The spammers have won. Giving up. (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

...hundreds of "enlarge your penis" emails every day ... changed to get around the filter...

I'm in the same "Man-Gland" boat!



Absolutely unbelievable how many of these trashy, smutty things about "Penile Enlargement" I see every week. (Maybe not HUNDREDS per day, like some may be receiving...but enough to furrow the brow into a permanent frown.)

Geezy-Louise-ey...There sure must be a lot of frustrated "lacking" individuals in cyber-space, if we're seeing all these millions of pee-pee ads floating around each day.

Also --- Anybody else finding other "sneaky back door" tactics creeping into these spammer's M.O. -- such as using your own e-mail address in the "Mail From" area of your inbox, making it appear that you're getting a mail from yourself!!??

The spammers just change the letters/numbers after the "@" sign. (Like that is gonna suddenly fool anybody with an ounce of gray matter and a mouse! "Look, me, a letter from ME...that I never sent! Hmmmmm...." )

I wonder, though, how this tactic is even possible? I've gotten dozens from slightly-altered (but the same) addresses. Do these people have a billion possible e-mail addresses from which to send their crap to unsuspecting "I Want More Penis Information" victims?? (Gee whiz, I'm only allowed 7 different screen names. :frowning

I agree with Jack B.: Something should be done to rid the planet of this spamming menace from another world!!!!

(Perhaps if they could sell just ONE penile enlargement implant or pill or Play-Doh Stick-On (or whatever the hell it is that actually is supposed to increase your thingie )...then maybe they'd leave the population at large alone...in peace...with our already-sufficient manhoods. :frowning: But I doubt they've sold even one yet. Hope they never do!)

 

[Leila Dougan]

David, the spammers forge the headers so they can send all the email they want from a single address and yet have each one appear to come from a different address. Forging of headers is the number one problem with spam.

And the sad fact is that they actually do sell products. I watched a documentary on TV about a penis-enlargment pill factory in a NYC building basement. Apparently the pills had nothing but some herbs and spices, none of which did anything significant. The problem is that such pills aren't regulated by the FDA. The particular company the show I watched talked about had at least 20 employees and they made plenty of money. They were only being investigated because they were using a contaminated water source and a few people were contracting Hepatitis from them.

I also agree that something really needs to be done. The spam problem is absolutely draining on the system.

PS I forgot to put it in my post above, but I have yet to get a single spam to my 'real' address above and I've had it for several years. It can be done, bit just takes a lot of diligence.

 

[David Von Pein]

Thanks Leila, for the info. *tips cap*

Didn't know about the "forged headers" thing. Be nice if there was a simple cure for that problem.

Hard to believe (or...maybe not ) that so many people fall prey to these snake-oil salesmen. A shame...and a sham. :frowning:

 

[John Watson]

Barnum had it right (why there is so much spamming) but Fields took a reverse look at the subject : "You can't cheat an honest man"

Well, restricting address distribution is good for the spohisticated, but what about our "friends" who sent out those stupid jokes to all their friends, and include our actual e-mail address in the e-mail?

Great for e-mail address harvesters!

Is there a witty and pointed, but tactful form e-mail to send to these friends, that will not turn them all off?

(I know, I know, "with friends like that.."):frowning:

 

[Stacy Huff]

What always kills me is when I get a spam offering to sell me anti-spam software.

 

[Andy_G]

Bingo! If you use AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, you are asking for spam.

 

[BrianW]

I'll second the suggestion of getting your own domain. It gives you an unlimited number of email addresses that you can forward to oblivion as needed. Every time you give out another email address, give out a new email address. When you begin getting spam for one of the email addresses you gave out, then you know where the spammers got it from. For instance, if I ever get email addressed to [email protected], I'll know that purchasing something at DVDs 'R' Us led to the spam. I can then forward that email address to oblivion, and never hear from those spammers again.

(Note: This is just an example. To my knowledge, there is no retailer called DVDs 'R' Us.)

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

When does anyone have time to check their email? Now that I have lost weight, an enlarged penis that stays up all night, found live, hot college chicks, and am living off savvy investments and the millions my friends in South Africa deposited in my bank account, I haven't had time to look at the net.

 

[Stacy Huff]

I use a small ISP through my local cable company, but it is evidently pretty poor at filtering out spammers. In fact, I had an email that I sent to a friend bounced back to me, and upon further inspection I discovered that it was because my ISP was a known spammer, or something to that effect.

As for me, when they work, I've found that the junk mail controls in Netscape Messenger 7 do a decent job of filtering out the junk. And since I get nearly 300 emails per day, that is pretty important to me since 95% are complete junk, 3% are junk that I want to get (like email notifications from HTF and other boards), and the rest are actually from friends.

With my name, the spam can be entertaining. Not only do I get offers for viagra and penis enlargment, but I also get email for breast enhancement and vigel, female viagra. The porn is also very entertaining and seems to follow a cycle. Naked teens one month, girls gone wild the next, then naked girls and farm animals, old girls, young girls, chubby girls, and my personal favorite, hot nude midgets! What I can't believe is that there are really that many people out there willing to take off their clothes. Growing up I recall that getting a girl naked was a Herculean task. Now it seems all you need is a digital camera and a website. And, I guess money. So maybe nothing has really changed.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Why exactly is it sent out in the first place? I would think that there must be some financial motivation, but, geez, does anyone out there ever actually bother too look into messages about Viagra and Mortgages and all the other nasty stuff I find in my inbox?

I asked this same question about telemarketers. Yes, they do make money. And yes, by implication, there are people who read those mails.

It makes more sense for spammers, since it probably costs nil to produce an electronic e-mail.

I'm surprised more people don't know about the Exclusive setting on Hotmail.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

So, what's your number, Garret?

Use the phone book you lazy SOB!

 

[RobertR]

My Earthlink account has a very effective spam filter. VERY few (maybe 2 or 3) spam messages get through.

 

[Pamela]

It's starting to happen:
spam rage

I have Earthlink as my provider and I get crap loads of spam, even with the spam filter. I seem to get a lot of "women and farm animals" spam. Hmmm...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

My hotmail "spam filter" blocks nothing at all. That butterfly is a lazy mo'fo.

 

[Dan Lindley]

Geez, what is with you guys? Thanks to spam, I am HUGE!!

Seriously kidding. I wonder if university mail servers are good filters b/c I have a univ. email address and while I get some spam, it isn't terrible, and I use that address for everything.

DL

 

[Jack Briggs]

Pamela, do you make Internet transactions on your Earthlink account? Do you keep separate accounts for transactions and for personal communications?

 

[ThomasC]

I wonder if university mail servers are good filters b/c I have a univ. email address and while I get some spam, it isn't terrible, and I use that address for everything.

Not mine. I've gotten 1032 pieces of spam since October 27th when I started using POPFile. It's still learning. Even though I use this address for everything, I know someone who only gave out his address to friends and family but he still gets a ton of spam every day.

 

[Clay Kilpatrick]

I was one of the first people on cox.net, so I created a bunch of cool address that I don't use, and have never given out. I check them once a month, and they will have between 500 and 700 pieces of spam, so I am not real sure just how much spam I get because of giving my address out, and how much of it is from dictionary lists.

Clay

 

[Pamela]

Jack, I have one email address that I use for everything. I suppose I should have two separate ones. I just bought a new car, and lo and behold, I'm being deluged with spam for extended car warranties. I guess that's better than farm animals.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Small wonder that when I log onto Excite from a non-cookied location, the obnoxious advertising seems to reach out to a general demographic. But when I log onto Excite with my user name and password, or from home, much of the advertising is for DVDs and related material. Wonder why?