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Still getting too much unsolicited Mail ?

SPAM (unsolicited e-mail advertising ) Updated 2022

This section will try to keep you up-to-date what you can do about Spam. I am not referring to pink luncheon meat - to which I am rather partial - but to unsolicited e-mails which advertise everything from Pharmaceuticals to Viagra. See the list of anti spam programs below. The EU is getting serious about Spam and is warning member countries that have not enacted anti - spam laws that they could risk court action.

One of the reasons we are blighted by spam and worse is that our email addresses and other information is being gathered by unscrupulous internet users (for monetary gain). Within the last couple of years, information about millions of people has been gathered when they have been subscribers to all of the following popular sites : LINKEDIN, TUMBLER, AVAST, MYSPACE. In computer terminology, if you have given your email address to any of these your details may have been PWNED (or stolen). This is likely to include the password which you uploaded. Some of the sites immediately write to subscribers when they realise this has happened. advising you to change your password. But many do not. And many people use the same password for various sites, even vulnerable one such as on line banking, Paypal, Ebay, Amazon and so on. Passwords are a universal problem and the sooner they can be replaced by a better system, the better. We have the technology.....

Similar to the case below, I was told by a couple of people that they had received suspicious emails from me with links that might be to advertising or something worse. This means that they have hacked into my contacts list. Unfortunately I don't know how. One address was so old that it must have been from an old list. See https://askleo.com/email_hacked_7_things_you_need_to_do_now/
It is a difficult one. I would not want to change my email address. And would it help? I have changed my password. But they probably already have that list. I will wait and see if anything further happens before taking more radical action. I use a mailshot program called Mailchimp, which goes to great lengths to prevent hacking. But the hack may have happened before I used that..
Have you noticed ? Spam and phishing may both declining. But ransomware is up in corporate environments. It pays better.

Lately there have been a number of instances of emails, which appear to come from a friend. They have various titles and always suggest that you click on a line in the email. If you do it may just display and advert. So, what's the problem. The problem is that the email was not sent by your friend. Someone has got into his email and sent it as if it is from him and sent the message to many of his contacts, Which means they MAY have cracked his password. SO THIS SHOULD BE CHANGED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Worse than this, if you click on the link you will become a victim of the same scam and your password will be cracked and emails sent to your friends. So, not only must you change your password YOU SHOULD ALSO EMAIL ALL YOUR CONTACTS WARNING THEM NOT TO OPEN SUCH EMAILS. The strange thing is that all these emails contain a subject line which has a word with a space where you wouldn't expect it. So it may just say CONS IDERED or DIS PLAY. It is a dead giveaway and I am pleased they do it.

My Gmail Email program is VERY good at filtering out spam. When I look in the bin, there they are. Recently the organ enlargers have given up but I am getting some mysterious ones that say (frequently) Here's some activity you have missed on Facebook. The other frequent one is from Linkedin which says ***** ****** has sent you a direct message. If they really want to contact me there are other ways.

I use Gmail for preference and Microsoft's Outlook.com (used to be Hotmail) as a free alternative and I must say that both are doing a good job of keeping the spam at bay. If I get some I report it and, I assume that if enough people do this the spammer is blocked from my address. I do, occasionally, go to my old email NTL address at source (i.e by going to the server, the ISP) site and viewing the inbox there. In the case of Virgin I go to www.virgin.com and sign in to my email. There I still find a list of spam which has been filtered out and I can then delete them to prevent my inbox becoming full. Much of it is warning from banks I don't even belong to, plus the occasional off of a great deal of money that I can claim. This rubbish is promptly deleted, then deleted from the bin, although I do take a cursory look to see if the filter has been to thorough. But this days it rarely is.

In addition to email spam we all suffer from things being delivered by hand, often by the postman. http://www.junkbuster.org.uk/ is a site which helps stem this flow (and save a few forests at the same time) You can just tick a number of items.

There is increasing evidence of spammers hacking into address books so that a link to their advertising is sent out in YOUR name. Yahoo and Hotmail email are especially affected. There was a weakness in their programs which allowed your address book to be compromised. Comments on the net suggest (1) Don't use Yahoo Mail (2) Change your password three times in a week. (3) amend your addresses by adding an X or Z to the beginning of each (and just deleting it when you want to use it). I am pleased to say that I have not had this problem with Gmail (yet!) and recommend that as a good alternative.

Quite a few people have told me that they use Spamfighter, which is free. If your ISP is poor at spamblocking it would be worth downloading from http://www.spamfighter.com/download_download.asp
They ask for a fee after use.

