Comments for How do I get rid of all this spam?!?!

Comment from voxpop on 2011-01-25

2011-01-25T22:07:01Z

i have searched 'ask-leo' but can't find how TO CREATE a whitelist for thunderbird email..can't find the word 'whitelist OR blacklist' anywhere under any file, view, tools etc.
i have no spam problem just a problem receiving some pictures especially if sent from a mac to my pc.

Thunderbird doesn't ahve a "whitelist" or "blacklist" as such. It uses an adaptive (learning) junk mail filter, and allows you to specify address books as containign email addresses that should never be marked as junk (effectively a whitelist). Check the Account Settings for each account you have configured and you'll find a Junk settings section.

25-Jan-2011

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Comment from Jason on 2010-08-06

2010-08-06T14:05:07Z

I use SpamBully to get rid of my spam messages. It works very easy. All you do is tell the program what emails are good and which ones are spam and it gathers your information to decide the difference. It also has a 1 click interface to let you report the spam. Here is a link to my own information on the product and if you what a copy of it there is a link to where you can make the purchase. It is the best software I have ever owned for ridding myself of email spam. SpamBully Product review and purchase

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Comment from Carlos Coquet on 2010-04-12

2010-04-13T06:52:54Z

I am either extremely lucky or I must be doing something right. First of all, I get almost 0 spam in all my POP3 accounts (my own Web site). But then, I never post them anywhere and I only use those eMail addresses for SERIOUS uses. (Banks, eBay, purchases from known sites, reputable computer sites, like this one, etc.
Then I have a Yahoo account which I use for stuff like CraigsList. That account receives perhaps 20 or so spam messages per day and I report each and everyone to the associated "gate keeper". Both Yahoo and HotMail (MSN, Live, etc.) acknowledge every message reported as spam and either report back their "action" or tell you if the eMail "faked" its origin.
For everything else, I copy and paste into SpamCop's window and let it figure out to whom to report it.
Speaking of CraigsList, beware of "generic" replies (like "Why are you selling this?", "What is your location", "I'll buy this", etc.) They are all intended to elicit a response and then they will have your actual eMail address thus working around CraigsList' redirection. I report ALL generic responses as spam suggesting they check the account's outgoing box to verify that they only send that type of traffic. Almost everything I have reported to Report_Spam@HotMail.Com has resulted in a message saying they closed the account. Network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com is NOT so informative but they either reply that they have taken "appropriate action" (90 %) or that the message did not originate from Yahoo or that they cannot do anything.
It seems like a never ending task but if everyone does his/her part it will help. I know that I have seen certain specific types of spam totally disappear from my box. (For example, those sent via CraigsList posting with links to "Google posting" get rich schemes. All of those I saw came from "reportable" eMail addresses like AOL, AIM, HotMail, Live, MSN, Yahoo, etc. and I reported each and everyone of them. That scheme, for example, is gone from my eMail stream. I suspect that these were from souls that bought the "kit" and got tired of having to get a new eMail address everyday, perhaps even more often.

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Comment from rich on 2010-03-21

2010-03-22T03:42:18Z

I use filters on my email account (Horde) and Thunderbird and Mailwasher and still get about 150 spams a day, mostly multiple copies of the same span with subject on the banned list. So how are they breaking through?

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Comment from James on 2010-03-16

2010-03-17T01:26:06Z

I use MSN EXPLORER(the paid verson).
I may get 1 0r 2 junk mails in a year.
I enjoy MSN.

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Comment from Frank on 2010-03-16

2010-03-16T19:13:11Z

I must be lucky or doing something right.
My ISP's email account has been spam free since I signed on with them 2 years ago.

My gmail accounts however get around three or 4 spam messages a day.
I've setup a filter in gmail to send spam directly to trash.

I check it frequently to see if any legit email gets sent there.

I've only had one valid email disappear to trash.

Spam never gets to Thunderbird.

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Comment from Cathleen Caffrey on 2010-03-16

2010-03-16T16:02:17Z

My simple solution: use my email (Outlook) junk/spam trainer every day; check junk every few days, "unjunk" those which aren't and delete all remaining junk.

