Spam emails.
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Spam emails.
Yes, that old familiar topic.
By reasons unknown to me someone, somewhere on the www has gotten hold of 4 or 5 of our email addresses and every day we get about 20 or so spam emails. Not much maybe (?) and Norton picks up the large majority of them and neatly dumps them in the spam folder. But we still go and look just in case don't we!
Is there any way to stop this? They are correctly addressed to our email addresses but each one comes from some sort of 'rubbish' originator at an unlikely email address. For example from '[email protected]' the next one might be from '[email protected]' there is no constancy to the 'from domain name' and so even if I ask Norton to 'Block the sending domain' it's pointless because each email comes from a slight random variation of previous emails.
I have tried to look at the actual IP addresses of the originator and by doing a reverse IP address lookup have found them to have come from a host provider somewhere in the USA. I have emailed the host provider and await any response if any. But, the IP address of the originator is different for each email. One might be from 162.244.11.27, the next spam email may be from '162.244.11.28'.
Some of the emails come from a completely different IP address.
Bit annoyed that I can't seem to do anything about it. Does the team have any thoughts?
By reasons unknown to me someone, somewhere on the www has gotten hold of 4 or 5 of our email addresses and every day we get about 20 or so spam emails. Not much maybe (?) and Norton picks up the large majority of them and neatly dumps them in the spam folder. But we still go and look just in case don't we!
Is there any way to stop this? They are correctly addressed to our email addresses but each one comes from some sort of 'rubbish' originator at an unlikely email address. For example from '[email protected]' the next one might be from '[email protected]' there is no constancy to the 'from domain name' and so even if I ask Norton to 'Block the sending domain' it's pointless because each email comes from a slight random variation of previous emails.
I have tried to look at the actual IP addresses of the originator and by doing a reverse IP address lookup have found them to have come from a host provider somewhere in the USA. I have emailed the host provider and await any response if any. But, the IP address of the originator is different for each email. One might be from 162.244.11.27, the next spam email may be from '162.244.11.28'.
Some of the emails come from a completely different IP address.
Bit annoyed that I can't seem to do anything about it. Does the team have any thoughts?
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If you're downloading emails to your computer/s, then the Mailwasher program has the ability to "bounce" them to make it look like your email address is invalid.
Mailwasher also has the ability to mark senders as "good", "friend", or "blacklist".
However, if you aren't downloading emails and only utilising server-based sites (such as Hotmail, Gmail, etc), then Mailwasher is of no use to you.
You can report spam emails to "policing" sites such as the Federal Trade Commission (in the U.S.), Action Fraud (in the UK), ACMA (in Australia), etc, etc .. but it's rare to see any major decline in spam as a result of doing so.
Occasionally, the authorities make a "bust" and nail a spam organiser, but the "busts" are few and far between.
At present, the greatest amount of spam I am receiving is from the Trump political organisation, and the GOP. I have no interest in U.S. elections, am not American, and hate these people with a passion.
Yet, a friend in the U.S. continues to send Trump and GOP propaganda to everyone on his mailing list (including me), and it appears that the Trump organisation and the GOP are harvesting email addresses, and sending out vast amounts of propaganda to anyone they can find with an email address.
I have requested these organisations to cease emailing me, reported them to spam-controlling authorities, bounced their emails, and even returned their emails with abusive messages added.
Sadly, nothing works for these scumbags and their propaganda machines, the emails keep coming in multiples on a daily basis, exhorting me to vote Trump and regularly describing Hilary Clinton in terms such as an evil witch, who should be burnt at the stake. Personally, I'd currently like to burn Trump on a stake, for his constant stream of puerile rubbish in spam emails.
Mailwasher also has the ability to mark senders as "good", "friend", or "blacklist".
However, if you aren't downloading emails and only utilising server-based sites (such as Hotmail, Gmail, etc), then Mailwasher is of no use to you.
You can report spam emails to "policing" sites such as the Federal Trade Commission (in the U.S.), Action Fraud (in the UK), ACMA (in Australia), etc, etc .. but it's rare to see any major decline in spam as a result of doing so.
Occasionally, the authorities make a "bust" and nail a spam organiser, but the "busts" are few and far between.
At present, the greatest amount of spam I am receiving is from the Trump political organisation, and the GOP. I have no interest in U.S. elections, am not American, and hate these people with a passion.
