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Still getting too much unsolicited Mail ?
SPAM (unsolicited e-mail advertising )
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. see http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/
8th April 2009 In a recent report from Microsoft it was found that spam as a percentage of emails can be as much as 80 or 90%. Whereas this seems high to me I am surprised that virus infection is as low as the quoted figures which were around 8.6 per thousand. In the UK it is lower, at 5.7 per thousand.
December 2008. 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
November 2008 In a recent study the University of Southern California took over part of an existing spammer's network. They sent 350 million junk e-mail messages for a fake pharmacy campaign. After 26 days only 28 sales resulted, The response rate was less than 0.00001%. Had it been a genuine campaign this would have resulted in revenues of $2,731.88 about $100 a day. Altough this seems a lot of work for little return, scaling this up to the full Storm network (which uses thousands of YOUR computers to distribute spam) the researchers estimate that the controllers of the vast system are netting about $7,000 (£4,430) a day or more than $2m (£1.28m) per year. (but, if legitimately selling medicines, presumably their net return is far less)
Question: If spamming in the USA is illegal and the UCSD was able to infiltrate the network, why isn't the US government closing down this pestilence with massive fines on the perpetrators ?
Answer? : According to Spamhaus ( a reputable spam fighting organisation) all networks claim to be anti-spam, but some executivess "factor revenue made from hosting known spam gangs into corporate policy decisions to continue to sell services to spam operations. Others simply decide that closing the holes in their end-user broadband systems that allow spammers access would be too costly to their bottom lines. We asked Microsoft what it was doing to curtail spammers hitching a ride on its service, but at time of writing it hadn’t responded to our request for comment".
In America, the top country in the spamming league, business ($$$) is all. And we all suffer from it. Change we want ! Come on Obama !
July 08. You think you get a lot of spam ? A Mr Wells, from Exeter, was getting 16 million spam messages per year ! He decided to install a filtering program called ClearlyMy Mail. He said, "ClearMyMail came along at just the right time – my only other option was to change my email address which I've had for years and is connected to all my log-on details for various sites, but it was getting to the point where I couldn't see any other alternative," he said in a statement. Dan Field, managing director of ClearMyMail, explained that Wells became the particular target of spammers because he made the mistake of clicking on the unsubscribe links of spam emails when he first started using the account. "That just confirmed that the email address was active allowing spammers to sell on his details to other junk mailers, further increasing the amount of spam he was receiving," A study showed that, of the 5 people receiving the most spam (up to 44,000 per day), three were using the ISP Orange.
March 08 Six botnets are
responsible for 85% of all spam, according to an analysis by Marshal
(http://www.marshal.com/trace/traceitem.asp?article=567).
A botnet is a group of computers owned by ordinary people, like you and me,
which have been infected by a virus in such a way that they can be used by
spammers to distibute their adverising to the world. Occasionally the
authotites manage to close down a botnet and you will notice a temporary
easing off of spam, or a change of emphasis in what they are trying to
sell.
The Srizbi botnet is the largest single source of spam - accounting for 39%
of junk mail messages – followed by the Rustock botnet, responsible
for 21% of the spam. Spam coming from the Mega-D botnet was temporarily stemmed
after control servers were taken out in mid-February (08). The estimated
35,000 zombie clients associated with the Mega-D
botnet were infected with the Ozdok Trojan. After
10 days of inactivity, spam from compromised hosts began flowing again, after
hackers re-established control. Despite the short offline period, Spam-D
accounted for an estimated 11% of junk mail in February. Other active spam
botnets include Hacktool.Spammer (AKA Spam-Mailer) and botnets associated
with the Pushdo (AKA Pandex) family of malware. The infamous Storm botnet,
estimated to have about 85,000 compromised hosts, is thought to be responsible
for only 3% of spam. Most of the times, spammers have access to multiple
botnets and they have been simultaneously sending spam promoting Express
Herbals, a line of male enhancement pills. (almost 70% of spam promotes male
enhancement pills) According to February statistics from Network Box, a managed
security firm, the US continued to pump out the most spam and spread the
most viruses. The country accounted for 13 % of all viruses and was the source
of 15% of all spam (that is 2.5 times more than its closest junk mail rival,
Turkey).
