Spammers And Getting Rid Of Them

[LaReina]

I receive an unreal amount of spam and mostly about vaigra and german banks.

I sent an email to a friend and they say, that my emails are follwed with counless spam emails. I have scanned my computer with zone alarm and Prevx1 and both have indicated my computer is clean.

Basically I need to know if something is marking my emails and if so, how to rid myself of something I have no idea what it might be.

[simcity]

i talk on msn to a friend about plasma telvision , the next day i got a email about plasma ! that got me thinking msn has something to do with it !

my computer as you clean ..

[chingching]

I receive an unreal amount of spam and mostly about vaigra and german banks.

I sent an email to a friend and they say, that my emails are follwed with counless spam emails. I have scanned my computer with zone alarm and Prevx1 and both have indicated my computer is clean.

Basically I need to know if something is marking my emails and if so, how to rid myself of something I have no idea what it might be.

Do you answer the emails or open them? you should not open them, if u open them the sender can verify that yr email address is valid. Set yr mail filters to put them in your bulk or junk box. Also never "unsubscribe" as that also verifies yr email address. I get lots of spam but for some reason it is all in Spanish !!

[londonthai]

change your spam settings, get yourself gmail email address or buy for some $20 spamarrest software.

the only way spammers have your address because you or some of your friends gave it to them, and now your address is sold around to the other spammers.

[Farma]

Slightly offtopic. Lets hope more of this happens.

Australian Spam Factory Fined $4.1 Million

By: Sharon Khare | Oct 28,2006

An Australian company and its director have been fined a total of AU $5.5 million (US $4.1 million) after it was claimed they sent over 200 million spam emails in a 12 month period.

The Perth, Western Australia-based spammer, Wayne Mansfield, and his company Clarity1, were found to have illegally sent out millions of spam messages in the 12 months since Australian spam laws were introduced in April 2004.

"This is the first time that spammers have been successfully prosecuted under the Australian Spam Act, and represents a victory for the authorities and the man in the street pestered by nuisance email," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security company Sophos. "Spam is a global problem, and robust action needs to be taken against spammers wherever they are based in the world in order to send out a clear message that their activities are unacceptable. Substantial penalties must be handed out to those people who choose to spam and spam again in their hunt for a quick profit."

Earlier this year, Justice Nicholson of the Federal Court in Perth rejected defense pleas that recipients had consented to receive the spam emails. Complaints about Mansfield's spam had been received from as far afield as the United Kingdom.

"Australia's Spam Act is a first step towards eradicating locally produced spam. However, it is only through the combination of international cooperation, local legislation, law enforcement, technology enforcement and user education that will help put a stop to spam," said Cluley.

Source www.tech2.com

[Thaddeus]

That wasn't too off topic.

This may be........

The origin of the term.

The Full Monty..... bloody Vikings

[briley]

I get over 70 spam e-mails a day sent to random addresses at my domains. To cope I now send all my e-mails from all sources to a gmail account and then download what gmail regard as non-spam.

I now get 1 or 2 spam a day and have had no e-mails wrongly diagnosed as spam over the last 6 months.

Cheap (free) easy once set up and effective control of spam.

[youngkiwi]

Unfortunately spam now forms part of most users internet experience. Spammers now typically send out email to random addresses at a specific domain, hoping the email addresses they send to are valid and that email will be delivered. I suggest investing in suitable anti-spam protection software which will help to reduce the amount of spam you receive, but will not eliminate all spam completely.

[endure]

What he said - Gmail. Why buy your own anti-spam software when you can get someone else to provide the best in the biz and keep it upgraded for free? PM your email address to me if you want a gmail invite.

[youngkiwi]

You no longer require an invite for Gmail. Google has been accepting new signups online for quite some time now.

While Gmail offers excellent functionality through their web based interface as a free email provider, their service does not offer the robustness of services offered through a premium email provider. Gmail is processing millions, if not billions of messages per day, versus some of the smaller providers which do not have the same overhead on their platform, and are more pro-active in terms of keeping customer loyalty.

You should also check with your ISP or email provider to see if they offer antispam features. Most ISP's now offer server level virus filtering in any case, and many specialist providers also offer the ability to create your own spam rules which work alongside any server level filtering in place.

[endure]

I suspect that Gmail is more than robust enough for your average user. You can also point a POP3 client at it and keep a local copy of all your emails with a backup on their servers.

[youngkiwi]

Google is good for non-commercial purposes, but for users who require reliability and redundancy for business purposes, I would not recommend Gmail or any other free email provider. All of these services suffer on occassion from delayed message delivery and service outages.

