Help! Spammed in a big way!

Got a piece of spam from "Netflex" -- going to make me millions! I tried to delete it but it only crashed Netscape browser (NS 4.79). Tried several times, same result: Xp's (home ed.) infamous "We're sorry for the inconvenience" errors. The spam was one of two received together. The first deleted w/o fault. But the second would load up to 88 percent then crash the browser -- windows remains intact.

Created new folders, inboxxx and inboxxx.snm; moved good stuff from inbox to inboxxx.

Moved the original inbox files to a temp folder. All seemed well, it appeared, but while good messages moved to the good box, inboxxx, I can't rename inboxxx back to inbox(??). It all works but would like to get things back to normal if at all possible.

Guess I could use Xp's system restore(?). Would that clean up the mess? Or just what else might I do?

GPa

 

Spammed in a big way!

Update
Apparently I stumble-bumbled my way to a fix. Not sure what I did. Went to safe mode command prompt and tried to delete the empty inbox files with intent of renaming the orig back to "inbox ". But, Xp, in its infinite wisdom, wouldn't let me change anything! So back to full windows Xp.

Called up Win Explorer, went to the mail folder and deleted the inbox thingys (which was a folder, BTW -- not a file!??) My keyboard must have made some kind of goof up -- cuz I'm a expert typist, naturally.

Renamed the orig. file back to inbox et al. All seems to be well and the dirty spam is gone -- at least 'til I get hit with another spammer!

Comments on what I may have did originally and finally in curing this menace?

GPa

 

Your infinite wisdom prevailed!

Hi GPaDavis,

Renaming your Inbox.snm file is what I would have suggested. Your spam mail may have had some bad java coding, or who knows what made it crash your system.

That you renamed both inbox and inbox.snm is what cured your ailing incoming Mail.

Ramona

 

After you get your problem fixed, try MailWasher http://www.mailwasher.net/ , it's a neat little program (Free) that does a pretty good job of keeping Spam out of your mailbox.

 

Xp spamming

Harold7:
Hey, glad to hear you're using MailWasher. Just installed it -- looks good. But, it doesn't monitor automatically. That would be a better feature. As it stands now, have to manully call it up first. At my age, senior moments are frequenter and frequenter!

Do you know of a way to make it monitor automatiacally?

GPa

 

You can add it to your Startup folder and it will start in the System Tray, but you still have to open it to initiate the checking process.

I'm sure the program's author will add this function in a future version.... you can always send him an e-mail adding this suggestion for future incorporation.

I've been using it for about 2 weeks and my Blacklist has gotten fairly large, but since I have it set to automatically delete Blacklisted addresses, I don't even see the vast majority in the checked mail listing anymore.... adding wildcards to persistent Spammer domains really seems to help.

Here are some tips that are useful in setting up and using MailWasher ( the 1.32 Beta version) for anyone interested.:

I have the Blacklist tab set to automatically delete blacklisted items.

When you set MailWasher up, you have to add a friends e-mail address manually under Tools/Options/General/Friends Tab/Add in order to create the Whitelist Heading(Friends) in the MailWasher Blacklist folder (otherwise when you add friends and blacklisted adddresses, they get jumbled together under the Blacklist Tab.

Once the Whitelist heading is created, convert your address book to a .txt file and copy it into the Blacklist/Whitelist folder in the MailWasher directory under the Whitelist heading. Make sure that you copy only the actual e-mail addresses ( xxxxx@your domain) from the address book, omit any other symbols or nicknames or anything else.

If you wish, you can add Mailwasher to your Startup folder, then right click on the Mailwasher name and under Properties, select Run and change it to Minimized and it will then start up in the System tray or you can just run it from a desktop shortcut to start it and then minimize it and it will go to the System tray and run automatically... either way you have to run it once to start it checking, it doesn't do it on it's own at Windows Start up.

I created a rule under Tools/Options/Filters/Add to Blacklist any message I get in which the To: field of a message is not To: (Insert your e-mail address), this gets rid of a lot of the bulk e-mail that is sent out under an umbrella of addresses that are close to or contain part of your user name.

I also created universal Blacklist items with wildcard characters in Tools/General/Options/Blacklist/Add/Wildcard expressions ie., ****@domain name to block entire spam domains.

 

MailWasher

Harold7:
Many thanks for your detailed reply. Will get right to work on it. I like this program so far. Unlike so many others, it seems to make a big cut into the "junque ". I'm encouraged.

GPa