Avoiding Spam 2022. See also http://askbobrankin.com/spam_blocker.html

Be wary of the “unsubscribe” button. Unsubscribing can alert spammers to the fact that you exist and your email address becomes more valuable to them. Apply the principle that you only need to unsubscribe to a service that you have subscribed to.
Never reply to or forward spam. Some spam emails encourage you to forward a security warning to your friends and contacts, and some of these warnings are themselves infected emails, thus spreading spam even more.
Use an unusual screen name .If you use an email address with numbers in it for instance, you are less likely to receive spam. Spammers often use dictionaries of common names to guess email addresses, e.g. john.smith@company.com.
Avoid clicking on any links in spams. The addresses of links are frequently disguised and often serve only to confirm your existence to spammers.
Avoid downloading pictures in spam email. These can identify you as a recipient even if you just view the message in the preview pane. You can view your email as text to prevent this, or you can set your email security to block external images.
Make sure you have the software you need Spam emails are very often connected with viruses, so installing anti-virus and firewall software is vital if you are receiving a lot of spam. A good spam filter should also be effective.
Be careful with your email address Try to avoid displaying your primary personal email address on websites, message boards or newsgroups as these are collected, sold and used by spammers. Use several different ones if necessary.
Never act on an unsolicited email. Whether it’s bogus requests for personal bank or credit card details, claims that you’ve won the lottery, or offers of bargain price drugs like Viagra don’t be fooled.
Differentiate between types of emails. Learn to spot the difference between illegal unsolicited spam and legitimate marketing. Legitimate companies will usually comply with requests to unsubscribe you from their mailing lists. Look carefully at the wording of opt-in/opt-out statements.
Use the blind copy (bcc) when sending e-mails to several friends. When sending emails to a large number of recipients, use this function to conceal their email addresses which can be vulnerable to spammers.

Beware of V-Spam : If you get a spam email then DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK in it, even one which say you can unsubscribe with it. It is possible that the link will lead to a website which will send you a VIRUS ! This is called V-SPAM

Both Microsoft (MSN) and BT introduced a spam buster called Brightmail. It is now ownwd by the antivirus software company Symantec. It has a million 'fictitious' addresses from which they harvest the addresses of spammers. This list is turned into 'Rules' . These will be transmitted to the servers every 5 - 10 minutes. This then redirects the suspected spam to a designated folder on your machine, where they are kept for 30 days before deletion. I think Gmail and others must be using a similar technique. You can check this folder in case there is a real e-mail for you.

There are other types of Spam of course. Telephone spam, Fax spam and Mail spam. Spam, spam, spam ! You may be interested to know that it is ILLEGAL to spam by fax or telephone if the consumer (you) has told them your don't want it or have included your name on a Direct Marketing list to opt out. But we have found that this is totally ineffective. Many of the calls are from abroad and almost ALL withold their number. Unfortunately, ordinary mail spam is still legal. To register with the DMA (Direct marketing Association) contact 0845 070 0707 or on line at www.tpsonline.org.uk/and register with e-Mail Preference Scheme, TelphonePS, FaxPS and MailPS. See also http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/ They really do help to save you (and the forests!) Thanks, Anthony, for this link. It DOES help and doesn't take long. But see below for any chance of reducing email spam. Another BT link http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail/consumer/btprivacy/index.html allows BT customers to sign up to prevent telephone spam (the Telephone PS) and also gives a free caller display so you can check the number of who is calling.

Hotmail addresses were inundated with spam but at least Microsoft is trying to do something about it. You can elect to allow them to 'bin' anything that appears to be spam. You can check the bin from time to time and empty it if there is nothing of importance in there. Microsoft is putting a limit of 100 a day for emails sent from Hotmail addresses. As this is a frequent vehicle for spammers this should cut down this nuisance a little. Yahoo and AOL already have limits. Hotmail spam is a particular nuisance because, in order to use Microsoft's Messenger you have to have a Hotmail (or MSN) address they call a 'Passport'. What I do is block ALL mail to my Hotmail address. Microsoft still gets through with messages, which keeps it alive if I check them.

Most ISP's will allow you to block future emails from specific addresses or even from a complete ISP. So, you could block all emails from Yahoo addresses for instance. But that is a bit drastic. You may be able to block emails with certain subject lines or content - see above re. Outlook Express Message, Rules. But spammers can be crafty and constantly change their address or message type. Certainly there is no point in replying to a spam email to tell them to stop. You will only confirm to them that they have hit a target and you will get even more.

If none of these programs work for you all I can suggest is a change of address. Once done, one should not give the address out readily. 87% of e-mail addresses are automatically 'harvested' from web pages.

So, I am sorry to say that I have not found any clear cut defence against spam. All I can say is that some people escape it for a while by being careful with their address. But once your address is on the spammers list it will be sold all over the world with a million others for a very small fee ! If you do change your address (screen name), once you have told everyone, you can put a complete block on the first address.

SPYWARE/ADWARE This is not usually a Scam OR a SPAM but is more like the latter. To clear this rubbish off your PC use a program such as Ad-aware or Spybot.

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