RANT: Spam is out of control
Monday, July 1, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Alright, I've had it. I am not a violent person but each day I get literally (no joking) over 300 spam messages per day. I know I'm not alone and yet very few realistic solutions seem to exist for combating it. I really do think that some really basic laws could be in place to protect people against it. There are different types of spam out there and I'd be happy if the hard core definitive spam could just be stopped. When I send out Stardock Magazine, a magazine that users have to specifically subscribe to, we get emails from spam cop that claim that we're spam. Spam assassin has sent us notes claiming that the email verification that is sent when a user creates an account is spam. (Of course, based on their definition of spam, Spam Cop and Spam Assasin are sending out spam - unsolicted email!). Those things are definitely solution.
That leads me to the next thing I've tried, Spamnet. It sounds good in theory but in practice it has made me feel like some privacy freak has hijacked my email. All the things I've subscribed to get marked as spam and while I can unmark it as spam, it gets tedious having to do that on every thing I subscribe to, especially when you get as much spam as I do.
The spammers themselves though are of course the problem. They have no decency. In my book they're borderline criminals.
In an email I received today from: FLORETTA RODRIGUE it had a subject line in it of "This is the stuff I mentioned" and what do I see when I click on it? Porn with an ad for herbal viagra. This got marked as spam so but because I end up having to go through my spam folder looking for legitimate email now and then, it still annoys the heck out of me to see these. What if I was a kid? They don't know. I don't subscribe to any adult sites or anything else that would put me on a mailing list for pornographic material. This email came from Lima Peru (trace routed it).
Of course, getting to companies or people located in Hong Kong or Albania or whatever may be difficult. But something needs to be done.
I'm frustrated enough that I am really starting to think this is an area we should get into. I don't know how much money can be made on this sort of thing but I'm starting not to care. I do know that I don't like "collaborative" systems like spamnet. I don't systems like Mccaffee's where you're having to filter it on the server. I don't want to mess around with something being installed on the mail server. I want a program that is good enough to simply stop the definitive spam. It doesn't have to be 100% but enough where things that are almost certainly spam are stopped. Spam based on what they are, not because some privacy freak who thinks that email from ZDNet that they subscribed to but are too lazy to unsubscribe to is now spam (ironically, an anchordesk article that drooled all over spamnet was marked as spam).
What are your thoughts? What do you think can realistically be done about spam?
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WOM
Reply #22 Thursday, July 4, 2002 10:01 AM
Reply #22 Thursday, July 4, 2002 10:01 AM
I'am down to a couple a day now. I keep blocking them. But those porn site keep changing their email addresses.
jkarpe
Reply #23 Friday, July 5, 2002 3:14 AM
Reply #23 Friday, July 5, 2002 3:14 AM
Although it isn't foolproof, what I do is this:
Create a hotmail/excite/etc account for use on the web. Anytime you register on any website, enter an e-mail for anything in a program (like Kazaa or whatever), or whatever it is - use this e-mail. Only check it when a password is being sent to you using it or something.
Your actual e-mail (whether it is hotmail, etc) you keep private and only give it to your close friends and business colleagues.
Most of the spam you'll recieve will go to your web e-mail, because 90% of the time it's the bastard websites you register with who are giving it out / selling it etc. And who cares if the website itself sends you it's trash.. i could care less about new products at xyz.com..
VERY IMPORTANT: If you do get spam to your primary e-mail, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT EVER, EVER hit the unsubscribe link!!! Do you know what they REALLY put that in for? It's a way to verify your e-mail address! Although they remove your e-mail from their mailing list, they move your e-mail to a "hotlist" which is recently validated, working e-mail addresses - and they sell the lists for even more cash to 20 other mother****'in ***holes on the net so you get twice as much spam. All you do is (A) Get more spam (
Make the ****suckers more money.
Now sometimes, you can't help using your real e-mail (such as when making an online purchase), and if you have a website that you want people to contact you, it is possible for the SPAM scrapers to nail you.
But overall I might get about 5-10 spams a day in my real mailbox, which is annoying still but at least it's manageable. I really feel sorry for you 300 a day'ers.
I do agree though, if there's an equivalent to excorcist-spin-my-head-road-rage towards spam, I have it. The thoughts I have about what I would do to the bastards who manage and execute the lists are far more than morbid, something out of a Cannibal Corpse or Mortician song..
May they pray for their dear souls that I do not ever find one of them.. because it will be a long 1000 hours of straight praying for dear death the end the agony..
Create a hotmail/excite/etc account for use on the web. Anytime you register on any website, enter an e-mail for anything in a program (like Kazaa or whatever), or whatever it is - use this e-mail. Only check it when a password is being sent to you using it or something.
Your actual e-mail (whether it is hotmail, etc) you keep private and only give it to your close friends and business colleagues.
Most of the spam you'll recieve will go to your web e-mail, because 90% of the time it's the bastard websites you register with who are giving it out / selling it etc. And who cares if the website itself sends you it's trash.. i could care less about new products at xyz.com..
