Spam is an insidious evil...

[lord dubu]

My primary email account (the one I've been using for about 5 years now) has become so inundated with spam, that it averages about 1000 unwanted messages a night.

It has pretty much been rendered useless by spam, unless I want to sift through thousands of messages for relevant ones. I'm pretty pissed about it, because I pretty much am going to have to kill the account.

Its times like these where I wish someone could invent a nano-tech based technology that could trace the persons responsible for spam, destroy thier computers, blow up thier house and car and render them infertile.

 

[CrazyHarij]

You haven't seen spam until you've started recieving mail sent to [email protected]...

 

[lord dubu]

I want to extend my nano-virus to include anyone who patronizes a spam advertisement, as without them I don't know why authoring spam would be in anyone's best interest

 

[kirovman]

My ISP labels all spam as *SPAM*...so it's easy to filter (still have to download them though).

Hotmail's quite good now. I used to get 100 spams a day. Now I typically get 0 or 1 message a day. 6 on my worst recent day. And most goto the junk mail bin anyway, only a handful slip the net.

I am firm in the belief that people who send spam e-mail deserve to be castrated with a rusty razorblade though...

 

[Raziaar]

I get 0 spam with my augustmail account(my ISP). There's no filter, no spam guard, and I get NO spam.

Well, actually that'd be a lie. I get two pieces of spam mail, from two different people it seems that are the same things every time, about once every 3 weeks. That's it.

 

[lord dubu]

I have a gmail account now, and its good about blocking spam, but for some reason most forums can't send authorization mails to my gmail account... including this one.

 

[sabre0001]

hotmail is alright except when it sends proper mail to your junk folder (and you dont check all the time)...But yes - SPAM IS BAD!!! and it should burn (along with all its senders)

 

[The Monkey]

I never get spam on my e-mail. I mean it, never. Something to do with the name, I think.

 

[kirovman]

Advice: Never post your email address on a public website. Or at least make it so it's like "email... at... hotmail... dot... com" in a way so their scanbots can't pick it up.
Even better if your email is a long string of random numbers.

 

[rpgprog]

you really cant do that because, most sites that ask for an E-Mail address ask you to verify that the E-Mail is correct. Which means you have to put a valid E-Mail address.

But, you could do like I did: I have two E-Mail addresses, One is my normal one, but the other is [email protected]. and it does what you would think it would do with that name. Its brilliant if you ask me

 

[Brian Damage]

I don't think kirovman means it that way, rpgprog. I think he means that you shouldn't write it plainly in a post like the one I'm making now, not that you shouldn't enter it on online application/registration forms or whatnot.

 

[pr0nking]

I love the "meat" spam

 

[Fat Tony!]

Generally if you get spam its your fault. You gave away your email to a company by subscribing to something or posting your email address where people can just take it and use it. I haven't seen a single spam message in about a year now. All i get is a virus email once every 3 months or so.

 

[Death.Trap]

You should be happy, Bill Gates gets 4 million spam e-mails a day. Although, thanks to Microsofts spam nuking software(you know, the won't they won't gives us?) Only 12 of those make it too his inbox.

 

[lord dubu]

I love the "meat" spam

Oh hell yeah. Especially when its prepared in Kimchee Jigae...

Chop it up with some dubu and some kimchee, throw it in a pot of broth, and boil it... serve with rice.

Oh man am I in the mood.

 

[KoreBolteR]

i got aol, and get = 0 spam msgs, ever. Touch wood

 

[Fat Tony!]

aol is teh sucky

 

[lord dubu]

aol is teh sucky

Also the worst customer service in the world apart from AT&T. With both companies, once you're on board as a customer good luck getting anyone to actually provide you with service.

I used AOL for a trial once (COMCAST needed a month before they could hook up my broad band and I needed a connection in the interum). After my free month was up I requested to cancel the service.

AOL flat-out-refused to cancel my service unless I tried it for another 3 months. Tired of arguing with them I said fine. I'll let it sit dormant and call you back in 3 months.

I did this. When I called to cancel my service I was told I had to do it through the AOL interface. After a week of looking all over the interface I couldn't find an intuititve way to cancel the service.

So I finally called them up and demanded they cancel the service immediately. They said they would do so, and then put me into a recorded advertisement for more of AOL's services.

6 months later, I noticed I had been billed for AOL for 6 months. I called to complain.

The operator I talked to was rude and uncooperative, and refused to reverse the charges, saying that because I failed to listen to the entire commercial on my previous call, I had cancelled my request to cancel service. He emphatically insisted that AOL was within its right as a vender to keep my money.

I asked to speak to his supervisor, and he flat out refused to let me do so. He told me, in an extremely cocky voice that he'd been with AOL long enough that he was allowed to decide who could and couldn't talk to his supervisor.

I was floored. But not -nearly- as floored as I was after what happened next. I asked him what he was afraid of his supervisor saying, if he was in the right, then his supervisor would agree with him, and there'd be no harm no foul.

He says "I'm not afraid of you!" and then proceded to explain to me that he dared me to come down there so he could proove how unafraid of me he was. He didn't stop at that and actually served up a threat implying physical violence before hanging up on me.

Needless to say I called back, explained to the little girl who answered that I had just been physically threatened by a staff-member, and that unless she wanted to be part of the inevitible lawsuit to follow she better just connect me straight to a supervisor no questions asked. She did.

