BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?

Subject: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,GarryG
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 04:19 PM

I'm completely fed up at receiving spam maybe like most people. Especially the sick ones. The internet service providers seem happy to let these people get away with it.

Anyone know who they are?.Where their businesses operate from? Names, addresses?
USA, UK,

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 04:22 PM

Most of us hang out below the BS line on Mudcat...

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 04:33 PM

I think this is the wrong place to ask the question.

Try /.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,GarryG
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 04:54 PM

Put it this way, if somone knocked at your door and asked you if you wanted to have sex with a horse, would you find it normal? Why should I consider it normal to have this in my email messages?

If that is legal, fine. I also consider it legal to want to know where that person lives who sent me the email.

This is so I can legally request them not to send me another one.

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:10 PM

Don't hold your breath....

I suspect that what you 'consider' legal, and what might actually BE legal might very well be 2 very different things...

Just do what any other half-way cyber-savvy person would do... create an email filter so subsequent spam emails go straight to your trash bin...

Just like you throw away junk snail mail you get, unopened...

Geeze... it's not like it's a big deal...

It's is JUST the internet...

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:14 PM

You can "request" that they not send you any more, sure. Lots of luck.

These spammers can be anywhere in the world, and shift their base of operations and ISP frequently. They already know that their sick stuff (and even the relatively straightforward commercial spam) is not welcome, but they don't care. They figure it costs them extremely little to send out say 10,000 e-mails, and if two or three of those respond, that's a good return.

Above all, DO NOT respond to them! Many of them will have a "click here to be removed from our list" link. If you click there, they know they have a real, working target e-mail address, and that their spam was opened and read. That gets entered in their database of addresses, which is sold or rented to other spammers.

The US Congress is about to pass an anti-spam act, which has no realistic hope of doing anything constructive about spam. As I remember reading, it requires an advertiser not to have deceptive subject lines, to give a "take me off your list" link, and something else which I forget. I've dealt with that link in the previous paragraph. Because spam can be sent from anywhere in the world, and sources can be moved, I see no way such legislation can be effective.

Your best bet is to explore your browser, find the filter facility, and write filtering rules that will find spam messages and transfer them directly to TRASH (or whatever your browser's equivalent is). Unfortunately, the writers of these things are very innovative in designing texts that are very difficult to filter. Still, you can direct a good percent of the spam traffic out of your inbox without your having to deal with it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:21 PM

there is one guy, working from New Orleans, who is well-known, but he claims he stays within the letter of the law....many operate from 3rd world countries now, and can't be traced easily.

The easiest way to stop spam is to require an IQ test before you are allowed to have a computer...*grin*...if idiots didn't BUY some of this crap, they'ed soon quit offering it!

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:24 PM

The ISPs seem to be unable to stop spam but they are becoming brilliant at bouncing legit newsletters.

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Amergin
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:30 PM

i really like the ones that pose as bounce back notices...especially when I hardly send out email...(undeliverable mail, mailer daemon, that sort of crap)

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,GarryG
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:47 PM

I use web based email and the filters are useless.

An Internet Service provider could easily block a 100,000 spam email. They don't.

Maybe we should just accept it then? That's just the internet. Trouble is it isn't. Its life and social interaction, and the same rules apply, regardless.

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 05:51 PM

Who ever said there were rules to life???

Only people who are selling something say that...

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,GarryG
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 06:22 PM

There are social rules. Some things you don't do.

Among these are asking if you want a bigger penis, unsolicited. I do not want this. There is no other area in life where this is considered socially acceptable.

So why should it be considered acceptable on the internet?

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 06:24 PM

Garry...'some' web based email provides decent filters...and some allow YOU to specify the size limits of incoming mail. You just gotta choose carefully. Look at this page

http://www.emailaddresses.com

and part of the forum they host

here

(I use fastmail.fm ...very good service)

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 06:44 PM

ONe thing you can do is traffic only in text formatted email, not HTML formats... (no posies on the borders) and filter your email to put anything in HTML format into a Junk folder. This alone will cut down your spam by 85%. If you need to you vcan refine it so the filter only hits on HTML from someone not in your address book, depending on which app you are using.

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Homeless
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 07:24 PM

All you ever wanted to know about spam, SpamHaus

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,Trigger
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 11:17 PM

So...Garry...what exactly is it that you object to about having sex with horses anyway? What's abnormal about that? You got a problem of some kind?

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 11:28 PM

"You caught 'im with an 'ORSE?, Was it a female 'orse, or a male 'orse?"

"Oh, a female 'orse, or course! Nothing queer about Carruthers!"

