Portman wrote:
Hi all,
I have been getting tons of pornographic e-mails and I don't know how
that happened. I am very careful about what I sign up for and if I give
an e-mail address I use a freebie one if I am not sure of the site. It
is getting a little frustrating getting these and I know that there is
probably nothing I can do about it but if anyone has any ideas???
TIA,
Riva
Riva,
How many mailing lists are you on? Do those mailing lists have archives
(like this one does)? Are those archives password protected?
Google for "email scraper software" and see how many results come back.
An email scraper is a program (from a few lines of Perl to a
fully-blown MS-style Bloatware GUI) that you aim at a website such as
the archive for this mailing list and it retrieves all the email
addresses listed on that site and puts them into a database.
These databases are then usually coupled with a "mailbomber" that will
find open SMTP (the "outgoing" email) servers, i.e. ones that have not
been configured properly, and use them so send SPAM from randomly
generated addresses, making it almost impossible to trace the origins of
the message.
AOL's solution sounds like a great idea at first - they block all email
from IP ranges that SPAM is known to come from and bounce the email back
telling you that it has been rejected due to SPAM concerns. What's
wrong with this approach? A few years ago, I setup a web-based event
management system that emailed clients when they had booked. It was
hosted in-house and the connection was a BT openworld ADSL line.
Because AOL had recieved SPAM from the BT Openworld IP block, all emails
sent to clients with AOL addresses were bounced back, and we then had to
send them manually.
The best bet, as has already been mentioned, is to get some sort of
filtering software. Thunderbird is great, but you need to train it to
recognise emails, and always check the trash before you empty it just in
case.
As David said, surely free porn in you inbox and company memos in the
trash isn't all bad... ;)
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Matt
____ The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM ____
To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or
use the web interface http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/
Send Your Posts To: [email protected]
To change subscription settings, add a password or view the web interface:
http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=wdvltalk
________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________
You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [email protected]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at:
Jupitermedia Corp.
Attn: Discussion List Management
475 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
