12-20-2006, 02:39 PM

I think the herbal product they're talking about might start with "gan" and end with "ja" but how would I know?? I know it's effective in keeping up your transfat levels.

The Big New Spam Thing seems to be penny stock shilling. They send you something telling you to watch such-and-such a ridiculous tech or mining stock. Enough dim bulbs take the bait, buy some stock, and collectively it's enough to bump up the stock price, even a little bit. You could make 5, 6% in a DAY with that little scheme. A slicker, less risky play than the Nigerian four-oh-whatever scam...

theshadow2001 · #17 12-20-2006, 09:21 PM

I use gmail which is google's mail the spam filter is top notch. Of the thousands of spam messages I have gotten I've only got a handful land in my inbox where they are quickly marked spam and forgotten about.

Marcus Johnson · #18 12-21-2006, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroyK

Hey not to derail this post, but has anyone tried the herbal ED product? Would love to hear a review of it.

Why not ask our friend Brian Bromberg? He's the guy that does all those "Wood" albums...

**Freddels** · #19 12-21-2006, 07:39 AM

It was pointed out to me that many of the penny stock spam emails had one thing in particular. It was that the content-type was multipart/related. So I set up a rule in my email program that would send any email that has a content-type which contains multipart/related to my junkmail folder. I also added that the email would be from someone NOT already in my address book. That seemed to take care of those emails. Give it a try.

I'm looking for something for the new ones that are getting through (basically plain text).