Sept 07 The February fashion for pushing penny stocks has now given way to a wide variety of spam, pharmaceuticals, increasing the size of a body part etc. But I have now found that the Spam filtering by NTL (and Googlemail) is so accurate that I can delete them with only a cursory glance. NTL mark the subject line [SPAM?] In fact I have written a 'Rule' in my Email program which says. If the subject line starts with the word [SPAM?] Delete it. It is now sending them to the deleted folder which can be emptied quickly via File. How to write a rule in Outlook Express ? Take a look at my Tips Page
But to quote a contributor to the PcPitsop blog "The only reason people get this junk is they put thier Email address on the web. I keep my main acount free from this junk. I NEVER use this account to do any thing on the web period. The only people that have this address is friends and family. I use a WEB mail account for all the sites that ask for a email address. The result ... I have NEVER recived a unwanted email over the last 5 years I have had my main email account". Which is what I have always said : If it gets too bad, change your address and make sure you do as the above correspondent does
Feb 07 Funny how spam goes through fashions and phases. Of late almost all of the spam I receive has been 'pushing penny stocks' and almost all of it has appeared to be from individuals but the subject line has been a mixture of words which do not really make sense. The pharmacy pushers seem to have quietened down and the penis enlargers appear to have given up. Maybe everyone is now satisfied with their size; or wives and girlfriends have started complaining ! I think the penny stock idea may (whilst it remains fashionable) bring in a few dollars for the spammers. If they can prompt just a few people to buy their suggested stock, providing it is a tiny market, it could push up the price a few percent and that is all they need before they sell. But, eventually, people will see through this or get bored with it, too. I see no reduction in spam now or in the future. The best techniques are ones which make it easy for you to delete them. If there is any sort of pattern then one can resort to a 'rule' which blocks them. But, in the main, 'rules' are a waste of time. You can't make rules for ever changing spams.
Avoiding Spam See also http://askbobrankin.com/spam_blocker.html
AOL claims that they are blocking a million spams a day. Fortunately AOL 9 allows you to see and retrieve 'false positives'. Be sure to look for them. I have an additional email address with Google. Although it occasionally lets though a heavily disguised spam rarely have I found anything in the spam folder that has been legitimate email for me. If Google can do it, ALL ISPs should be able to. My NTL has a reasonably effective spam detector. It puts the word [SPAM?] in the subject line and I have made a rule in Outlook Express which sends these to a separate folder, so they can easily be deleted en masse. Sept 07. I have now become so confident that NTL selects spam correctly that I have changed the 'rule' to "If the subject line contains [SPAM?] Delete it. Goodbye spam ! If your ISP is not doing its job in filtering spam you should complain.
XP only Question : Lately, when
I turn my Firewall off, I am getting Spam sent
directly to my screen.
Answer : This is different from the usual e-mail Spam but equally
annoying. It says things like "Your computer is vulnerable" or "try
this slimming aid". This spam is using the Microsoft Messenger facility in
Windows XP. This is nothing to do with MSN Messenger. If I turn my Firewall
back on it doesn't happen. So get one. See below. Alternatively, you can
disable the Messenger facility, which seems pretty useless. Follow this if
you can. Go Start, Run, SERVICES.MSC double click the word Messenger
and select disable in the Startup Type scroll bar. Click Apply and leave
the Services screen (right click the X, top right)
There are a many anti-spam programs. A recent thorough investigation
of nine programs revealed very different results, some achieving as little
as 62% success and (worse) another actually suggesting as much as 37% of
legitimate mail was Spam. It showed that the anti-spam software which is
integrated with other programs (suites) was not as successful as dedicated
programs. The suites mentioned were PC-Cillin, Norton, Panda and Mcafee,
all with quite poor detection rates. Best value (at $20 - around £11)
was Ihatespam by
www.ihatespam.net, which achieved
a 96.2% detection rate with very few 'false positives'. A high scorer was
Cloudmark's Spamnet ($48) which
detected 98.2% with almost no false positives. Even this detection rate was
beaten by Audiotreve Inboxer but this program only worked with
Outlook (not Outlook Express) and so was not suitable for many
people.