It is astonishing to see so many cheapskate business users still using free email services and complain about the level of service they receive, particularly when you can obtain professional email hosting for such a low rate.

[guardian]

Many a times, the most common replies to such a thread are "do not reply" , " do not open any links in the emails", "do not give out information to unknown person/site" etc etc.

But, how would you explain the junk mails that come to emails which have just been set up and the address never revealed to anyone else except the person who opened it ?

Have experienced this is hotmail and gmail. Yahoo seems better if you are "silent" enough not to give out information. In hotmail, within a few hours of creating an account, the junk folder was filled with at least 10 - 20 junk mails. As for google, the spam is not as much as in hotmail, but still, there are like 10 - 20 junkies in a month even when you are "silent" I do not receive ANY junk mails in Yahoo in 2 of my emails which I have given to only a few persons.

In hotmail, I suspect the main culprit is the msn messenger.

[waldwolf]

.........I sent an email to a friend and they say, that my emails are follwed with counless spam emails. I have scanned my computer with zone alarm and Prevx1 and both have indicated my computer is clean.....

The fact a friend received spam right after you emailed them is a strong indication your system may have been compromised and now contains some type of malware, such as a Rootkit, or is subject to the VML Buffer Overrun vulnerability, and is now infected by malware taking advantage of that recently discovered Windows vulnerability.

Rootkits are not in themselves malware programs. Rootkits are programs used to hide the presence of malware programs. If a Rootkit has been installed, you may not be aware that your computer has been compromised, and traditional anti-virus software may not be able to detect the malicious programs. More details HERE. In some instances, it may be necessary to do a complete system reinstall, to eliminate the infection.

In mid-September, it was discovered that many versions of Windows were vulnerable to "VLM Buffer Overrun", wherein an attacker could take complete control of an infected system. Microsoft has since provided a critical patch to "fix" this vulnerability, and the Update is available for download at the "Microsoft Download Center". More info HERE . There is a VML vulnerability test HERE.

LaReina, I'm not trying to scare you, but just provide some food for thought and places to go to obtain more information and help.

For background, one of the more famous Rootkits was the one SONY/BMG included in many of their music CD's, which when played on a computer, made that computer vulnerable to attack by hackers and spammers alike. Sony will be paying out millions to compensate victims. Unfortunately, the malware we need to worry about, are those as yet undiscovered.

With regard to the VML problem, several "companies" in Russia are selling malware which takes advantage of a Windows VML vulnerability. Most of the sites using that malware, are agents for spammers, and are paid a "per-person" fee for every computer infected. The infected computer then uses its email client to spread spam. (It is estimated there are now 1,000's of sites using this software, mainly porno and warez.

An additional test you could try is, setup a NEW email address, then send yourself a message to the new address, using your old address as sender. See if this new account receives spam, as did your friends.

good luck

waldwolf

[endure]

Google is good for non-commercial purposes, but for users who require reliability and redundancy for business purposes, I would not recommend Gmail or any other free email provider. All of these services suffer on occassion from delayed message delivery and service outages.

It is astonishing to see so many cheapskate business users still using free email services and complain about the level of service they receive, particularly when you can obtain professional email hosting for such a low rate.

The OP doesn't appear to be a business user so I suspect your recommendations are a little over the top.

[udon]

I get no spam with gmail.

I get TONS thru Yahoo, I guess because I joined a yahoo group.

Hotmail, rarely, as I hardly ever use it. Crap interface and storage allowance.

[youngkiwi]

You are lucky so far, but sooner or later, spam will start flowing through. The only way to best eliminate spam is to ensure your ISP has effective server level antivirus filtering, as well as your own anti-spam software running on your PC. You can then train your spam filter based on a white/black list. This is effective for most but not all spam messages.

[astral]

The answer is simple.

Get a new e-mail address.

With my old [email protected] address I was getting a lot of spam everyday.

As soon as I dropped the account it all went away.

However a word of caution.

I read my e-mail with the Eudora client and sometimes my Gmail account

does not pass me messages I want, as Gmail has classified them as spam.

A weekly check of the spam box with the browser is needed.

[youngkiwi]

Getting a new email address is simply not an option for many users, especially where they use their email address for business purposes or in cases where they have many contacts who know a specific address. It is not uncommon for people to have thousands of contacts whom they communicate with and have built up substantial numbers of contacts over many years.

Even if a person was to change their email address, this new address will soon suffer the same fate as their previous address and will receive spam messages over time. Eventhough the amount of spam received may reduce, for many it is not worth the inconvenience and hassle of notifying contacts of the new address, not to mention the possibility of having to update email addresses on sites which they may belong to. Changing email address is a poor solution for this very reason.

