How do you deal with SPAM??

I have been using MAILWASHER to deal with SPAM Mail. However, I am increasingly frustrated with this program as it often fails to work and gives me error messages. It also has other faults which I won't bore you with.

I am getting literally hundreds of SPAM mails everyday and need help!

I don't want to change mail addresses as I use this one for many important things also.

 

i use a product called SpamPal http://www.spampal.org/ Its not the easiest thing to configure, but it works like a champ. I have it set to add ***SPAMM*** to the header of all suspected spam, and i have an outlook rule that moves and marks read all subjects matching. I get about 100 a day, and it will miss 2 or 3 a week. Not too shabby. highly configurable, if you like that sort of thing.

I also have several garbage email addresses. Ill make an address like joejunk1 and use that for whatever for a week or two, then i will delete that account and use joejunk2, etc.. This tactic will dramatically help cut down your spam.

 

If you're getting hundreds of SPAM them you are fast approaching possibly haveing to change your email address. I was considering this with around 20-30 Viagra and **** emails daily. I'm not a great fan of SPAM filters for various reasons I won't bother to explain here.

This is what I did when my Hotmail address started getting all this garbage in the Inbox and the past couple of months my primary ISP address as well!

I UNSUBSCRIBED, where this was provided at the bottom of the email.

Yes I know, YOU DID WHAT!

Well it worked for me and I am realitively spam free.

My Hotmail address has been spam free (maybe one a month ) for several months. I'm hoping for similar results with my ISP address.

I unsubscribed yesterday from over 20 in my ISP address. Today only one message, with no unsubscribe function. I'm happy.

Many of these email come from the same distribution. I found unsubscribing from one unsubscribed me from all.

For me, the worst that could have happened is MORE SPAM. So then I change the address(s).

 

Bore me - My experience with MailWasher has been nothing but great and I tried several approaches to reducing Spam before settling on Mailwasher. This application runs flawlessly and I'm interested in your comments.

 

Basically Rockster2U,
I'm wary of programmes that need configuring to allow legitimate mail through and block others. These spammers are sophisticated now. Many of the addresses look like legitimate addresses without the tell tale numbers and characters that usually indicate a bogus address. I also don't want to mess around including addresses in and out of exclusion box's. I'm just not interested in wasting time on SPAM if unsubscribing works.
With Hotmail I soon filled up the allowance of something like 250 addresses. With the time I spent configuring, it was just much faster to unsubscribe, I did with no problems for several months.

Whilst I don't suggest that everyone does as I did/do. Because convention says by unsubscribing you are indicating a live address etc, etc. It works for me and that is what I do.
I also don't like cluttering my PC's with all these 3rd party applications. Others like them, I don't.
The same goes for 3rd party firewalls. Never needed one. Although I did use the rudimentry one in SP1 and now the better one in SP2.

I just try to keep my computing simple, without to much clutter. So far so good. If I fall in a heap I'll have to change the practice of the last several years.

 

I've just checked my Hotmail account that I haven't checked for over a week. This is the account I used to get 20-30 SPAM email every day.
Not one. Unsubscribing can't be all bad.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

Rockster, Mailwasher may work for you, but for me it's incredibly unreliable. Addresses that I have blacklisted one day are not blacklisted the next. Once my entire blacklist and friendlist (hundreds) disappeared. I contacted the developer and they said you have to reinstall and start again when that happens.

But my main problem is that constantly I have started getting the error that the mail stored is different from mail on server so I have to downlaod all my mail and manually delete anyway. I have tried all configurations to stop this, but failed.
Also, it takes forever to bounce mail. I have set to delete only and not bounce, but it bounces anbyway.

I will try the program you mentioned JoeHobart.

 

I stumbled across this solution:

My ADSL ISP ws bought by another which required an address change. While I had them on the line, I asked why my wife's email never got any spam and I get 25 per day. They had no answer.

I set up the new email primary account and 2 pop3 accts, one for me and one for the wife. The very first instance of checking mail on the primary account got me 2148 spams! The pops got none. I had the ISP delete the 2148 and told them I would not be checking the primary anymore.

I now use only the two pop3's and get no spam of any kind. It has been about a month now and still no spam.

 

It depends on what email program you use ...

Outlook 2003 and Bloomba have good (not perfect, but 95%) built in filters.
For programs that don't have a good one, try using POPFile (free, and 98%).

 

SO I'm wondering why your primary account is spamed and not the other two?

Just checked my main ISP account. 3 spam emails since same time yesterday. At least there are none from the domains I unsubscribed from that have returned. Still, to me 3 spam emails is 3 to many.

 

I get just as much spam (if not more) in my secondary accounts.
I think it's a matter of where your email accounts are listed on the
'net - so that the bots can get them. The accounts that we have
at our websites get tons of spam, but Outlook 2003 eats it up.

 

I, like Rockster2U, use Mailwasher as my Primary program to deal with SPAM...works great for me. My ISP also has some SPAM guard filters they use. Last but not least I also can get to my account via Webmail and delete the mail right at the server.

 

Thanks TonyT. I plan to try that on the PCs at home. Wanted to use it at work but it needs a POP server and chokes on Exchange server. Ah well.

 

Accuspam sounds good, but it's got privacy problems.

Giving your "Approved Senders List" (your email address book) to a third
party, without the specific approval of "Senders" on your List, is a gross
invasion of their privacy. Also, many email programs now have included
"white lists" and (in Outlook 2003) this can automatically include anyone
in your address book - so why pay for something you don't need and has
the associated legal problems of disclosing addresses without approval.

 

As a person with a Law Degree, I can assure you that any time
you give anothers personal information, without their permission, to
a third party - it's a breach of their privacy. You have no control of
"Accuspam" or what they may do with email addresses. The privacy
policy only lasts as long as they don't get sold or go bankrupt, and
we have seen this before with other third party service providers.

 

My answer to spam, in addition to using Mailwasher (over 2 years, now) is to subscribe to Spamcon. For about £11 a year I get 500 disposable email addresses. This means that when I subscribe to a forum, I can allocate a dedicated address to it. Any spam, and I know exactly where it has come from. The addresses can be switched on and off at will. Somebody starts bugging you, flick the switch. Where an address has been used for more than one site, individual contacts can be switched off.
I find the system indispensable. Well worth the small outlay.

 

Simple. Do not use any ISP then to receive your incoming email. Then you can be sure your senders' email addresses are never stored on any server on the internet. That means you will need to run your own SMTP server.

Great advice! Everyone should drop their ISPs. Fabulous advice!