Yet, a friend in the U.S. continues to send Trump and GOP propaganda to everyone on his mailing list (including me), and it appears that the Trump organisation and the GOP are harvesting email addresses, and sending out vast amounts of propaganda to anyone they can find with an email address.
I have requested these organisations to cease emailing me, reported them to spam-controlling authorities, bounced their emails, and even returned their emails with abusive messages added.
Sadly, nothing works for these scumbags and their propaganda machines, the emails keep coming in multiples on a daily basis, exhorting me to vote Trump and regularly describing Hilary Clinton in terms such as an evil witch, who should be burnt at the stake. Personally, I'd currently like to burn Trump on a stake, for his constant stream of puerile rubbish in spam emails.
Suddenly we are also getting swamped by Spam e-mails, mainly wanting to be my F**ckbuddy or the like. At least twice a day I report 20 or 30 to Norton, but what's the use, each address and/or domain is always different, so although Norton blocks that one, if they haven't already, but it ain't used again anyway, presumably.
My NZ ISP seems unable, or unwilling to filter them out before I download them from their server, can't see that Mailwasher will help, sure I will stop them being downloaded I guess, but I would still have to mark each one on Mailwasher anyway, so where's the time advantage over what I do now ?
Mrs. ExS opens the ISP webmail - she prefers to use the direct webmail rather than an e-mail programme like Outlook - on our PC desktop, and one by one deletes them before I open Outlook on my PC laptop, but it is time consuming and tedious, and nothing seems to stop them getting to the IPad, and we have to do it all over again.
I guess changing our address would stop it for awhile, but not for long, and the thought of how many people we would forget to advise is daunting !
Back to Snail Mail maybe, it worked for me for 70 years ?
My NZ ISP seems unable, or unwilling to filter them out before I download them from their server, can't see that Mailwasher will help, sure I will stop them being downloaded I guess, but I would still have to mark each one on Mailwasher anyway, so where's the time advantage over what I do now ?
Mrs. ExS opens the ISP webmail - she prefers to use the direct webmail rather than an e-mail programme like Outlook - on our PC desktop, and one by one deletes them before I open Outlook on my PC laptop, but it is time consuming and tedious, and nothing seems to stop them getting to the IPad, and we have to do it all over again.
I guess changing our address would stop it for awhile, but not for long, and the thought of how many people we would forget to advise is daunting !
Back to Snail Mail maybe, it worked for me for 70 years ?
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Many thanks to all for your responses so far.
To answer ExXB, we have our own interent domain and our emails are directed to us via that, (think [email protected] or [email protected]).
The domain hosting and email provision service is provided by 'Fasthosts', we download our emails to our windows devices at home using Microsoft Home and Office 2010.
To answer ExXB, we have our own interent domain and our emails are directed to us via that, (think [email protected] or [email protected]).
The domain hosting and email provision service is provided by 'Fasthosts', we download our emails to our windows devices at home using Microsoft Home and Office 2010.
Sameold, sameold here. Have just bought a new domain... actually almost indistinguishable from the old - think superjim.uk as a sub for superjim.co.uk. When I'm convinced that all is working properly we'll abandon the .co.uk domain, having put an out of office message on it. Wonder how long we'll be lovely-lady-free!
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It sounds like you have no SPAM filters at all, until MS, with that setup. Have you tried tweaking the SPAM settings there. (Sorry, I don't know how to do that) As you've got a Mac, why not try using its Mail application. Apple's filters may not be perfect but they do reduce the volume considerably.
When you set up Mail, you don't have to turn off your MS option, you will get the messages on both and can compare.
When you set up Mail, you don't have to turn off your MS option, you will get the messages on both and can compare.
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It sounds like you have no SPAM filters at all, until MS, with that setup. Have you tried tweaking the SPAM settings there. (Sorry, I don't know how to do that) As you've got a Mac, why not try using its Mail application. Apple's filters may not be perfect but they do reduce the volume considerably.
When you set up Mail, you don't have to turn off your MS option, you will get the messages on both and can compare.
When you set up Mail, you don't have to turn off your MS option, you will get the messages on both and can compare.
We are still thinking about our email provision going forward using the Mail program on the iMac, but we are still not 100% on that at the moment so we have not invoked it.