VERY IMPORTANT: If you do get spam to your primary e-mail, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT EVER, EVER hit the unsubscribe link!!! Do you know what they REALLY put that in for? It's a way to verify your e-mail address! Although they remove your e-mail from their mailing list, they move your e-mail to a "hotlist" which is recently validated, working e-mail addresses - and they sell the lists for even more cash to 20 other mother****'in ***holes on the net so you get twice as much spam. All you do is (A) Get more spam (
Make the ****suckers more money. Now sometimes, you can't help using your real e-mail (such as when making an online purchase), and if you have a website that you want people to contact you, it is possible for the SPAM scrapers to nail you.
But overall I might get about 5-10 spams a day in my real mailbox, which is annoying still but at least it's manageable. I really feel sorry for you 300 a day'ers.
I do agree though, if there's an equivalent to excorcist-spin-my-head-road-rage towards spam, I have it. The thoughts I have about what I would do to the bastards who manage and execute the lists are far more than morbid, something out of a Cannibal Corpse or Mortician song..
May they pray for their dear souls that I do not ever find one of them.. because it will be a long 1000 hours of straight praying for dear death the end the agony..
Anaxis Reaxis
Reply #24 Sunday, July 7, 2002 12:47 PM
Reply #24 Sunday, July 7, 2002 12:47 PM
You may under appreciate Spamcop. I know I did before I understood how to use it effectively and efficiently.
Use the unique spam-forwarding address Spamcop generates for you as the target for a filter in your email program. I recommend PMMail2000 from Blueprint Software. (You may remember PMMail and Blueprint). Great filter writing side to that proggy.
You can have my filters to get started.
1. All mail from folks in my addressbook is passed off to the inbox.
2. Any mail from lists I subscribe to (this could be done as part of 1, but I do it in a filter) is passed off to a list inbox.
3. Any mail containing certain classic spam-identifying 'triggers' is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address (see above) and deleted locally. I have Sent Mail saved, so I know what I sent (and deal with the occasional errors this way, see last point).
4. Any HTML mail is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address. Yes, ALL HTML mail. Ruthless? Maybe.
5. Any base64 mail is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
6. Any mail with no "To" entry is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
7. Any mail with "undisclosed addressee" is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
8. Any mail with "undisclosed sender" is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
9. Then once a day I go to Spamcop and am greeted with a hotlink labelled Report Now. I click, it brings up the first report it's prepared. At the bottom is the send button and just above it, a clip from the spam. Here I spot the occasional piece of non-spam that has been caught up in my net of filters (like someone who's not in my addy book sends me a message). I click cancel to drop them from the Spamcop machine.
You could skip the Spamcop part of this and just do the deletes and never see the spam; I have a young child and some older kids who are grown or away at school. The young one likes to have email from his sisters. His email is protected in the "if you're not his sisters, you're deleted" style.
I agree that spam is a dreadful problem. After ten years of internet experience, I now believe the RBL solution is the only way, and I think everyone is WAY too timid about slapping spam-generating ISPs with the RBL hammer.
There's even an Anaxian Law to describe how spam happens (you ready for this?): You're Sure To Get Whatever You'll Put Up With.
Stardock's got a product opportunity here: spam filter/rule writer needed. You and I can write filter rules in PMMail, but my wife can't. But come to think of it, even if you made a super easy to use product, she'd STILL expect me to do it for her, lol.
Use the unique spam-forwarding address Spamcop generates for you as the target for a filter in your email program. I recommend PMMail2000 from Blueprint Software. (You may remember PMMail and Blueprint). Great filter writing side to that proggy.
You can have my filters to get started.
1. All mail from folks in my addressbook is passed off to the inbox.
2. Any mail from lists I subscribe to (this could be done as part of 1, but I do it in a filter) is passed off to a list inbox.
3. Any mail containing certain classic spam-identifying 'triggers' is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address (see above) and deleted locally. I have Sent Mail saved, so I know what I sent (and deal with the occasional errors this way, see last point).
4. Any HTML mail is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address. Yes, ALL HTML mail. Ruthless? Maybe.
5. Any base64 mail is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
6. Any mail with no "To" entry is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
7. Any mail with "undisclosed addressee" is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
8. Any mail with "undisclosed sender" is forwarded to my Spamcop reporting address.
9. Then once a day I go to Spamcop and am greeted with a hotlink labelled Report Now. I click, it brings up the first report it's prepared. At the bottom is the send button and just above it, a clip from the spam. Here I spot the occasional piece of non-spam that has been caught up in my net of filters (like someone who's not in my addy book sends me a message). I click cancel to drop them from the Spamcop machine.
You could skip the Spamcop part of this and just do the deletes and never see the spam; I have a young child and some older kids who are grown or away at school. The young one likes to have email from his sisters. His email is protected in the "if you're not his sisters, you're deleted" style.
I agree that spam is a dreadful problem. After ten years of internet experience, I now believe the RBL solution is the only way, and I think everyone is WAY too timid about slapping spam-generating ISPs with the RBL hammer.
There's even an Anaxian Law to describe how spam happens (you ready for this?): You're Sure To Get Whatever You'll Put Up With.
Stardock's got a product opportunity here: spam filter/rule writer needed. You and I can write filter rules in PMMail, but my wife can't. But come to think of it, even if you made a super easy to use product, she'd STILL expect me to do it for her, lol.
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Reply #21 Thursday, July 4, 2002 6:26 AM