Unwanted E-Mails

I have experienced a tremendous increase in the Spam I receive. I use Outlook Express.( and Windows XP). My wife or I must have opened something by mistake.
My question is if I delete all of my cookies will it do any good in regards to the E-mail or is it just a cae of changing my E-mail address?
If I need to change my address is there a good program to notify my contact list?
Thanks

 

Jerry Dunn--I use Comcast as my ISP and email provider. I read the web-based email through an Outlook Express POP3 account.
If it makes you feel any better, the amount of spam I have received in the last month has increased by almost a factor of ten.
Three interesting things
1) Comcast (and perhaps your ISP) offers to filter email, but you have to activate the service. I did activate, and the filters catch perhaps 60% of the spam. They are very effective in not mistakenly catching any legitimate mail.
2) Some time ago I set up another email address with Comcast that I have never used and never disclosed to any one or any internet site. In the last month it is also getting spam, so the way you "get on the spammers' list" may not be to have exposed the email address. I think the spammers are just generating spam using programs that send out millions of messages to computer generated addresses. That would suggest, sadly, that changing addresses may not change the situation. Of course, it could be that Comcast is selling email addresses--even sadder if true.
3) I have email addresses at GMail and Juno. Neither get much if any spam.
You may interested in my thread here
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=50551&highlight=Mailwasher
As you can see, Mailwasher may not be the answer, but you have nothing to lose by trying it.
Try it and let us know.

 

heres what I use, http://www.ncweb.com/oefilters.html open the spam folder click on 1 of the spam E-mails go up to Edit, click Select All, go back to Edit and delete them all in one shot, hope this helps

 

JimmyM--Thanks for the link.
Unfortunately many of today's spammers know they cannot use trigger words, so the titles and even content of their spam are either nonsense or things like "Hi" or "Yo ". And they also use a specific mailing address for only a day or two--even if you can determine the actual sending address. So setting a filter up based on history is of limited help.

 

I think it's also how good the ISP is at filtering junk mail.

I get less than 5 per day, if that. Mine is MSN.

People that I know using Comcast seem to get more than others, so I don't think Comcast is very good at filtering junk or simply don't know how to use the filtering service.

Also notice an uptick in Spam when I get forwarded emails from friends - the fowarding addresses are there for everyone to see. I've talked about this until blue in the face, and I'm ignored

Regards - Charles

 

Christer--Interesting point. I must consider a really difficult email address if I ever do switch.
BTW--The amount of spam I am actually receiving through Comcast has decreased substantially since the holiday season is over. I do not know if just less is being sent or if Comcast are becoming more efficient. The amount of spam filtered seems to be about the same, so perhaps it is the latter. I certainly hope so. Where I live Comcast's spam filter is provided by Brightmail, which is now owned by Symantec.

 

I too have recently begun to be plagued by a daily torrent of Spam emails relating to undeliverable mail. A typical title being "Mail Delivery Subsystem ".

Can some kind, knowledgable person PLEASE tell me how to stop it?

Examples of the most common type of content are as below:


The original message was received at Sun, 29 Jan 2006 20:24:31 -0500
from 210-245-33-megaoff-static-ip.hcm.fpt.vn [210.245.33.7] (may be forged)

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<jhingst@sbcglobal.net>
(reason: 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn't have a sbcglobal.net account (jhingst@sbcglobal.net) [0] - mta118.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mx1.sbc.mail.yahoo.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn't have a sbcglobal.net account (jhingst@sbcglobal.net) [0] - mta118.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com
554 5.0.0 Service unavailable

_____________________________________________________

The original message was received at Mon, 30 Jan 2006 03:04:07 +0200 (EET)
from [125.57.100.237]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<neilg@ntc.nokia.com>
(reason: 550 This email address is not valid. Use @nokia.com addresses.)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to in-mp.nokia.com.:
>>> RCPT To:<neilg@ntc.nokia.com>
<<< 550 This email address is not valid. Use @nokia.com addresses.
550 5.1.1 <neilg@ntc.nokia.com>... User unknown

