Junk

[Ex-Ascot]

Looked at all threads and sorry if I missed one about Junk but I have a serious problem.

For years very few. In the last few weeks increasing numbers a day. 35 today. These take ages to sort out on 3G. If I go to the 'remove' box it takes me to a page 'farm.....' which is always unavailable.

Any suggestions folks. Changing my e-mail address is not an option. It would be a marketing disaster.

[500N]

Are they from the same place ?

Can you ban at the ISP end certain domain names ?

At a minimum ban the email addresses emails have been sent from.

[Capetonian]

Massive problem, I'm afraid. About three months ago my daily average went from about 10 to literally hundreds, on my primary email address. They usually came in spurts, up to 30 an hour, and it seemed worse at weekends. Luckily the filter on my email provider sent them into spam, but I still felt a need to check them as sometimes legitimate emails went into spam too.

I tried reporting and forwarding to Spamcop and there was no discernible difference for a while, but in the last couple of weeks it's gone down to about 30/40 a day. I don't know if that's due to Spamcop or not.

They generally come from randomly generated email addresses, such as c58qgebsht5whwv3mcxd@inkoopfriesland.nl, and you will never get more than one from the same address. It may be possible to ban by domain name but they vary too.

My email provider, Btinternet.com, told me they could do nothing about it. In one idiotic conversation I had with somebody with less brain power than a retarded amoeba, they said they couldn't stop people from sending email. That was incongruous given that for months they were blocking all emails from .co.za domains and other ZA domains such as mweb, iafrica.com, etc.

I think there's very little you can do about it, just hope that sooner or later it will stop. Conventional wisdom is that you should not click on 'unsubscribe' links as doing so validates your email address.

[Alisoncc]

Needs a bit of investigation on your part ex-A.

Most ISP's provide access to their spam rules for individual accounts. You need to look at the full headers of the junk emails and find something that appears to be consistent across them that isn't applicable to your normal flow. Then set up a black list to have your ISP trash them before they get to you.

At one point I was getting hundreds a week from Poland. I discovered in the headers a reference to a .pl domain name, so black listed everything that had a .pl in the header. Sorry for legitimate Polish users but.........

Alison

[Ex-Ascot]

I have kept quiet on this in case I was wrong. However I know you shouldn't try to contact these people as they then know your address is active. I did. It has all stopped. Now I have no idea where to get glasses, hearing aids, or Viagra from.

[Capetonian]

Don't worry, I'll forward mine to you.
Not just glasses, hearing aids, and Viagra, but Russian nymphomaniacs, Niggerian millionaires who want to share their wealth, **** who want to invest in your country, lotteries you've won but never entered, free electricity for life, free credit than never has to be paid back, fake jewellery, fake watches .......... it's heading your way.

[Boac]

Yes, a huge surge in spam over the last few months. Mostly, I suspect, automated, so 'bouncing' etc a complete waste of time. From addresses nearly always forged so blocking domains/addresses etc not always useful.

Ex-A - I recommend Mailwasher from Firetrust. It downloads the headers only and 99% of the time the spam is obvious from those an dit has good 'learning' capacity. You can then delete the spam mails at the server and then only download the ones you want. This will greatly assist where you have bandwidth issues.

I have had the programme since 'Mark 1' way back and it is invaluable. Have a look.

[ExSp33db1rd]

A lot of mine comes from myself now, and I can't log my own address as junk, can I, that would stop Mrs. ExS and me e-mailing/ copying ourselves?

I log 40 or 50 a day as junk, Norton must be getting pretty full now.

I agree, changing ones' address is not an option that I want to get involved in but it might become necessary, but for how long before one has to do it again ?

Life was easier before computers.

[Ex-Ascot]

Now have a very serious problem. I am getting hurdreds of 'undelivered mail return to sender's a day. It is completely blocking my in box. Have asked our IT consultants to get onto the provider to see if they can fix it. Suspect that I was compromised in Athens when registering for free hotel WIFI.

