Spam Emails

[browndog]

I seem to be getting about 20 spam emails a day most being for viagra and other dubious pharmacuticals not to mention your phishing emails trying to get your bank account details. I am running xp and have outlook express, which actually does a pretty good job by not downloading the graphics associated with the said emails. Is there any way to prevent downloading all this crap?

cheers

Browndog

 

[glaab]

If a lot of them are coming from the same place, highlight the email with one left click then right up the top click on message, then select block sender. If that don't work you can always google "free spam filter".
Good luck.

 

[Doogiechap]

Bloke, outlook express normally has settings for spam filtering which you can adjust in how actively it filters incoming mail but it will still come down into your spam folder which on occasion grabs precious items like beersmith authentication codes so you still end up having to shuffle through the puss on occasion. The other possibility is that your ISP may have some provision for filtering as well (TPG does), they may have some more effective means of filtering the stuff before it makes it to your computer by means of word filtering etc.
That said it never ceases to amaze me how may phallic growth references can be made with alternative clean words :lol: .
Cheers
Doug

 

[MartinS]

Is there any way to prevent downloading all this crap?

Only way I've found is: don't use the internet.

More seriously, your best bet is a bit of a PITA: change your email address. Get yourself a yahoo, hotmail or gmail account that you only give to people you know. Don't put it into web forms, and don't use it to send emails to companies you don't completely trust. Use your old spammy account for that.

You'll still get spam. Why? Because when your friends/family forward around those silly "Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Funny video of cat being strangled by butters" emails, your email address ends up on thousands of other peoples emails. When they get infected by malware that harvests email addresses off their machine, the spammers will get your address. The solution here is to go to your friends'/family's place when you get one of those forwarded jokes, and threaten to educate them in the use of the "Bcc" field, while finding out if airlocks inserted into various orafices bubble reliably.

You're still going to get spam though! Sooner or later, someone you email regularly is going to get infected by malware. I managed to keep my current email address 100% virus free for about 3 years. I now get about 1-2 spam messages per week, which Gmail detects 100% accurately, and throws them in a seperate folder. It never misses any, and it doesn't flag any it shouldn't. I just delete them at my leisure.

 

[mwd]

Funny enough that 95% of 'Forum' Spammers ( not email spam ) use a Gmail account to sign up to enter the forum.

Although we don't seem to suffer much of it here or the DOS attacks that some forums suffer from.

Maybe the Mods here are more vigilant and doing a good job B)

PS I recommend Firetrust Mailwasher Pro as a very useful spam filtering tool.
There is a free version which is a cutdown less featured version but also quite good.

 

[jonocarroll]

PS I recommend Firetrust Mailwasher Pro as a very useful spam filtering tool.
There is a free version which is a cutdown less featured version but also quite good.

+1 for mailwasher. Does a great job, and it's free.

Cactus Spam Filter is also quite nice, and has the ability to 'learn spam'.

If you're technically minded at all but aren't ready to switch over to linux and install spamassassin, you can install SpamAssassin for Win32. I can't personally vouch for the windows version, but a lot of corporate *nix systems will use spamassassin as their spam filter. It sort of does the same thing as mailwasher - it scans your incomming mail for 'known spam' but also 'learns' what you call spam.

 

[browndog]

Bloke, outlook express normally has settings for spam filtering which you can adjust in how actively it filters incoming mail but it will still come down into your spam folder which on occasion grabs precious items like beersmith authentication codes so you still end up having to shuffle through the puss on occasion. The other possibility is that your ISP may have some provision for filtering as well (TPG does), they may have some more effective means of filtering the stuff before it makes it to your computer by means of word filtering etc.
That said it never ceases to amaze me how may phallic growth references can be made with alternative clean words :lol: .
Cheers
Doug

I'm seriously thinking about pointing a coat hangar at them spammers Doogs...

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm going to check out one of those filters.

cheers

Browndog

 

[mwd]

Also kick Outlook Express into touch and use something like Mozilla Thunderbird or any other client to avoid malicious attacks...

Hackers/Crackers love to find the weakness of Microsoft products.

Although you cannot control the other slackers that may have an unsecure system with your E-mail address in their address book.

 

[browndog]

Tok a look at the Mozilla Thunderbird site, I'll definitely be downloading that one and giving it a go, it looks great, thanks for the tip tropical and also the rest of you Brewers. How does the Mozilla web browser compare to IE?

cheers

Browndog

 

[bum]

Firefox is really good. I don't understand why anyone uses IE any more.

 

[Bribie G]

I have had the same Yahoo email account for ten years, same username, same password. Most days I get no spam; now and again I get at most four spam messages in a day. Their system seems to be good at sensing spam and shunting it into the spam folder. I rarely get spam popping up in my inbox, it's usually diverted straight into the spambox.

Also if a spam message turns up in your inbox you can select it using the checkbox next to it and delete it. My big argument with Outlook Express was that, in those days about ten years ago, when you clicked on a spam message to delete it, it would open the message and if there was a malicious attachment you were stuffed. I would imagine that this stupid fault has been cleaned up in O.E. but I'm not interested in finding out, Yahoo is brilliant.

Two spams received in the last 24 hours, both diverted into the spam box as shown, and selected for deletion:

 

[bum]

That second email looks important, Bribie. Don't delete it!

 

[Snow]

I've used AAPT which has spam washing as a part of its service. I have never had a spam message. Not one in 3 years.

Cheers - Snow.

 

[peas_and_corn]

IMO it's better to use an email server such as hotmail or gmail for any personal emailing you need to do. Outlook is a magnet for SPAM and you are downloading them to your computer which leaves you open more to viruses- while with sites like gmail you are just viewing, not downloading the emails. Leave the email addie you get with your internet for email from your server.