Other possibilities include
www.mailwasher.net (£19) but
there is a free version. Spamwasher from
www.panicware.com (£19)
A FREE program called Spamfighter,
which is a 7.2Mb download for the standard version. £17 for the Pro
version
Qurb from www.qurb.com
is really more suited to people who only want email from people
in their address book
SpamButcher $30 (recommended by
www.webattack.com)
If you use Mozilla's Thunderbird as an alternative to Outlook Express you
will find it has a built in Spam blocker. In the Tools menu select Junk mail
controls to adjust 'filtering' settings and check the box marked "Do not
mark messages as junk mail if the sender is in my address book"
Interesting anti-spam sites include http://www.cauce.org/, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (USA) and http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/ www.iwf.org.uk is the place to report illegal content you find on the net.
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
Andrew reports that the new BT Spam detector (see below) is working with around 80% of his spam (and he gets plenty). The rest is sent onto his normal Outlook Express Inbox where it has been detected 100% by his program Spam Inspector. It costs around $30. So, between the two he is managing to detect all spam and no genuine email has been stopped so far. Sounds like real progress at last.
An EEC Directive which came into force on 31st October 2005 enables offenders (who spam you without your permission) to be fined up to £5,000. This will not, of course stop spam from other countries, principally the United States. A recent commission visiting the USA to persuade them to adopt the EEC stance of 'Opting In' to spam returned empty handed, as the Americans were already pushing through legislation which required them to 'Opt Out'. Nevertheless, one company in California is facing a massive fine due to a local law.
Both Microsoft (MSN) and BT have introduced a spam buster. It is called Brightmail. They have a million 'fictitious' addresses from which they harvest the addresses of spammers. This list is turned into 'Rules' such as you (should) have in Outlook Express. These will be transmitted to the BT servers every 5 - 10 minutes. This then redirects the suspected spam to a designated folder where they are kept for 30 days before deletion. You can check this folder in case there is a real e-mail for you, but the mail is held on their server and you will have to go on the net to view it. See : http://bt.yahoo.com/mail .
Outlook Express Rules can prevent Spam
You can, of course, devise your own Rules with Outlook and Outlook Express (and AOL) The Help in Outlook Express says : To create a rule for e-mail messages On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail. If this is the first rule you are creating, proceed to step 3. Otherwise, on the Mail Rules tab, click New and proceed to step 4. Select the conditions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Conditions section. (You must select at least one condition.) You can specify multiple conditions for a single rule by selecting more than one check box. Click the and hyperlink in the Rule Description section to specify whether all of the rule conditions must be met before the specified action occurs (and), or whether at least one must be met (or). Specify the actions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Actions section. (You must select at least one condition.) Click the underlined hyperlinks in the Rule Description section to specify the conditions or actions for your rule. You can click contains people or contains specific words in the Rule Description section to specify the people or words you'd like Outlook Express to look for in messages. If you enter multiple people or multiple words per condition, use the Options button in the Select People or Type Specific Words dialog boxes to further customize the condition. In the Name of the rule text box, select the default name or type a new name for your rule, and then click OK.
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 since 1st May 1999 it has been 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. 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. 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.
AOL does not have a 'Rules' facility like Outlook Express but it now has an easy way to report and delete spam in one go. This is then added to their spam filter. If the spam appears to be from an AOL member it is particularly important to forward it to COSUK with a request to throw the spammer off AOL. One of the Conditions Of Service of AOL is no spam to be sent.
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. A change of address is difficult for Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange people and I have had to advise some to cancel their account and start again or change to another ISP.
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. See an explanation at http://www.pcpitstop.com/gator/ of the GATOR/GAIN/CLARIA methods of getting information about you. To clear this rubbish off your PC use a program such as Ad-aware or Spybot.
Of late Spyware has become an increasing problem with computing with one survey showing that 90% of PC's are affected with some having 30 spyware programs. Their activity can slow you PC and can even cause it to CRASH !
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