[Pontius Navigator]

Yes, a huge surge in spam over the last few months. Mostly, I suspect, automated, so 'bouncing' etc a complete waste of time. From addresses nearly always forged so blocking domains/addresses etc not always useful.

Ex-A - I recommend Mailwasher from Firetrust. It downloads the headers only and 99% of the time the spam is obvious from those an dit has good 'learning' capacity. You can then delete the spam mails at the server and then only download the ones you want. This will greatly assist where you have bandwidth issues.

I have had the programme since 'Mark 1' way back and it is invaluable. Have a look.

Seconded but I don't think they fixed their mobile version yet.

[Pontius Navigator]

I had one flood of emails with addresses containing ________ of varying lengths. Very difficult to set up a MW filter then suddenly they stopped.

Now I get fewer. There was a problem with Ukrainian brides where they ran out of stock. They promised Czech was in the post. I see they have now restocked with Ukrainian ones, probably returns.

[Capetonian]

At one time I got 100 or so a day of all types of junkmail, but only a small percentage worth replying to for entertainment, mostly just advertising for junk.

I get rid of the scams from wogs by writing back to them and addressing them as 'boy', which seems to annoy them far more than any other insult to their parentage and so on. I seem to have been taken off the lists.

Ksenia and Tatiana and Sveta sometimes reply to my entreaties for 'intimate' photos with protestations of undying love and honour, but it's got a bit dull.

[Pontius Navigator]

I read a lot of emails on my Kindle Fire. It displays the spoof email sender and in grey tone the real email address. Quite illuminating.

The other series I get are offering vouchers, prizes etc from UK firms but the style is the same and the base address is in the US.

[Boac]

Seconded but I don't think they fixed their mobile version yet.

- no, I was in 'correspondence' about it last year but I don't think there is any progress.

Good to see you aboard.

[Ex-Ascot]

It is happening again. 150,000 yes 150,000 return to sender e-mails in 24 hrs. This coincides with me asking for a delivery receipt. Do not know how I am going to sort this out. Whole e-mail account is jammed.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Politicians won't act because they use the same laws to send election bumpf.
Internet providers won't act because somewhere they are charging people by the byte sent, not the utility.
I find I have to change email addresses every 3 years these days. I can trace the loss of confidentiality to three main causes. The first is a student/teenager who I gave my email address to, who then gets their phone hacked. The second is an order from somewhere in Asia, who then sell on the email address. The third is a major first world company who gets hacked but doesn't tell anyone, or lies about how much, like Airmiles.

I do the following to minimize the problem.
Have a throwaway email address for sign ups
Have a throwaway email address for single uses, like online orders
Never have any 'contacts'. Do everything by 'reply to'. You have to have a document as an electronic address book, and cut-and-paste addresses. Most hacks involve stealing your contacts list, which then exponentially multiplies the problem.
Have two or three email addresses for different levels of trust, which means both the addressee and the connection, like dodgy wifi.

I am just very glad I'm not trying to run a business these days; my sympathies. It is getting worse. I have to change my phone number about every 2 years now also.

[Ex-Ascot]

Yes indeed Fox I have several gmail addresses for Amazon etc but we have business addresses which we normally use. Can't change them as they are on letterheads, business cards and web sites.

Don't know how I am going to sort this mess out. My inbox is now full of course. I am reluctantly going to have to approach our IT consultant who is an arrogant Welsh git.

[johngreen]

I am not entirely sure if my assumption is correct nor if it is a suitable solution for you but if these are return to sender and have your email address as sender (sender not recipient!!) why not block any emails from yourself which I think is usually an option of an email server?

Having had various styles of spam (presently those demanding bitcoin payment to prevent personal details that don't exist being sent to all my contacts), I do block all emails from my own account and send them to a junk folder that I occasionally check just to make sure nothing untoward has been sent there.

So long as you do not normally send emails to yourself, this should not cause you any problems...

Possible?

[Ex-Ascot]

Thank you John. I will give that a bash. I still have to clear the in box of 150,000 e-mails.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

can you not also therefore search for all emails from yourself between particular dates, then block delete?