[Crushdepth]

Basically I need to know if something is marking my emails and if so, how to rid myself of something I have no idea what it might be.

The best way to avoid spam is to never, ever post your email address on a website. If you get tons of spam good chance you're on the web somewhere - try a google search for your email address.

I made this mistake with my work account, which receives about 3,700 spams per month on average at the moment. I also have a personal account that I set up a couple of years ago where I have made a conscious decision never to post the address on the web anywhere or to submit it in any website - and this account remains pretty much spam free.

To solve the work problem I'm automatically forwarding all my mail to a gmail account and downloading it via pop to 'clean it', gets rid of about 90%. However I will soon abandon it for a new one - and this time I'll post my address on the web as an image, which can't be harvested by spambots.

If you're running your own domain and getting spam sent to random (non existant) addresses, check if your provider allows you to 'black hole' them instead of forwarding them to a real account (its a common feature in cPanel).

[ourmanflint]

I used to get quite a lot of spam at my hotmail address, but then I started to get angry, and every spam email I traced back to the ISP the spammer was using which only takes a minute or two, I then sent out a standard letter reporting the spam, that usually did the trick. But I also found the domain the emails were coming from and emailed everyone I could on that sight, with such things as " if i get one more spam from you W**kers I will personally come and rip your f**king arms off and shove them down your throat, then p*ss all over you!!!"

That always seemed to work and I felt much better afterwards.

[Taggart]

.........I sent an email to a friend and they say, that my emails are follwed with counless spam emails. I have scanned my computer with zone alarm and Prevx1 and both have indicated my computer is clean.....

The fact a friend received spam right after you emailed them is a strong indication your system may have been compromised and now contains some type of malware, such as a Rootkit, or is subject to the VML Buffer Overrun vulnerability, and is now infected by malware taking advantage of that recently discovered Windows vulnerability.

Rootkits are not in themselves malware programs. Rootkits are programs used to hide the presence of malware programs. If a Rootkit has been installed, you may not be aware that your computer has been compromised, and traditional anti-virus software may not be able to detect the malicious programs. More details HERE. In some instances, it may be necessary to do a complete system reinstall, to eliminate the infection.

In mid-September, it was discovered that many versions of Windows were vulnerable to "VLM Buffer Overrun", wherein an attacker could take complete control of an infected system. Microsoft has since provided a critical patch to "fix" this vulnerability, and the Update is available for download at the "Microsoft Download Center". More info HERE . There is a VML vulnerability test HERE.

LaReina, I'm not trying to scare you, but just provide some food for thought and places to go to obtain more information and help.

For background, one of the more famous Rootkits was the one SONY/BMG included in many of their music CD's, which when played on a computer, made that computer vulnerable to attack by hackers and spammers alike. Sony will be paying out millions to compensate victims. Unfortunately, the malware we need to worry about, are those as yet undiscovered.

With regard to the VML problem, several "companies" in Russia are selling malware which takes advantage of a Windows VML vulnerability. Most of the sites using that malware, are agents for spammers, and are paid a "per-person" fee for every computer infected. The infected computer then uses its email client to spread spam. (It is estimated there are now 1,000's of sites using this software, mainly porno and warez.

An additional test you could try is, setup a NEW email address, then send yourself a message to the new address, using your old address as sender. See if this new account receives spam, as did your friends.

good luck

waldwolf

waldwolf:

As soon as I clicked on the link next to "There is a VML vulnerability test", I got a message popped up from Norton, that it just blocked an intrusion attempt.

[LivinLOS]

If using pop3 email.. Cloudmark spamnet (or the safteybar now) superb product.

I have many email addresses and well over 100 spams per day on some addresses..

what baffled me like another poster is how email addresses that have never been shared are being spammed. I have my name registered as a domain so I have www.myname.com and have [email protected] as the user account.. I have an email alias set up for mail so I have a public email of [email protected] and have NEVER given out the [email protected] email ever.. Never shared it.. Never used it.. Never publicised it.. Never sent a mail with it as the return path.

Yet I get spam to it !! How in hel_l does that happen.

[briley]

Because, LivinLOS, they send spam to obvious addresses, [email protected], Help@, info@, accounts@ etc etc. Then they just try a dictionary attack (especially on Yahoo and Hotmail).

The company that handles mail to these addresses often sends all mail to the address you request for [email protected] UNLESS you ask otherwise, either specifically for an address or for 'all other mail'.

