Tech: blocking e-mail addys?

Subject: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Janie
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 04:45 PM

Is there a way to completely block a class of e-mail addresses from my account?

My junk e-mail folder is constantly receiving e-mails with unsavory, suggestive subject-lines. I empty them and report them as junk to MSN. I have never opened one. I don't want my kid to have an e-mail account if this can't be controlled.

( Just curious---)I tried to post this thread twice already--I am wondering if using the 'por...' word blocked it from posting. I just edited it out.)

Janie

Subject: RE: Tech: blacing e-mail addys?
From: Janie
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 04:47 PM

Errr...make that 'blocking...'

Janie

Subject: RE: Tech: blacing e-mail addys?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 04:52 PM

Not that I know of. Your ISP has an pbligation to deliver the crap, so they will; even if it's only to the junk mail folder.

What you might consider is selecting some of the less objectionable ones and using them as an object lesson for your kid. Maybe.

Subject: RE: Tech: blacing e-mail addys?
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 05:23 PM

Easist way is to change your address....but it's a real pain.

Subject: RE: Tech: blacing e-mail addys?
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 05:26 PM

well...what I have found is that the kind and amount of spam you receive often depends on the name on your email account. Some spammers employ a 'logical' program to send messages to every conceivable combination of 'normal' names at an IP......so if your email addy is a simple thing based on your name, they find it easily. I have two accounts with the same IP; one is sorta a common name that I use seldom which has 4-10 spams every morning, the other is a weird business name, and it gets almost NO spam.

It is nice to have your account reflect your name, but something like "[e-mail]" will get a lot less undesirable stuff. It's funny, but I get almost NO porn spam lately...maybe my ISP is learning to block it. Most of what I see is ads for drugs, dating services and sleazy financial services....(and I delete THAT before it ever gets to my mailbox by 'checking' it online using a mailreader that allows me to delete it if it looks wrong....LOTS of these out there.)

There are email blockers and checkers that use pretty smart 'Bayesian' filters, and gradually learn what you consider crap, but nothing can beat never having it sent your way in the 1st place!

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 05:44 PM

I haven't gotten any porn spam for a long time now....

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 05:57 PM

"She who shares my hookup" gets virtually zero such mail on her MSN account. It may be partly because the email addy looks obviously like a business.

My hotmail account was getting about 80 such messages a day, but in recent months it's been cut to about a dozen per week. They DO filter and block a lot of it, but there's the inevitable bit that gets through. They do a pretty good job of dumping it all into Bulk Mail, although I've had my newsletter from one of my State Representatives dumped down there recently. ... maybe that means something ??????

You can of course block individual senders, or individual ISPs if you want, although there's a limit on how many addys you can put in your block list. My experience with trying to do it that way was that the real offenders get new addys faster than you can block them.

MSN, and probably many other email services, offers "premium" services that claim that you get better filtering if you pay more; but I'm dubious that the better filtering would compensate for all the other "service enhancements" they try to include in such subscriptions; and I have no reliable info on whether the filtering is actually better.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 06:06 PM

Your ISP, if pressured by its customers, will institute spam-blocking techniques to dump suspected junk and objectionable e-mail from the e-mail server before you ever get it.

The down side is that some legitimate e-mail may be lost if it falls within the parameters of the automated junk filter. They aren't going to have a real person checking each e-mail (which you wouldn't want anyway) so something the filter might tag as undesirable due to a word used or a series of letters or coming from another ISP where junk has come from before.

A bandmate of mine uses WebTV for his internet access and his server frequently bans e-mail from Shaw (mine). I still get all his e-mail to me (though I often wish I wouldn't... he forwards EVERTHING). But to contact him at times when my ISP is blocked, I have to use my Web browser and send email from my Yahoo address (though that is often blocked too).

When your ISP adopts a spam-blocking service, you can often opt out. Shaw instituted one a couple of years ago and allowed me to register online for the level of protection I wanted. I started by having all mail delivered to me, but with "suspected junk e-mail" labelled as such. After a couple of months of checking, no legitimate e-mail was labelled as junk, so I changed my option to "delete all suspected junk e-mail". My spam dropped to almost nothing. It has since risen again to perhaps 2 or 3 a day, but that is lots better than the alternative.