I gave the guy a play by play, and he finally agreed that I should get my 6 months worth of money back.

Yeah. AOL, can kiss it.

 

[lePobz]

I never got spam, till my idiot girly mates started forwarding them circulation-emails that are supposed to be either funny or warning of some virus or other.

Since then, i've been spammed continuously by (what seems to be) the same 5 vendors.

I'm guessing some spam artists are reading the history of circulatory emails and recoding all the email addresses off them.

Well, their spam is routed straight to my deleted items folder so I'm not really bothered, it's just annoying. It's like people that stand in the street shoving flyers in your face.

"If I wanted your shit, id ask you for it. Get out of my face, you worthless waste of oxygen"

 

[Fat Tony!]

Yeap, well I stopped getting forward emails when I blocked 3/4 of those who sent it to me . They are always annoying types.

 

[lord dubu]

I'm guessing some spam artists are reading the history of circulatory emails and recoding all the email addresses off them.

That's exactly what they are, email harvesters, and its why I chew anyone who sends me a forward a new one... or rather did, until my gramps went "e". Now, the whole family gets nearly daily forwards of jokes that weren't even funny the first time they were posted in reader's digest. I just can't flame my own gramps.

 

[kirovman]

Yeah,

If you do not forward this E-mail to 50 people within the next 1 hour, you will die of horrible asphyxia shortly afterwards...

Oh what about

I'm the President of Ghana, and my country is in Revolution, please send a nice big cheque so I can get my ticket for a plane at the airport which would be shut down anyway in the event of civil war

Not to mention...

Get your free Playstation 2.

I wish they would STFU.

 

[lord dubu]

I am the son of the uncle of the former president of the former third world nation of Free Viagra where thousands of explicit college girls are waiting for you so they can show you by web cam how to add 3 inches to your free playstation 2. I am writing you because a baby in our great nation was born with 7 heads, but cannot afford to have the operation, if you send this email to 1000 of your closest friends then the will be miraculously healed!!! People who didn't send this email to 1000 friends were suddenly cursed by having thier ebay accounts suspended. But if you just send me the password for your paypal account I will not only protect you from the curse, but I will deposit enormous sums of money in there for no reason at all!!!

 

[firemachine69]

:rolling:


Guys... WTF?

Go in your lists, block any incoming "fw:" or "fwd:" email. I tell my friends, if they dare forward me ANYTHING, ANYTIME, never to ask for computer help. EVER.

I'm so fed up with this BS.

 

[lePobz]

Block every email with american origin.

Revenge.

 

[lord dubu]

Block every email with american origin.

Revenge.

That would be silly since 99% of all spam is from addresses outside the U.S. There are legal ramifications that can be taken against spammers in the U.S...

The reason the subject lines sound so idiotic "Want you some free medicines?", "Lucy is sexy girl!" is because they're all written by people who don't speak English as a first language.

 

[kirovman]

That would be silly since 99% of all spam is from addresses outside the U.S. There are legal ramifications that can be taken against spammers in the U.S...

The reason the subject lines sound so idiotic "Want you some free medicines?", "Lucy is sexy girl!" is because they're all written by people who don't speak English as a first language.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3593702.stm

Check again. I realise that this is half a year ago, but things can't have changed that much.

TOP SPAM NATIONS

1 - United States 42.53%
2 - South Korea 15.42%
3 - China (& Hong Kong) 11.62%
4 - Brazil 6.17%
5 - Canada 2.91%
6 - Japan 2.87%
7 - Germany 1.28%
8 - France 1.24%
9 - Spain 1.16%
10 - United Kingdom 1.15%
11 - Mexico 0.98%
12 - Taiwan 0.91%
Others 11.76%

Source: Sophos August 2004

 

[lePobz]

Yeah, I was going by those figures.... and every spam i've bothered to trace originates somewhere across the other side of the atlantic pond.

Spammers are only prosecuted when they're caught... These days, spam is generated by armies of infected 'zombie' PCs that act as drones, that can be controlled by spammers from anywhere. Tracing the route is impossible.

I guess the majority of americans just don't see the point in firewalling. Or something.

 

[lord dubu]

Regardless I emphasize again that the people responsible must be those who actually patronize the people spamming, or else it wouldn't be a sustainable resource...

this reminds me back in the day... my first ISP job was in Montgomery Alabama, back before the net exploded, and the community was still very "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours". Basically back in those days, if a user spammed, his network dealt with him, or else face the wrath of the tenuous network of ISPs across the net.

We had this guy come in, and I could tell by the questions he was asking that he was a spam-hole. I told him multiple times, and even read the part of the contract to him that said he agreed not to spam using our network...

24 hours later emails began crashing our server...

Aparantly this spam-hole went and posted adverts for his crappy diet book on EVERY single usenet newsgroup our server could talk to.

When the guy called me to ask why his account had been deactivated I literally said "Surely you cannot possibly be -that- big of an idiot." He hung up, never called back, never challenged the bill plus additional service charge we billed for the outage his spam caused.

 

[Fat Tony!]

Too many americans have pcs because of the fact that americans are generally richer therefore can afford it. Therefore there is a chance that there is a large amount of stupid americans that use computers. Anyway . Sollution!!! :O:O: use a thing called a junk mail filter, no spam gets past that if you stick it on exclusive (hotmail)