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Leo, I often look at the "properties" of the email, then at the LAST "Received" line and from that line grab the number (e.g. 8.14.3/8.14.3) and enter that at http://www.geektools.com/whois.php to find an email address to which to report the spam. Then forward the email to that address (+ others) and copy the entire "Properties" into the forwarded email.
In theory that works. In practice, the headers are also often spoofed by spammers, and even if not if the spam was from a bot network (as much is these days) all you've done is ID'd exactly one infected machine. I expect that the ISPs rarely act unless they get a flood of complaints about a single IP, which the botnet avoids.
- Leo 22-Jul-2009
Posted by: Ken Laninga at July 21, 2009 9:08 AM
Reporting spam or even Phishing scams for that matter appears to be a waste of time. A most thankless job at the best of times because the "victims" meaning the websites in whose name the info is sought, say the banks, paypal or federal sites which are the targets hardly care and they never acknowledge the effort you make to report it to them. May be we should not expect thanks?
Posted by: M.B.Nataraj at July 21, 2009 7:36 PM
On the subject of reporting spam I, too, when I have time to spare use the headers to trace the originating ISP and report the offender for infringing their Terms of Use. More often then not Yahoo! and Hotmail actually do something about it and close the account. Google, on the other hand, appear totally disinterested and has never, to the best of my knowledge, closed a gmail, or googlemail, e-mail account.
Posted by: Bill Chubb at July 21, 2009 11:51 PM
Many years ago trying to get rid of spam I used the included unsubscribe process. Found it's a waste of time. Now I leave the spam filters to do their job. I learned to live with spam.
Posted by: Eddie Santiago at July 25, 2009 5:58 AM
hello, I send my spam to the FTC and various other reporting sites. I, myself have been wondering whether it really works or not. I have had a friend tell me that it will work somewhat, but not all that much. If it works somewhat, why can't that be increased to much more? Also, if spammers are getting better, aren't the good guys "getting better" too or does that not really apply to them?
Posted by: Robert at August 8, 2009 4:40 PM
It is really annoying that companies that call themselves names such as for example Natively Services, where it isn't possible to be deleted from their spamming list, even though nobody even signed up to them in the first place, continue to pollute people's in boxes with their poo poo, one has to ask oneself whether the problem is simply the choice of e-mail provider or not.
Posted by: Christopher Alexander at November 19, 2009 7:42 AM
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Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Leo, I often look at the "properties" of the email, then at the LAST "Received" line and from that line grab the number (e.g. 8.14.3/8.14.3) and enter that at http://www.geektools.com/whois.php to find an email address to which to report the spam. Then forward the email to that address (+ others) and copy the entire "Properties" into the forwarded email.
22-Jul-2009
Posted by: Ken Laninga at July 21, 2009 9:08 AM
Reporting spam or even Phishing scams for that matter appears to be a waste of time. A most thankless job at the best of times because the "victims" meaning the websites in whose name the info is sought, say the banks, paypal or federal sites which are the targets hardly care and they never acknowledge the effort you make to report it to them. May be we should not expect thanks?
Posted by: M.B.Nataraj at July 21, 2009 7:36 PMOn the subject of reporting spam I, too, when I have time to spare use the headers to trace the originating ISP and report the offender for infringing their Terms of Use. More often then not Yahoo! and Hotmail actually do something about it and close the account. Google, on the other hand, appear totally disinterested and has never, to the best of my knowledge, closed a gmail, or googlemail, e-mail account.
Posted by: Bill Chubb at July 21, 2009 11:51 PMMany years ago trying to get rid of spam I used the included unsubscribe process. Found it's a waste of time. Now I leave the spam filters to do their job. I learned to live with spam.
Posted by: Eddie Santiago at July 25, 2009 5:58 AMhello, I send my spam to the FTC and various other reporting sites. I, myself have been wondering whether it really works or not. I have had a friend tell me that it will work somewhat, but not all that much. If it works somewhat, why can't that be increased to much more? Also, if spammers are getting better, aren't the good guys "getting better" too or does that not really apply to them?
Posted by: Robert at August 8, 2009 4:40 PMIt is really annoying that companies that call themselves names such as for example Natively Services, where it isn't possible to be deleted from their spamming list, even though nobody even signed up to them in the first place, continue to pollute people's in boxes with their poo poo, one has to ask oneself whether the problem is simply the choice of e-mail provider or not.
Posted by: Christopher Alexander at November 19, 2009 7:42 AMTo post a comment on "Does reporting spam help?", please return to that article's main page.