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: mouldy
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 03:06 AM

I, unfortunately, have a very simple e-mail address with a well known ISP. This has the one big disadvantage that any spammer could guess at it. I am most unwilling to change it, and so I have to accept that I am a prime spam target. I get around 250-300 mails per day, on average, about 99% of which are spam. around 85% of the spam does get filtered out, and my ISP does have a facility for reporting it "to improve our detection rate". (Wish I knew what they used to detect the stuff, though, as what comes through is often so blatently "wrong").
However, they have also been known now and again to filter out solicited mails which I very occasionally receive from what they class as "commercial" sources in the bulk folder - this once being my husband's office e-mail address in Bosnia. At least I can correct this, but I have to catch it first.
And so I still trawl through the crap most days because I don't yet feel I can trust them completely, even though it's only about once or twice a month that they fail.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 03:26 AM

They are a dissident break away group of the Pam Ayres fan club who have gone underground to cause havoc - she used to pop up now and again and wasn't funny either.

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Teresa
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 04:18 AM

Well, one thing I do with an email account I have on the web is to allow only messages from people in my address book to be placed in my inbox. You just have to remember to add to the address book, as annoyed friends have pointed out. Oops. Which is why that address is not my primary account, unfortunately.
Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 11:22 AM

Today I received a new (to me, at least) twist.   It said:

Yesterday (01-31-2004) you were assigned this link to The Names Database:

http:// (link deleted here.)

This link will allow you to skip the sign up process on future visits.
(MY COMMENT: Visits to what? They don't say.)
Please save this one time notice for reference purposes.


Take Care, The Names Database Team
PO Box 550175, Waltham, MA 02455

There was a footnote that CLAIMED that I had requested to be added to this database. I certainly didn't. This is a trap for the unwary, of course, with the purpose of gathering and validating spam targets. BEWARE!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 11:47 AM

GarryG,

Yahoo (free @ 4MB) does a good job with spam. You can pay for better Yahoo spam avoidance service, at reasonable rates.

Treat your e-mail address the same as your phone number, only giving out to selected persons. Also, follow the HTML advice from Amos. Yahoo will let you turn HTML off unless you want it on after you open a legitimate address.

Gee, I wonder what Mr Ed would say about Trigger's post above?

"A horse is a horse unless of course it's the famous Mr. Ed"

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 03:15 PM

"Some things you don't do.
Among these are asking if you want a bigger penis, unsolicited"

Welcome to the 21 century... if you can hear me way back there in the 50s...

"There is no other area in life where this is considered socially acceptable."

BULL! A girl asked me last night while I was on break if she could help me 'make it bigger'... that was VERY socially acceptable! (I told her thanks, but my wife likes it just the way it is when she's not using it... we both got a good laugh outa that...)

If you get junk mail in your mail box, you throw it away... if there's a commercial you don't like on TV, you change the channel... if there's a radio add that bugs you, yo turn it down till you figure it's over...   Why do you need someone to do it FOR you on the internet?

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,GarryG
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 05:42 PM

The whole point is, everyone seems to accept everything that is thrown at us. I didn't mean to start this this thread on a sinister note. More of a Saturday night drunken frustration thing.

However, why should I have to change my email settings etc?
These people should have to change. Not me. Why does the law protect them?

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 05:44 PM

Sounds like a case of arrested development to me, Clinton (Where's Mommy and Daddy when I need them?"). Some people got the impression that their time is so incredibly valuable that anything in their life that delays them one second must be unconstitutional or a crime against humanity. Obvious conclusion: their freedom is vital, and laws must be passed to guarantee it...other people's freedom must, however, be stringently curtailed by law! You see this attitude a lot in traffic too...."Everybody who drives slower than me is an idiot, everybody who drives faster than me is a maniac!"

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: mouldy
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 02:48 AM

At their invitation I signed from BT to the BT/Yahoo "improved" service. That was when the spam doubled. I actually do get twice as much mail, but still only a few non-spam mails per day. Example: this morning I had 30 mails in the inbox (2 non-spam) and 248 in the bulk (spam) folder.

I believe Yahoo always used to be prone to spam. A lot of the spammers even have Yahoo addresses! The rest seem to come from mainly the far East ant North America. There was a slight dip in the amount when the EU passed legislation against it, but now it's back up again. I have another address (also Yahoo) that I very rarely use and only give out in connection with my craft work. It has never received a spam message (yet). It also has a much more complicated address, and was set up so that I wouldn't accidentally delete any messages from people whose names I didn't recognise.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 03:22 PM

"why should I have to change my email settings etc?"

D'uh... because that's what they're THERE for! So that if you DON'T want to recieve unsolicited adds, you can BLOCK them!

Ya ever hear somone whine and suck that they were hungry, but were too lazy/ignorent/apathetic to get up and make themselves something to eat?

Subject: RE: BS: Anyone Know Where The Spammers hang out?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Feb 04 - 04:21 PM

As to Yahoo, it used to be (and may still be) that when you signed up you could tell them not to pass anything about your email address or other statistics to others. And when I signed up I elected that.

A year or two ago I found out that Yahoo had unilaterally changed those no-disclosure settings, across the board, to "okay, go ahead" or whatever the equivalent was, without any public disclosure or permission from users. When I heard about this, I got into the Yahoo settings to re-set the preferences. I had one devil of a time accessing it. As of now I don't even remember whether I was finally able to change it back, but of course by now the horse was out of the barn.

It was just at that time that I started to get floods of spam, where before that time I had had almost none.

Dave Oesterreich