No matter how well you guard your e-mail address, these bastards find you somehow. I only used my regular address for friends and family and legit business contacts, supplying the yahoo address for all other purposes, including product and warrantee registration and mailing lists. But I suspect it is forwarding of some of my emails on to oodles of others without deleting my address first that drops it into the spammers e-laps.

Also, Outlook Express and most other e-mail software will allow you to set up filters to deal with incoming e-mail according to whatever rules you want to apply. e.g. All emails with a certain word in the subject, or coming from a certain adddress, etc. are to be directed to a particular folder or else automatically deleted. That might be your only option if you don't have or want the ISP to do it for you. Aside from spam-blocking software you might find on the net to download and install which does basically the same thing.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 06:20 PM

I use the free version of Mail Washer, which lets me scan them without loading more than 1Kb per message (mainly the headers & Subject). This is also useful for checking attachments sizes (certain sizes tend to be viruses) and you can set up a check for the type of attachments. The messages are marked accordingly.

I delete the stuff I don't want, and can quickly check if one is spam or not - no download of any graphics or attachment takes place, so it is relatively safe.

I can easily add sender's addresses to accept or reject status. The program also can set up whole domains to be rejected, and it checks with certain places on the common spammer's domains.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 06:31 PM

I can also heartily recommend the free version of Mailwasher. I have used it for a number of years and sent the firm some money. For some reason - they sent me the professional version as a sort of "long-standing user who had sent money" thank you I guess.

To be honest I prefer the free version!!

Dave

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Janie
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 07:10 PM

I'm listening!

(and thank you whichever mud-elf corrected the title)

Janie

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: nutty
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 07:32 PM

I use mailwasher as well and the amount of junkmail I get has now reduced to a trickle ....not even one a day, but I think your main problem is likely to be that you are using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.

I would recommend an immediate switch to Mozilla Firefox for browsing and Thunderbird for emails.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 08:19 PM

I've encountered a couple of people using a program or service (I don't know which it is) called "Spam Arrest."

The way it appears to work:

No mail is delivered unless the sender is in your address book.

Any "unknown" sender receives and email requesting you to click a link in the email to verify that you sent the original message. (The address for reply was at spamarrest.com.) When you do the verify, the original message is delivered, and presumedly your address goes in their addy book(?). Since most Spammers won't bother answering mail, it probably is effective in cutting out most of the slease; but people you want to get stuff from may (if they're sensible) object a bit to having to click links in email from ????? senders.

It may be possible to turn off the "verify" circuit, so that your child would receive email only from people in her address book. She'd have to know who might be sending stuff so she could put them in the addy book before she could receive mail from them; but this might not be a real problem if she's only trading email with known friends. And nobody would be able to give her addy to anyone else, since she wouldn't be able to have the "unknown" sender addy in her book if she wasn't told in advance.

I don't really know much about this system except that a couple of shady characters have used it on me. It seemed to work, but I'd suggest careful investigation before signing up. There probably are other similar filters, or possibly a setting on some email programs to admit mail only from those in your address book ??????

John

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 08:43 PM

I wouldn't care for that myself, John.

I hate it when one of my other bandmate's e-mail is accompanied by a request to automatically send a confirmation email that I've received his message. I always decline.

I know he means that for his business emails only, but it also goes out to his less formal contacts, like when we're discussing a possible rehearsal or "let's grab a beer and sit out on my shoreside back deck" notes.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 10:44 PM

Cluin -

I don't mind too much if someone wants a confirmation that I've opened the mail - if it's mail from someone I intend to correspond with.

This Spam Arrest thing sends you an email with a "click here" in the body of the email. "Click here" is inherently an "unsafe action" if you're not confident that the person you're dealing with is running a clean machine. In the few cases where I've encountered it, it was on messages to "webmasters" to report problems with their websites. Without knowing who's the person running it, it does give pause whether one should be that concerned about whether their problems get solved...

In a couple of instances I've decide I was NOT that interested in being helpful, so at least it blocked my Spam.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 02:02 PM

My Earthlink mail is blocked on all accounts now, and what gets through is what is listed in my online address book. I had one that was open for a while, but the spam started piling in. That account address had a mix of numbers and letters that were geared to not fit a pattern that an address generator might think of.

