nasty emails how to stop?

[manofdevon]

Getting a couple of the viagra emails a day for the past week, can anyone tell me how to stop them?

Made a rule block v word in o/e but hasnt worked.

have I got to change my email address to lose?
or can virgin stop them?

[bw41101]

Unfortunately stopping this type of SPAM (once you start receiving it) is almost impossible. It looks like your details have been acquired (by some **** bag) whilst you/family member been surfing the net. However there are many SPAM defence programs that are available to combat same. If you are using Mozilla Thunderbird (as your E Mail client), then it's simply a matter of setting up the (in built) Junk Mail Control filters, which will automatically divert the junk to another folder for later deletion.

If you're using Outlook/express. then there are many other alternatives. For the first port of call you could try here:

http://www.tucows.com/solutions.html

Type in what you're looking for and it will come up with the software available along with (star) ratings for same, when you're happy that you've found what you're looking for you can then download what you want.

When you're surfing the net, it's almost inevitable that you'll click on a link that will pick up your personal details and use them against you in the form of SPAM. Unfortunately you'll never totally get rid of SPAM, all you can hope to do is to manage and reduce it as much as you can, sigh..................!

That's why many peeps (on this forum) say go for Firefox as the browser of choice along with the No Script extension - better security.

Good luck and Si thee

[lauzjp]

I think your best bet if they are still arriving in your junk mail folder - is to just delete them as soon as you see them.

[alferret]

Hi
Although these type of emails can be distressing to some, 1 or 2 a day creeping through should be of little worry.
OE does not always apply message rules correctly. You could give this program a try MAILWASHER (http://www.mailwasher.net/download/) a lot of people swear by it.
Hope this has been of some help.

[lowhydrogen]

Hi
Although these type of emails can be distressing to some, 1 or 2 a day creeping through should be of little worry.
OE does not always apply message rules correctly. You could give this program a try MAILWASHER (http://www.mailwasher.net/download/) a lot of people swear by it.
Hope this has been of some help.

yup, bounce them emails back. they soon get taken off the spammers list if they keep being returned

[manofdevon]

Thanks for helpful replies above. Ive got AVG and spyware nukerXT can I still add mailwasher to the PC in addition without conflicts?

[bw41101]

yup, bounce them emails back. they soon get taken off the spammers list if they keep being returned

Nice thought...... but....! (in reality) you'll find that the majority of spammers use (black hole) accounts and (what usually happens) is that the mail you bounced, bounces right back to you as undelivered. In addition, spammers use your bounce as acknowledgement of an active e mail account and sell your details on to other spammers - catch 22. In fact, the best way is not to react but to just delete the SPAM.

As I'm on Firefox, what I've tried recently is:

http://www.temporaryinbox.com/?l=en

You can use the temporary E Mail addresses and/or like I've signed up for (free) Temporary Forwarding which (fingers crossed) may help to reduce the stuff that I'm regularly receiving. This is one way of covering your tracks if a site asks you to supply your E Mail address - as some do.

Si thee

[dev]

yup, bounce them emails back. they soon get taken off the spammers list if they keep being returned

bouncing emails back is worse! most spam comes from fake emails / other peoples email addresses and i end up getting loads of bounced emails which in turn makes you spam me

[altis]

VM can help a little. There is an email option that allows you to automatically delete all incomming mail that VM detects as spam. I can't check it out at the moment 'cos I'm not on cable but try navigating from here:

http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/myaccount/index.php

Additionally, you might try setting up a Spamcop account. Then, each time you get some spam, forward it as an attachment to Spamcop. They will process the message and email all the relevant webmasters. Eventually, the spammers get the message that you are a bad touch and will leave you alone - well nearly.

http://www.spamcop.net/

Incidentally, Spamcop do NOT recommend boucing back spam, or even sending out 'I'm away' messages, for the reasons given above.

Edit Found it!
To get VM to delete your spam, go to your webmail account, eg:
http://webmail.ntlworld.com/
Login and then select 'options' and 'spam'. Click the box for 'delete spam immediately' and click okay. Job done!

Also, if you need to sign up for something you want only once, use a temporary email address. For example use:
http://www.bugmenot.com/
http://www.mailinator.com/

[Maggy]

My Gmail account has a very good spam filter that works very well I only get about two or three spams that get through the rest get blocked.

Or you could just designate one email address to be your online business address which you use to sign up and surf the net with.I have one that I just clear out periodically by just deleting everything.I don't use it for anything else.

[manofdevon]

Thanks again above but

to Altis
I'm a blueyonder (virgin though) and it wont let me log in.

Since I posted this latest thread I went into my customer zone and did what you advised.
However I have my mail coming in on O/Express and dont normally open virgin webmail.( and there is no mail there in fact)

Soooooooooooooooo?

[bringerofnoise]

Or be careful where you put your email address in the first place, if its to sign up for trials or a forum you don't intend staying on or whatever just use a web based email provider like yahoo or something.

[Mr Black]

I dont get any spam on my e-mail account but my wife gets them on a daily basis on hers! All from banks asking her to confirm her account details. She's even had them from Tiscali saying that there is a problem with her broadband account, even though she's never had an account with them.

MrB.

[Mick Fisher]

I found anti-spam software to be more trouble than it was worth

So in OE I set up a white list using my address book. You can do this with OE message rules using "that unless their is a match then delete it" you then add all the addys in your address book. You have to check your delete folder for false positives but you have to do that with paid software too. If you find any false positives then simply add them to your address book and modify your rule.

Open an anonymous Hotmail account using false data and use that whenever you have to sign up somewhere.

Open a gmail account for general usage. As already stated by Incog, in many ways gmail is much preferred to VM's mail offering.

[manofdevon]

Mick.

Thanks for that, I have copied and saved that one and will definately give it a whizz as well.

[Mick Fisher]

You are very welcome. :)

[Dai]

As mentioned before, gmail's filtering is rather good. You can set your existing email account(s) to forward to a gmail account and then collect everything from there via OE or your POP client of choice.

Alternatively you could try a little proxy program called K9.
http://keir.net/k9.html
Basically you carry on using OE as normal but everything is filtered through K9. It takes about a fortnight to 'train' the bayesian filtering system but once that is done it will dump the major part of your spam straight into the 'deleted' folder. My copy is currently running at 97.61% with virtually no false positives.
It builds a database of 'spammy' words and phrases which gets smarter as time passes. Initially you have to train it by indicating what is spam or not. Also you can either whitelist or blacklist email addresses. I find it a very effective tool.

[manofdevon]

Thanks again.

(The V suppliers must be busy today only one offer.)

[TheNorm]

...bayesian filtering system ....

SpamBayes is a similar product, works like a charm, and is completely free.

http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

[Nhyrvus]

set up a free internet mail service anywhere you like, then go set up a rule that forwards the offensive mails to that address, and forget it :D
has worked for me for 5 yrs... :)