I was hoping for some sort of foolproof way to stop the spam emails in the first instance but realistically I think that's not a realistic proposition.
I did email earlier to say that I had tracked down one source of spam emails to a host provider in the usa, when I googled them they actually had an email address to report email abuse ([email protected]) - I did that but after 24 hours it came back as undeliverable. Perhaps their systems thought my email was spam!!
I really don't want to change our email addresses or domain name as we have had it for approaching a decade or more, and we might go to all the bother of changing and notifying etc only for the same, almost inevitable, problem to start again. i don't know where the spam originator got hold of our email addresses in the first place, we have 5 or 6 addresses using our own domain name and one or two of them are very, very infrequently used so I can't see how some sort of automatic harvesting software would have gotten them. Of course, whilst our own MS machines are protected by Norton who knows about our friends and business contact IT systems.
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YT, 'apparently' it is not difficult to spoof the from address in an email. Don't ask me how though.
Your other option would be to whitelist your incoming messages. i.e. Only accept messages from those in your address book. I would imagine MS has this option (but I don't know how this application works)
To use Apple Mail, you do not need to change your email addresses or domain name. Open Mail, go to preferences and create (a) new account. Enter your email address and your password. Bob's your Uncle.
Your other option would be to whitelist your incoming messages. i.e. Only accept messages from those in your address book. I would imagine MS has this option (but I don't know how this application works)
To use Apple Mail, you do not need to change your email addresses or domain name. Open Mail, go to preferences and create (a) new account. Enter your email address and your password. Bob's your Uncle.
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I've used Mailwasher Pro for years - enables you to preview your emails BEFORE they are downloaded to your computer and then choose which ones you want to download. Try it for free and then either an annual subscription or presently a lifetime licence promotion for 3 computers is on offer with a 25% discount at £48.71. Includes lifetime use of all new and future versions, updates, real-time spam blocking and customer support. Well worth the money!
Do you know if this works with Apples Mail program?
MailWasher Pro works directly with your email server, exactly like your email program does. But there is one important difference: you can tell MailWasher to delete a message at the server, without downloading it.
MailWasher retrieves information about all your email on the server. With that information (some of which is also processed by MailWasher), you can decide what to do with each individual email - download or delete.
If you check your accounts with MailWasher first, you can delete the email you do not want. Then, when you use your email program, it downloads only the remaining email, those that you want to read.
MailWasher can be thought of as a "first line of defense" which weeds out junk, large wasteful attachments and potentially harmful viruses.
Personally I don't bounce any emails as it achieves nothing. I don't know anything about Apple Mail but there are Mailwasher Mobile programs for IOS, Android and Windows phones. Nothing for Mac as far as I can see.
Mailwasher have an extensive FAQ section on their website which is worth looking at.
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Many thanks, I did look at their FAQ before my post above yours.
It still appears to me that I still have to look at all my individual emails, albeit via mailwasher, on my email service provider's remote server. Unless I am reading it incorrectly I am sort of moving the process one step nearer to my email server. I don't quite see how this is reducing the 'fatigue' of having to deal with spam?
However, when I next have a free day I will download the free version and give it a go and report back as to how I get on. Thank you for your advice, it is appreciated.
It still appears to me that I still have to look at all my individual emails, albeit via mailwasher, on my email service provider's remote server. Unless I am reading it incorrectly I am sort of moving the process one step nearer to my email server. I don't quite see how this is reducing the 'fatigue' of having to deal with spam?
However, when I next have a free day I will download the free version and give it a go and report back as to how I get on. Thank you for your advice, it is appreciated.
Mailwasher
Totally agree, I've just deleted 170 Spams caught by Norton over the last few days,, and diverted to the Junk Mail folder - including a few genuine ones - I can't see the difference between viewing them in my Junk Mail folder or viewing them first on Mailwasher - both take time. Tho' Spams offering me a F*ckbuddy are irritating I don't think they are dangerous if I don't open them, it is the time consuming to deal with it all, and "report" the ones that don't get picked up by Norton.
My Contact list contains everyone, and any organisation membership list, that I have had dealings with since first getting involved with the Internet and e-mail about 17 years ago, no way can I put all those addresses in an "approved" or Whitelist.
Changing my address is the only answer, but for how long, I feel that is an exercise in frustration with no, permanent positive result.
Closing down the Internet and abandoning e-mail is the only answer, maybe I'll write to Trump ?
I don't quite see how this is reducing the 'fatigue' of having to deal with spam?
My Contact list contains everyone, and any organisation membership list, that I have had dealings with since first getting involved with the Internet and e-mail about 17 years ago, no way can I put all those addresses in an "approved" or Whitelist.
Changing my address is the only answer, but for how long, I feel that is an exercise in frustration with no, permanent positive result.
Closing down the Internet and abandoning e-mail is the only answer, maybe I'll write to Trump ?
Whichever method of spam filtering you use, you still need to check for false positives. But what I aim to do is to get the software to learn what I regard as spam. Systems like Thunderbird's adaptive filtering are designed to do this.
I very rarely delete spam manually - that is just too tedious. Instead, I quickly scan through the folder looking at message titles and subject lines, and mark the ones that I know are not spam. These are shifted back to my Inbox. Anything left in "Spam" gets deleted automatically after a set number of days.
I very rarely delete spam manually - that is just too tedious. Instead, I quickly scan through the folder looking at message titles and subject lines, and mark the ones that I know are not spam. These are shifted back to my Inbox. Anything left in "Spam" gets deleted automatically after a set number of days.
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YT,
Apple filters SPAM at their server before I ever see it. Around 5 or 6 messages get through each week and almost always my SPAM settings in Mail dump these into the SPAM folder.
I am not aware of any legitimate message that Apple's filters have trapped in error. Could have happened but it isn't a problem.
YMMV.
Apple filters SPAM at their server before I ever see it. Around 5 or 6 messages get through each week and almost always my SPAM settings in Mail dump these into the SPAM folder.
I am not aware of any legitimate message that Apple's filters have trapped in error. Could have happened but it isn't a problem.
YMMV.
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Whichever method of spam filtering you use, you still need to check for false positives. But what I aim to do is to get the software to learn what I regard as spam. Systems like Thunderbird's adaptive filtering are designed to do this.
I very rarely delete spam manually - that is just too tedious. Instead, I quickly scan through the folder looking at message titles and subject lines, and mark the ones that I know are not spam. These are shifted back to my Inbox. Anything left in "Spam" gets deleted automatically after a set number of days.
I very rarely delete spam manually - that is just too tedious. Instead, I quickly scan through the folder looking at message titles and subject lines, and mark the ones that I know are not spam. These are shifted back to my Inbox. Anything left in "Spam" gets deleted automatically after a set number of days.
This really must be a world wide user problem and I'm somewhat surprised that the clever people who run and design the www can't come up with something that would (to the end receiver) make it plain and obvious where the email was sourced from so that some sort of enforcement agency can't 'put the boot in'.
YT,
Apple filters SPAM at their server before I ever see it. Around 5 or 6 messages get through each week and almost always my SPAM settings in Mail dump these into the SPAM folder.
I am not aware of any legitimate message that Apple's filters have trapped in error. Could have happened but it isn't a problem.
YMMV.
Apple filters SPAM at their server before I ever see it. Around 5 or 6 messages get through each week and almost always my SPAM settings in Mail dump these into the SPAM folder.
I am not aware of any legitimate message that Apple's filters have trapped in error. Could have happened but it isn't a problem.
YMMV.
If that's the case I can't see how Apple can filter the spam at their server would help me as I would not be getting my mail via their server?
I use mailwasher, the freeby one. I have it set to automatically mark for deletion any emails that come from anywhere except those that have their "from" address in my contacts list. This picks up all of the crap and a few wanteds. I then scan down the list and unmark for deletion any whose address is familiar to me. This covers emails prompted from contact with people for the first time, responses from "contact us web forms" and stuff that comes when purchases are made on line. It is fairly easy to spot the wrongly marked for delete ones. Once that is done, all of the marked for delete emails can be deleted with a single click. If you are going to be getting more emails from someone not in your contact list you can right click and "add to friends list", "remove from friends list", "blacklist" etc. Don't forget to add your own email address to the blacklist as a surprising number of spam emails appear to have come from yourself. (so easy to spot, you would think you would know if you had sent yourself an email, DOH). The other benefit of the mailwasher way of doing it is that the emails don't actually come onto your system so any malware hiding in them is caught at your mailserver not splattered all over your hard drive.
