Hiding email address

Any chance your XP user name is same as your email address?

username = wayneh
email add = wayneh@isp.com

Then the cookie will give your name away to spammers?

 

Mine is.

But I have added some numbers in the mix too.

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EDIT: Correction, I misunderstood the question...My user name is different from my e-mail address.

(I tried to delete this post, but I couldn't find a way)

 

James Martin-

That is the way (in Outlook Express) to see and copy the whole header in order to report it.
But do not hold your breath. I have tried SpamCop and similar sites for years. It does not do any good.
To whom are you planning to make the report? I have been using this procedure to report spam to my email service provider. You have to learn the email address to use for this. Only the email provider can tell you that.

 

I've never tried it with OE, but I have expanded full headers in my Yahoo account. After copying the IP address, I would open a new web page to Geek Tools, paste the IP address in the box and click ok. That would give me an abuse e-mail address (usually) of the spammers ISP.

I would then forward the spam letter (as inline text) to the abuse address that Geek Tools pulled up.

Don't know what effect it had, as ISP's don't usually report there investigation results. Actually, I might have opened my Yahoo address to more spam?

Just felt like I had to try something though. Maybe I succeeded in shuting a few down for a while.

 

For those who use Zone Alarm and whose curiosity gets the best of them, you can view the contents of an email without any info being exchanged with the outside world by first right clicking on the on the ZA icon in the system tray and choose "engage internet lock ". Then open the email. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

It may be that other third party firewalls have a similar feature, I don't know. I haven't had enough experience with them to know.

 

My System Suite firewall (Sygate) has a block all function similar to what you are talking about. Never thought about using it in that matter though, but it sounds like a good idea.

Ever since I switched over to XP Home w/SP2, I have noticed that OE6 has an extra security feature built-in to it. If an e-mail comes in HTML, OE6 will block the images from downloading, unless I click on a bar that pops up.

I presume that this feature will enable a person to view the e-mail without giving away their address?

 

Not trying to persuade you to a different email client....
Thunderbird is extremely effective / efficient in moving known/suspicious emails to "Junk" folder. Once in Junk folder, said emails are denied contact with any server. If you have a new email of unknown origin / concern (in your Inbox), 2 clicks moves it to Junk folder for review (you can open email without any reporting / verifying to sender server). One more click and you have classified as Junk/Not Junk. Background security and filters automatically managed by program. Also has Anti-Phishing Protection and additional security features.

 

James Martin--

The problem with that is deciding which of the usually several "From" addresses on the spam header is the real one. There are techniques for trying to figure that out, but they are pretty complicated.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,929898,00.asp
And my experience was that usually I reached an abuse address in Poland or Nigeria (etc.), which at best did not respond or resulted in a "Mail could not be delivered" message. And at worst probably told the spammer that my email address was a live prospect for more spam.
Even that assumes the spammer kept the same address for a long enough time.

 

Thanks for the Courier link! I'll check it out.

I learned about Geek Tools from Yahoo Help. Wasn't sure if it would do any good, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

I got tired of the reporting routine...I never saw a reduction in spam for my efforts either.

I think it's best to just delete the stuff and not give the spammer the time of day.