E-mail problems and SPAM

I need some advice! I have had the same e-mail for over 15 years, and the spam has gotten so bad, I am thinking of switching, just so I can get my mail. Of course, this presnets more problems.

Yes, I am on AOL, and I have contacted them, where they said to use the "Spam Blocker" on the AOL fucntions, which I have and have had no luck.

I get about 50 a day, and I started replying to them to "unsubscribe" me, but that made it worse....

any Suggestions - I have deleted some important mail several times, since I thought it was SPAM!! Help!

 

Did you call your AOL customer service representative to report this problem? AOL should be able to assist you with this problem since most SPAM is launched from their server before it reaches you. If they cannot assist you, perhaps you may need to install anti-spam software.

 

By unsubscribing you are just confirming a working and valid email address. What I do, I block the address or anything that comes from similar addresses, and reported to the server provider, by doing this I have avarege only 5 to 10 spam a day. you may want to consider a spam killer program such as the one made by Norton.

Hope this help>

 

Kristie,

buy a decent home router, set up its firewall, or use software firewalls common to most anti-virus software.

 

Any particular recommendations?

Thanks to all for the responses, I appreciate it!

 

Spam blockers usually have settings of low to high. The potential downside of a high setting is that some legitimate email may be blocked.

 

Kristie,

let me know if you plan on using any wireless capabilities. Feel free to PM if needed. I have used all the major brands(Linksys, D-link, Orinoco, Cisco, etc...) but am currently playing with a D-Link DI 614+ enhanced (offers 256 WEP), bought it for less than $40.00, another $40.00 for the laptop card, and I routinely change the key for security. Most new routers have moved to a WPA version that allows for the AES of encryption for wireless. However AES will require a RADIUS type server access. AES is the new standard specified for federal protection of sensitive unclassified information. Meaning for less than $200 I can meet U.S. federal guidelines. I like the wireless so I can hang out in the den while working or studying. I also have other work related reasons.

However, if you intend to stay in a wired mode (as a continuing business student you will be faced with wireless) there are some good options also. All of these have some good firewall and filtering protection.

 

Two people I communicate with regularly have recently switched to MailBlocks, which seems to make wonderful sense. All Email senders (unless already on your OK list) get an automatic response which politely explains that the receiver has set up this new system. The sender is given a 7-digit number (in a non-scannable font) that they must type in and resend. They only have to do it once; after that, they get right through. Spammers can't do this automatically. Works with AOL. Appears to be free for 5 MB storage, $10 a year for 15 MB. I'm on the verge of taking the plunge. If anyone else has (or does) it would be good to hear about it.

(Sad bit is that MailBlocks founder, who also founded WebTV, Phil Goldman, just died suddenly unexpectedly last week at 39. One of the obits referred to him having bought a "controversial" patent for the spam blocking software. Wonder what this means and if it will affect the company.

 

I am curious as to why you use AOL when there are so many better and cheaper alternatives.

 

I have several email accounts, but my most important one started getting spammed about two years ago. None of my other less-important email accounts are getting spammed.

My main email account is with Yahoo.com and they recently implemented a "spam control" button that you push whenever you identify spam. It must be working, because I am now getting little to no spam. It is also free.

At work, we had a child abuse detective who started getting "porn emails" on his government email account. Some of the detectives are now starting to remove their email addresses from their business cards to avoid vindictive spammers and to avoid viruses from angry defendants. This is indeed an interesting age in which we live.

As far as I'm concerned, spammers should be brought to the rear of the building and taught a lesson in diplomacy.

 

The only reason is that my Mom - about 15 years ago opened an account, and gave me a sign on. I have since moved it to my own, but having the same e-mail for 15 years makes me not want to switch it - all banking, friends, work (now and old), schools, etc have this e-mail.

I have moved to an area that does not have a local access number for AOL, but I have an earthlink account and sign on remotely - kind of wierd, but I am hesitant to make the plunge!

 

I have been fighting spam for quite some time, and used to report everything to Spamcop, but as the amount of spam increased my time relegated to it decreased. Some ISP
s (like roadrunner) will also help you take care of spam as long as you are willing to report spam. About 3 months ago I started playing with spam filters. The best one I have found (and its free) is spambayes, problem is it only works with Outlook. False negatives are about 1%. You can get it here http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

 

Pow: Right in the Kisser!!!

Forget everything I said. I'm getting spammed again. I guess the spams stopped just for the holidays.

 

Not all automated mail is bad. I appreciate getting mail that tells me Amazon has shipped my latest book order, and that sort of thing.

 

Dear kristie7:

You *might* want to try www.spamcop.net. In addition to virus scanning (an undocumented feature), it has a wide array of filters/options to segregate suspected spam from real email. It also allows you to retaliated against Mr. Spammer: Should you choose to verify suspected spam as spam, SpamCop will use your input to block similar emails to other recipients, and will report the sender to his ISP (and Spamcop isn't fooled by phoney email headers).

I must confess that SpamCop has done nothing to staunch the torrent of Spam to my email address, but it is quite effective at culling the chaff from the wheat. I might have gotten better results if I had switched entirely to SpamCop, rather than just having it filter my existing email address, since a Spammer would have to be a complete fool to send Spam to a SpamCop account.

Good luck!


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

Dear Dr. Bear:

Didn't you previously use a service similar to www.mailblocks.com ? Am I mistaken, or were you displeased by the service you used? Details?


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

You might want to try PopFile which provides local spam classification using statistical methods to learn what you consider to be spam, and what you consider to be lgeit email.

 

Richard K: Didn't you previously use a service similar to www.mailblocks.com ? Am I mistaken, or were you displeased by the service you used? Details?

John: Yes, I did sign up for one 2 1/2 years ago, whose name I have blocked. They required the sender to respond to an automatic Email -- but without the added feature (which MailBlocks uses) of having to type in that 7-digit non-scannable number. So problem one was that the spammers seemed quickly to figure out how to work around the "must respond" feature, and problem two was that the software had flaws in extracting mail from my Eudora mailbox, and problem three was that the company never once responded to my Emailed questions, nor did they give out a phone number (and when I learned it from their domain name registration and called them, they were annoyed).

So, MailBlocks looks good, but I guess I really want somebody else's canary to go into this mine first!

 

Re: Re: E-mail problems and SPAM

This is certainly the conventional wisdom, but I have serious doubts about its validity. Does unsubscribing really lead to more spam? It seems like it would be a very easy thing to research. Is anyone familiar with anything other than antecdotal evidence on this subject?

 

Dear Dr. Bear:

Thanks for your reply and the information!

I find the idea of using Mailblocks quite tempting, yet my research on Mailblocks and its founder is not inspiring.

First there is its late founder, Mr. Goldman. He apparently made his fortune -- or at least one of them <g> -- by harvesting patents and then using them for legalized extortion (best kind). Then there are the nuts that seem to have an almost palpable hatred for MailBlocks's modus operandi. I suspect that you deal with enough nuts that the possibility of loosing a small percentage of them is hardly troubling, but it is something to consider.

Do let us know how you like the service, if you try it.


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek