Mail Spam

[Im4HimiHs]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop people from spamming me with viruses?

I have been getting about 4-8 a day and it is driving me . My anti-virus catches them but it is still very annoying.

I am using filters to reduce the quantity.

 

[seebs]

Unfortunately, there's not much we can do. The US legislature recently enacted a law carefully designed to make it worse, by carefully not prohibiting spam in any way at all, and preempting any and all laws which did prohibit spam.

Better filters, more of 'em, and make a point of complaining to any "real" companies who seem to be sending spam; without their lobbying the legislature to keep spam legal, spam would be outlawed, and would go away.

 

[Bevlina]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop people from spamming me with viruses?

I have been getting about 4-8 a day and it is driving me . My anti-virus catches them but it is still very annoying.

I am using filters to reduce the quantity.

Have you joined Spyware.com? They have some marvellous suggestions on the board concerning everything to do with this type of a thing. You can browse their forums and if you join, ask any question you want. They are only too willing to help.

 

[doofus125]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop people from spamming me with viruses?

I have been getting about 4-8 a day and it is driving me . My anti-virus catches them but it is still very annoying.

I am using filters to reduce the quantity.

What Antivirus are you using? If it's catching them then you are lucky.....I use yahoo mail and I login on the web and clean up my inbox and empty my bulk mail before I download using the POP access that I pay for ($29.99 a year for POP Access and a 25mb mailbox)......or (19.99 a year for a 4mb mailbox and POP access).....

 

[Suchness]

Unfortunatly, there is no cure for spam at the present. The best cure is a good prevention. If you're actively signing up for things, there a companies that allow you to create alies's just for that sole purpose of signing up for whatever you need, and then the alies is destroyed and your real email address stays hidden.

 

[Im4HimiHs]

Thank you for your responses.

It started with signing up for a Microsoft newsletter. I began getting at least 10 virus attached newsletters (slightly altered from the origianl content). At the same time "undeliverable" postmaster virus alerts began. No, I wasn't even sending mail to anyone. I will say this for Microsoft, they sent me a very nice appology & condolence letter, mentioning they were aware of this but could do nothing about it. It was the first time and last time I subscribe to anything. Lesson learned.

...What Antivirus are you using?...

Norton Antivirus has really proven itself in this matter.

 

[doofus125]

Norton Antivirus has really proven itself in this matter.

I won't use anything but Norton on my computers......I can surf and download and not even have to think twice about could that file have a virus because I just let norton take care of it.

 

[mac_philo]

There is nothing you can do to stop spam from coming. All you can do is filter it.

The best filtering program in my opinion is Spamassassin. This is an industrial grade spam filter originally designed for Unix/Linux mailservers. It now runs on Windows. This program makes other spam filters look like toys.

Google for 'spamassassin windows.' Or try www.openhandhome.com/howtosa.html

It can be configured, and it learns from its mistakes. But don't be intimidated if it looks complicated. Even if you just use the default settings it will block almost all your spam.

It's also free.

If that program is hard to install on windows (it may require some geek know-how) you could try a commerical program like http://www.spamnix.com/ .

Option 2:
Who is your email provider? Your isp? Ask them if they are running a spam-filter, and how you can opt into it.

Option 3:
Get a email account that does spam filtering. E.g., you could sign up for a free imap/pop3 account at www.myrealbox.com. That's just an example, and while they are free and full-service their uptime is unreliable. If you go this route find a good imap/pop account that does spam filtering for a fee. You can combine this with your old email address by setting up forwarding.

 

[Im4HimiHs]

There is nothing you can do to stop spam from coming. All you can do is filter it.

Thank you.

I have set up several filters, which have reduced the quantity down to 1 or two. Who ever is doing it, is catching on and changing the wording on a regular basis. Persistant, but so am I.

Thanks again to everyone, you have been very helpful.

 

[Durelen]

Does anyone have any suggestions how to stop people from spamming me with viruses?