I have a couple of friends, however, who can't get it through their heads that by hitting CC: and forwarding that last funny email to everyone in their address book is a bad idea. At least use BCC if you're doing that. CC leaves the addresses in plain sight, and all it takes is someone posting this somewhere, addresses and all, to leave them blowing in the virtual wind for a bot to harvest.

I would like to pay less for my internet service, but if I change, all of my email stops. I need to gradually transition from the accounts I'm using now to one of the free ones that filters well, like Yahoo, or to one like Google's gmail that I can set up a filter on (like the MailWasher--I've never used it--if someone would describe more about how it works I'd appreciate it). If I have my email forwarded for a while, I don't know if this will kick out the spam filtering features at Earthlink. I don't want the spam, just the regular mail forwarded. Has anyone used their IP forwarding feature and what went through?

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: nutty
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 02:51 PM

the Mailwasher site can be accessed here ........

CLICK

basically ... any spam is dealt with on the mailwasher site. You then download only the emails you want to read to your computer.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: kendall
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 03:05 PM

I checked into this washer thing, but they didn't ask for my e mail address. Do they know something I don't?

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: nutty
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 03:30 PM

Check out the FAQ's Kendall ... Mailwasher does not work with some accounts such as Hotmail.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 06:51 PM

MailWasher is a program you run on your PC to help you get rid of spam and viruses in your e-mail, before running your normal emailer to get your email.

MailWasher allows you to preview all aspects of your e-mail on the server before you download it to your computer, thus protecting you from spam, viruses, phishing attacks, and other nuisances. You can then delete unwanted e-mail before it gets to you.

Other features help identify and protect you against viruses and worms. Also included are comprehensive, customizable filters, use of friends list, and blacklist to stop spammers.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 07:00 PM

Mailwasher is designed to work with 'popmail servers' - a 'url type thingie' address on the internet with which you communicate to obtain the email messages - it normally won't work with 'webmail'. If you use Eudora like me, it is wonderful. You need a fixwd personal email addres thru an ISP.

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Janie
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 09:26 PM

Thanks to all of you trying to help me.

I am a bonafide cretin when it comes to computer stuff. My e-mail is at msn.com. Will mailwasher work with it? I do not use Outlook Express or the instant messenger features of MSN.

Do I understand correctly that Mailwasher does not automatically block stuff?

I think I have encountered Spam Arrest used by others. I confess I found it pretty irritating, particularly when I land the job of e-mailing all the parents for the lacrosse team about game changes, etc, and then have to go back through and start clicking on stuff.

My junk filter does a really good job of diverting most spam, including the unsavory 'adult' stuff to the junk box, and
I routinely empty it. Nothing much ever lands there that shouldn't be there. My big concern is knowing how to protect my kid from the smut if I let him have his own e-mail account.

Am I hearing from some of you that there are programs that will only allow delivery of mail from addresses in one's address book? Might that be the best way to go for my purposes?

Janie

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: NH Dave
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 01:21 AM

Mozilla's Thunderbird uses heuristic blocking, which means that their junk mail blocking part of their programs learns what you consider junk by checking which messages you mark as junk, and "learning" from these choices that you make as to what is junk and what isn't. Mailwasher used similar blocking but also can be set to send a nasty message to the URL from which the objectionable mail originated.

I use Thunderbird, but I also check the list of messages they have moved to the junkfolder to see if I recognise either the sender or the subject of the email. After a while as the program gets better at recognizing objectionable email you don't need to do this, but I always check, just to be sure.

Dave

Subject: RE: Tech: blocking e-mail addys?
From: Helen
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 02:43 AM

Janie,

I've been using Mailwasher for a few years now. You set it up when you first get it with your email account details and then just get into the habit of checking your emails in Mailwasher, deleting the ones you don't want, and bouncing the ones you never want to see again. That's the cleverest bit, because it sends a bounce message which gives the message that your email is not a valid address.

Then you only have to download the messages you actually do want to your server.

I use it to read my Harplist emails rather than downloading them all - there can be lots - so then I only keep the ones I really want.

It's a good program which prevents suspicious and malicious emails from getting anywhere near your computer. I rarely get viruses these days too, because of Mailwasher. The only ones I get are from websites, but the regular scans with Anti-Virus software sorts them out, anyway.

Helen