[pchelpers] Re: Mountains of spam

Hi Guys and thanks for your input.

Ekhart, to your suggestion to use a filter - I already do.

The computer that I receive all the spam on is the one
I use at work.

It is on a LAN with wireless connection to the Internet.

We have 18 machines all networked but I feel the weak
point of the network is that 15 of them are used by our
medley of students. I need to share files with our other two
admin machines so can't hide access to mine. I have
controlled access to sensitive files per password. Also my
machine acts as the printer server for our Sharp digital
printer/copier.

We have Win XP on most of them using IE, OE and Outlook.

On my XP machine I use Firefox and Eudora and have set
Eudora's filter to trash the spam. Trouble is - they vary the
subject line and To addresses so that the filter doesn't block
them. My firewall is Zone Alarm Pro.

I've tried Spam blockers but training them to recognise all
sources takes way more time than just to moving them all into
the trash bin.

Changing my email address and all the possible business
related emails I might miss - even after notifying all in my
addressbook  - is not a risk I wish to take.

I note that the article in Wikepedia URL you supplied treads as
follows:-

"By periodically performing an Internet search for one's own
email address, and if necessary getting the appropriate website
administrator to remove it".

My question is, how do I perform and Internet search for my own
address?

Regards

Eric
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Eric and Scott

Contrary to what the subject says, this returned mail is not spam; it's
legitimate mail caused by spam sent in your name. Be happy it's coming
from automated systems and not angry individuals. The former enables an
easy automated response; the latter requires, at least in principle, a
personal response and often lengthy discussion with many different
individuals.

 > EF> These last few weeks I suddenly started receiving a mountain of
 > EF> "returned" mail that I never sent to addresses that are not in my
 > EF> address book.
 >
 > You can't do much about "returned" mail;

See below.

 > your bigger problem is people
 > who actually received an email which appears to be from you, and
 > ignorantly believe that you are the guilty party.
 >
 > EF> I'm receiving from 50 to 70 per day.  Short of
 > EF> changing my email address, is there anything I can
 > EF> do to stop this flood?
 >
 > Not really, aside from filtering it.

Installing Thunderbird or any other good email program with a spam
filter will probably be able to also deal with such incorrect, "spoofed"
returned mail. In addition, it's easy to make a filter that
automatically sends all returned mail into the trash. You can then check
the trash a few hours after sending an important mail to see if you got
a message saying there was a problem in delivering it. Tell us if you
want help making such a filter.

 > As Cy suggests, have one email
 > address for trusted companies, and another for messages which may
 > become public. Anything sent to friends should be assumed to be
 > potentially public. For example, any message posted HERE should be
 > assumed to be avilable to the oublic.

Well, it's only public to those on the list, which is why i reacted to
quickly to the spammer we had as a member a while ago. On the website,
the addresses are obscured as eric.furman@xxxxxxxx, for example.

You can easily get many new free email addresses by subscribing at any
number of free email providers. I'm guessing that your problem, Eric,
was not caused by you telling your main address to a company but by
posting it in forums or on webpages. I even seem to dimly remember you
talking about posting it on your own site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam#Avoiding_spam has many more
tips about how to avoid getting spam.

 > EF> How did whoever - or whatever program - get to use
 > EF> my address in the first place?
 >
 > USING it is absolutely no problem at all.  ANYONE can SEND email
 > which appears to be from ANY email address.

The operative verb in the question is "get" not "use". The spammer "got"
i.e. was able to use your address by harvesting it from a public source
such as a webpage or by turning into a zombie a computer that belongs to
an acquaintance who has your address on that computer. Another big
problem is people who put addresses into the "To" or "CC" fields when
sending several copies of an e-mail instead of using Bcc.







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