I have been getting about 4-8 a day and it is driving me . My anti-virus catches them but it is still very annoying.

I am using filters to reduce the quantity.

Viruses??? Sure, contact your local law-enforcement agencies. I suppose I'd contact my ISP first so they can try to track them down. Once it is verified that they are sending viruses, they will be picked up and locked in a tiny cold damp room for a long time... after a trial of course.

 

[SlowRoasted]

if your using hotmail use the junkmail filter and block any addresses that get through that. just DONT OPEN ANY EMAILS that have addresses you dont recognize or never open an attachment unless you know the person sending it.

 

[MsDe]

Unfortunately, with the viruses being they way the are today, even if you know the person sending the attachment, always scan it first before opening it. I've been infected by a virus by assuming an attachment was clean because I knew the sender.

 

[Durelen]

Unfortunately, with the viruses being they way the are today, even if you know the person sending the attachment, always scan it first before opening it. I've been infected by a virus by assuming an attachment was clean because I knew the sender.

D'oh! Yeah that happened to me once about 8 years ago. He infected the computers belonging to about 20 people and countless computer systems at work. It was a worm that sent its self out with out him knowing. I never never ever open .exe files from anyone unless I know for sure that they sent it to me. In fact unless they send me just plain text emails I may never open the email. I don't send attachments in email, I often put it up on my FTP site and tell them where it is. If I'm around I send them junk with ICQ or let them on my computer with file sharing. Sending things by email is bad news. Security paranoia?? Yup! That's me.

 

[Bevlina]

Some 'people' have discovered ways of placing code into your comptor which some firewalls can't prevent. A friend of mine had to delete a pile of code placed into his computor by one of these fiendish devils.
I have been notified that Winproxy is a good firewall. I think it deletes the code as soon as they put it in. I'd check it out if I were you.
I too have security paranoi after I was stalked by a fiendish person & had code placed into mine, plus spyware. Security is being updated all the time. They say Spybot & Ad-aware are a formidable team to prevent these demons.
And...a warning...don't be fooled. Sometimes so called "christians" can do this to you just to check you out. That's what happened to me. I was stalked. All he had to do was send me an nice email with no attachments......
I am about to disconnect right now & take mine to my local computor wizz for a complete check over. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[TCCK]

I am an IT Pro.

Here are some good tips:

Hardware firewall - they are getting cheaper but you get what you pay for remember that. I prefer some of the more commercial models in the $300 range to stop hackers. (Watchguard, Sonic Wall, Net Screen, Cisco{expensive unless you go on eBay})

Spam blocking - If you are using MS Outlook you can get "I Hate Spam" and I have found it blocks 99% of the spam I used to get. My customers all love it.

Anti-Virus software - There is nothing like Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate 8.X (Symantec is the corporate version of Norton, Norton lets through things that the Symantec AV Corp. does not!!)

Lastly surf smart! Learn about surfing security to block hackers that make site specifically to attack novice surfers.

Enjoy all !!

 

[Im4HimiHs]

Thanks TCCK.

I've got a great firewall and have set up more filters. That has reduced the quantity drastically.

Thankfully, it is only e-mail.

 

[doofus125]

I am an IT Pro.

Here are some good tips:

Hardware firewall - they are getting cheaper but you get what you pay for remember that. I prefer some of the more commercial models in the $300 range to stop hackers. (Watchguard, Sonic Wall, Net Screen, Cisco{expensive unless you go on eBay})

Spam blocking - If you are using MS Outlook you can get "I Hate Spam" and I have found it blocks 99% of the spam I used to get. My customers all love it.

Anti-Virus software - There is nothing like Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate 8.X (Symantec is the corporate version of Norton, Norton lets through things that the Symantec AV Corp. does not!!)

Lastly surf smart! Learn about surfing security to block hackers that make site specifically to attack novice surfers.

Enjoy all !!

I just have to say that we have Symantec Anti-virus corp 8 at our church and it has let stuff by that Norton catches........so it's just a matter of luck I guess.....