_____________________________________________________

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mx.graficonn.no.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<cannon@vossa.net>:
no such user (cannon) in domain vossa.net

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <llvemowlc@fellman.fslife.co.uk>
Received: (qmail 17079 invoked from network); 30 Jan 2006 00:42:24 -0000
Received: from antivirus.graficonn.no (62.92.112.17)
by butler.graficonn.no with SMTP; 30 Jan 2006 00:42:24 -0000
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by antivirus.graficonn.no (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51C6973D29
for <cannon@vossa.net>; Mon, 30 Jan 2006 01:42:24 +0100 (CET)
Received: from antivirus.graficonn.no ([127.0.0.1])
by localhost (kvitlauk [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
with ESMTP id 21998-02 for <cannon@vossa.net>;
Mon, 30 Jan 2006 01:42:15 +0100 (CET)
Received: from fellman.fslife.co.uk (md2u152103.ocv.ne.jp [203.205.152.103])
by antivirus.graficonn.no (Postfix) with SMTP id 4FF5B739D1
for <cannon@vossa.net>; Mon, 30 Jan 2006 01:41:37 +0100 (CET)
From: ava Reaume <llvemowlc@fellman.fslife.co.uk>
To: <cannon@vossa.net>
Subject: {SPAM?} Stock on tthe move - Predicted yto do0ubble -tawdrily
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:44:59 -0700
Reply-To: <llvemowlc@fellman.fslife.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Virus-Status: Scanned by norton
Message-ID: <79401100.02.265@reciprocate-qr737.fellman.fslife.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: plain
X-Virus-Scanned: by Graficonn amavisd-new-20030616-p10
X-Spam-Status: Yes, hits=7.2 tagged_above=2.5 required=4.5
tests=DEAR_SOMETHING, RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET, RCVD_IN_DSBL,
RCVD_IN_DYNABLOCK, RCVD_IN_SORBS
X-Spam-Level: *******
X-Spam-Flag: YES

 

hod--Have you sent email to any of those addresses? (including have you tried to "unsubscribe" to any spam?)
Most what you report looks like messages related to the above--sending of email to an incorrect address. That is common when you try to "Reply" or Unsubscribe to SPAM (rather than order the product offered). The addresses in SPAM (except for the order address) are usually phony.
The last message you report, however, could, itself, be SPAM.
Do not open any email that you do not recognize as legitimate. And certainly do not try to unsubscribe. That only tells them that your email address is correct and you will get lots more SPAM from them.
Just Delete.
Does your email provider offer a spam filter? You will have to activate it, if you have not already. It will not be perfect, but with time it will block much of the spam. Or your email may offer a way of Forwarding SPAM to them. Phone them or look in you provider's FAQ's.

 

Many thanks for your reply.

1. I've never sent an email to any of these addresses.
2. I never tick any boxes purporting to unsubscribe me (I'm well aware of the dangers of this)
3. I have used an extremely effective Spam filter (Spampal) for years which unfailingly traps 99% of all spam, including all the ones I'm complaining about.
4. I think the problem may be that the spammers have somehow acquired my email address and are using it to mass mail to addresses that don't exist. The emails are then returned to me as being undeliverable.

If this continues I may have to consider changing my address which will be desperately inconvenient.

hod

 

hod--I know the feeling.
You still might look into what your email provider offers in the way of reporting SPAM. I feel it has helped me.
With the exception of the last message you showed us, the others are strange, since they do not seem to be trying to tell/sell you anything. Perhaps a friend of yours, who has your name in his/her Address Book, is infected, and messages are being sent from that PC using addresses in that Address Book. Of course they bounce back to you, even though you were not involved in the sending.

 

Just to let you know the flood of 300 plus daily unwanted undeliverable emails has ceased as suddenly as it started some 2 weeks ago! (Although I shouldn't speak too soon)

Best wishes

hod

 

hod--Happy to hear the good news. I have my fingers crossed that things stay that way.
I had lot of spam in December, but what gets through my email service provider's spam blocker dropped off dramatically a few weeks ago. However, what did get through did not look like the first few messages you posted above. They were real Spam from people who wanted to sell me the usual stuff.