Topic: How I stopped all incoming spam

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
I just posted this over in Jack's "Kill All Spammers" thread in Ten Forward and I thought others might be interested and miss it there.  I have eliminated all spam from my personal Email (Comcast POP mail)...  Not just filtered it out where it still comes in but is deleted before I see it, either; I mean gone gone gone! - I just do not receive spam any more. (well, maybe one or two messages per week tops)

I did this with a combination of Mailwasher program from Firetrust ($25 registration fee with internet discount code) and the free Spamcop.net service.

Mailwasher allows me to view my mailbox out there in Comcast-Land before downloading messages to Outlook Express.  From there I can forward spam messages to Spamcop.net with only two clicks.  The only issue with the system is that I then had to go to the Spamcop.net web-site and submit each message individually.  Not time consuming, but I think most end-users would not bother with the two-step process...

Anyway, Spamcop.net then deals with the actual originating network of the spam, the ISP hosting that network, and whoever the 'money trail' in the spam points to and demands that they all cease and desist.  It didn't happen overnight, but I went from an average of 6 ~ 10 spam messages per day to about 1 per week.

It's a beautiful thing!

 

[SkyFlyer]

Too many times I've had real, legit email flagged as spam.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
Doesn't matter.  Although Mailwasher does rate messages for spam probability and tell you what it suggests you make the decision to report/delete yourself.

[SkyFlyer]

Not just filtered it out where it still comes in but is deleted before I see it, either; I mean gone gone gone!

Ok well this is what threw me off. It sounds like the program doesn't even give you a chance to decide if it is spam or not.

[Brush Wolf]

While I am not familiar with Spamcop I can whole heartedly endorse Mail Washer and have been using it since it was shareware.

[SkyFlyer]

What I like to do is reply to the spammer with an attached photo, with the email just saying, "Does it look like I need what you're selling?"

[jualdeaux]

I have found that Gmail does a very, very good job of automatically moving spam, and spam only to the spam folder. messages over 30 days old are automatically deleted. it usually builds up to between 400-500 messages and then stabilizes there. Every so often I'll click acouple of buttons and delete them all.

[Nemesis]

The question I have about GMail is how did so many spammers get the address when I have given it to no one at all?

[Nemesis]

I have a rather extreme set of E-Mail filters set up and next to nothing gets through that is not actively filtered IN.  Everyone I give my E-Mail address to has a filter set to put any E-Mail from them in a folder with just their E-Mail. 

For new contacts there is a special filter that looks for a keyword in the subject line and puts it in the new folder until I create the filter for that new contact.  I chose a rare enough keyword that I haven't yet had a spam mail get through that way.

[jualdeaux]

The question I have about GMail is how did so many spammers get the address when I have given it to no one at all?

A very good question. Probably the same way they got my last full time email.

One way might be because I have a few family members that love to pass on the chain letter email garbage. I'm sure that those filter around and get picked up by spammers somewhere

[Javora]

The question I have about GMail is how did so many spammers get the address when I have given it to no one at all?

A very good question. Probably the same way they got my last full time email.

One way might be because I have a few family members that love to pass on the chain letter email garbage. I'm sure that those filter around and get picked up by spammers somewhere

I get a ton of spam in my Gmail account and I haven't even used it yet.  So I was kind on wondering how all that spam was getting sent to me as well.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
This will work with GMail, but I think it involves another step or bypassing Mailwasher altogether... Check it out.

It didn't happen overnight for me... about 2 ~ 4 months I guess, but it seriously stopped 99% of all spam for me.

[Nemesis]

This will work with GMail, but I think it involves another step or bypassing Mailwasher altogether... Check it out.

It didn't happen overnight for me... about 2 ~ 4 months I guess, but it seriously stopped 99% of all spam for me.

I'm now using extensions to Thunderbird to download my E-Mail from Yahoo and GMail.  I don't download that already marked as spam but let my Thunderbird filters take on all that is left after that.  No spam gets through the two layers.