I did try filtering these spam myself but it got too complex and I want mail to firstname (even if misspelt) @myname.com to arrive somewhere. Hence I send all mail sent to [email protected] to [email protected] and POP the un-spamed result into outlook express.

[LivinLOS]

My first name is so unusual it is to all intents and purposes unique.. I have never met anyone else with it.. Would never be a dictionary attack.

And no I dont have catch all forwarding enabled.

Still no answer I beleive.. Baffled..

[Thaddeus]

My first name is so unusual it is to all intents and purposes unique.. I have never met anyone else with it.. Would never be a dictionary attack.

And no I dont have catch all forwarding enabled.

Still no answer I beleive.. Baffled..

[email protected]

The mail server has to get it out of it's system, so it goes for the closest match and delivers the mail to you.

One of my email addresses is (not telling ).... but anything that remotely approaches [email protected] comes to me.... I have three email adds at all times, one for friends, one for serious subscriptions and one for general enquiries.

Spam is here to stay for the moment, just make sure that you prioritise your addresses and you will not have a problem, the more people that do that, the more it will recede.

(P.S. livinLOS.... I now know your date of birth, place of birth, ethnic origin and likes and dislikes. within a short space of time, if I was prepared to stump up the cash I could get your home address and a copy of your birth certificate..... scary place the internet isn't it?)

[LivinLOS]

What is my dob (and dont think I put the real one in web forums) ?? place of birth etc.. You are simply making guesses and false statements. Even a PI and credit check (with info you dont have) would not come back with that info correct.

Secondly even if you got those things as you claim you wouldnt get my birth certificate.. The name I go by now is not the name I was born with..

Prove me wrong.. Ill pay..

Again all assumptions.. Having been online since before there was a WWW interface I am fairly well aware that things can be dug out but you would have a very hard time getting to my birth details especially.

Secondly I dont have my mail sever configured like that.. Email not to the exact email address (either alias or the base account) is bounced.. No catch all or similarities or 'close match' employed..

[sting01]

and this time I'll post my address on the web as an image, which can't be harvested by spambots.

<?qhq

$str_file = 'HERE THE SOURCE OF THE WEB PAGE WHERE THE EMAIL AS IMAGE IS GET BY CURL';

$start_parse = explode('@',$str_file);

for ($i=0;$i<sizeof($start_parse); $i++) {

$start_name =explode(' ',$start_parse[$i];

$name = $start_name [1];

$end_name = explode (' ', $start_parse[($i + 1)];

$mail_name = $end_name[0];

if ($mail_name!=''){

$email_address_as_image = $name . '@' . $mail_name;

}

}

Should be enought to also get any email adress in a page, as image or with mailto (Well I did not remove the eventual mailto, but it was just a demo lol).

[waldwolf]

waldwolf:

As soon as I clicked on the link next to "There is a VML vulnerability test", I got a message popped up from Norton, that it just blocked an intrusion attempt.

That is good. It shows your AV (Norton) detected an attempt to modify your Windows VML driver (VGX.DLL).

The question you should now ask yourself now is "Was my VGX.DLL driver patched via Microsoft's Windows Update?"

If not, you could still be vulnerable if you use Internet Explorer and/or Outlook/Outlook Express and your AV has been compromised by some virus or trojan. In addition, if you use one of the no-longer supported system versions (Windows 9x to 2000 SP3 and XP-SP0), then you may still be vunerable, as Microsoft Update no longer supports those systems. A second party patch for these older systems is available HERE.

The VML test link, previously shown, will give you one of the following messages when tested, depending on your browsers make/version:

UNPATCHED IE - Browser will "crash" and following message appear:

PATCHED IE - Two red squares will be displayed in browser window:

FIREFOX TEST MESSAGE - Tested version: 1.5x

waldwolf

[Thaddeus]

What is my dob (and dont think I put the real one in web forums) ?? place of birth etc.. You are simply making guesses and false statements. Even a PI and credit check (with info you dont have) would not come back with that info correct.

Secondly even if you got those things as you claim you wouldnt get my birth certificate.. The name I go by now is not the name I was born with..

Prove me wrong.. Ill pay..

Again all assumptions.. Having been online since before there was a WWW interface I am fairly well aware that things can be dug out but you would have a very hard time getting to my birth details especially.

Secondly I dont have my mail sever configured like that.. Email not to the exact email address (either alias or the base account) is bounced.. No catch all or similarities or 'close match' employed..

17th July..... you can always erase your profile, but you can't erase what other posters say about you.

P.S. I didn't find out what year, as I really couldn't be bothered.... some people put more effort in than me however.