Joined: 14 Feb 2007Posts: 5Location: nottinghamshire
For the past 2 weeks I have suddenly started receiving a daily deluge Spam ( the usual "I have £x million waiting for you", body part enlargement etc ). More worrying, however, today I received a Spam e-mail with "subject" which is almost certainly unique to me and could only have been obtained from one of my outgoing e-mails. Anyone had a similar experience?
More worrying, however, today I received a Spam e-mail with "subject" which is almost certainly unique to me and could only have been obtained from one of my outgoing e-mails.
Unless it's just coincidence then either you or the recipient(s) of your email could have been infected by a virus or piece of spyware.
I seem to be inundated suddenly with penis enlargement spam! I haven't seen one of those in years! All I have to do now is change sex and it may be worth a look...
I have been receiving small amounts of spam for quite sometime now but in the last week or so it has gradually reason to an unbearable amount. Yesterday I received a record 10,000 spam messages! I am currently trying the the 'http://www.whois-search.com/' approach and hoping that this might help me out. Obviously I can't report every Spam message, so I am selecting at random, although all the IP addresses seem different!
Questions with hopeful answers:
Although all the IP addresses seem different are they in fact being mainly sent by only a few Spammers?
By using 'http://www.whois-search.com/', how long should it be before I start to see (hopefully) a change in my incoming Spam?
As I don't really have a full understanding of Spamming, what do Spammers gain from flooding someone like my e-mail address as obviously I dont bother to look at any of them (they are all 95% filtered as trash)?
Any help or advice on this would be most appreciated.
Once you start getting spam you're unlikely to be able to reduce it except with filtering.
Spammers use compromised machines to both gather addresses and send the spam itself. They have access to so many that a few getting cleaned up make practically no difference.
Filtering has it's good and bad points, good as it gets rid of the majority but the more agressive the filtering the more chance legitimate email gets filtered too and most of the time it seems to be something important.
One very practical way you can reduce your incoming spam is to do a Google search for your email address and then write to every website that has published it and get it removed. Most sites will comply. Many don't realise the dangers inherent in putting email addresses on their site.
Spammers use automated systems to scour web pages looking for email addresses to add to their address list databases. I know of many people who have already reduced the amount of spam they receive from hundreds per day, to only dozens per week, by following this simple step.
Problem is once you're on their lists thats it. Spammers often sell address lists around so just because your address isn't published anymore doesn't mean things will get better. Generally you either use some more adaptive form of filtering or you get a new address when it reaches problem levels.
Yes, those lists are sold, but once your email address is no longer on the web, it no longer makes it on to most of the newer lists.
Many millions of email addresses fall into disuse every month so spammers are always looking for new lists.
So, unless you have been silly enough to reply to any of the spam, or have opened any messages that contained a tracking web bug, you really will see a huge decline in the amount of spam you receive within a few months.
I have seen several people go from a thousand per day, to less than a dozen per day, within a year.
Thanks to everyone for their replies to my post. It does seem that all of the Spam are a variation of an old e-mail address I was using about 5 years ago which I foolishy used to have linked on a website I was running helping people with Computer music related problems. I know for a fact that the old e-mail address was linked on many other sites which run a similar type of service. I removed my e-mail address from my site 3 or 4 years ago, so I am assuming it is the other sites which my e-mail address has been Spammed from. Unfortunately my new e-mail adresses since then still have the unique part after the @ so I still get Spammed by the old one. I can't really see this problem being resolved other than closing my account down and re-opening it to get a brand new e-mail address! If I were to do this, would I be up and running again in quick time or do Orange have to go through the motions although I have everything already in place? The biggest problem I have is actually telephoning them to resolve the issue as everyone I have spoken to in the past with a problem has been useless and clueless about anything Computer related.
..... Oh by the way! I received beyond 12,000 e-mails yesterday!
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