This may not help for those with large volumes of spam, but I find that if I keep this up, I don't build up too overwhelming a collection of messages to deal with. It takes some deliberation, which is sometimes hard to come by.

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Comment from David on 2010-03-16

2010-03-16T15:49:49Z

Leo's technique is best.
Step 1 - use GMail
Step 2 - use GMail
Step 3...etc.
In 5 years I've had probably 5 spam messages get through.
If you're concerned about your Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever, no problems - keep receiving it that way but divert it to your GMail client. Every few months, just flush out the 'old school' client.

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Comment from Bob on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T15:23:48Z

Some anti-spam methods are better than others.
Blocking every 'SPAM' sender will eventually have you try to block yourself - a lot of the spam I receive these days is apparently sent by me...
Challenge / Response methods also suffer from the above spamming technique - either they let it through, or replace the original spam with a Challenge.

Some time ago, there was a rumour that ISP's were going to charge a penny an e-mail (starting with Microsoft). While a lot of people shouted about it, I think it had merit - though it would be unfair against 'bot' infections.
I think there should be a limit on how many e-mails a given PC can send (unless it registers as a 'business' with it's ISP).

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Comment from Thomas on 2010-02-16

2010-02-16T22:34:44Z

Another vote for "Mailwasher", I have the pay for (Pro Version) and it is just great.
Have no affiliation with these people who I believe are in New Zealand but saves me from hundreds of these cursed spammers.

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Comment from dietfrid.mali@online.de on 2010-02-07

2010-02-07T14:19:35Z

A recent entry into the fight against spam is something called challenge/response. It's available as a service from various companies and is now also sometimes offered or required by some ISPs. Challenge/response as its name implies is a challenge sent in response to email from an unknown source to prove that the sender is human. If the respond and confirm that they are, a) they are remembered and never have to see a challenge again, and b) the mail they sent you is delivered. If they do not respond then you never see the email.

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Comment from Karen on 2009-04-28

2009-04-28T22:23:24Z

Has anyone tried Mailwasher? I have been using it for years, literally. it's not one for the online emails like Yahoo or MSN, but for your home email addresses. You run mailwasher before checking for emails in your email program. Mailwasher will look and see what messages are on the server for you, and at that time you can bounce them back (sent to the REAL sender) or you can okay them as legit. I get virtually no spam. When a spammer sends one, you can bounce it back and it sends the message that your email address does not exit. These are email address's I've had for over 10 years. I wonder why the mail servers don't have this built in technology. It's a great free little program, I use it on both the Mac and PC. Can even add multiple email addresses, as I have, to have it check them all first without downloading anything. Once you've 'cleaned' up your incoming mail, then go to your usual email program like Outlook, and you only download the good stuff. :) Site is Mailwasher . org for those interested. Hope that helps!

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Comment from Leo on 2008-06-13

2008-06-13T16:16:45Z

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

If they're refering to the folder into which spam email is
placed, then yes ... review it for any false positives, and
then empty it.

Leo

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Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFIUp1nCMEe9B/8oqERApe2AJ0c4m/SyZSdZJ/RdQD74pwdfkbbEwCeMNNs
35lxkoGpe4N8f2/fejpCYSU=
=SQWC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Comment from dee wells on 2008-06-12

2008-06-12T14:11:48Z

I've been 'told' by sbc/yahoo that my spam box is 'full'....now what do I do....??? empty it and start all over again or??? this spam is driving me nutsy....or nutsier!!!

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Comment from Judith on 2008-05-13

2008-05-13T22:09:28Z

The best spamfighter is

www.spamfighter.dk

I have used for years and have
no problem with spam.

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Comment from steve on 2007-10-17

2007-10-17T21:31:15Z

I use care2 email program.How do I block spam labeled "bulk"?

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Comment from immy on 2007-09-24

2007-09-25T05:38:01Z

Until recently, my e.mail with Yahoo(Beta) was wonderfully spam-free, and I pitied everyone else from the luxury of my clean inbox. HOWEVER.. I now have hundreds of pleas (in broken English) from all over the world, begging me to help them get money out of their country, etc etc - (I stupidly opened the first one) - and I have been told (in the headers) that I've won more lotteries than I can count.
If this is what normal spam is, then this is nothing different, so feel free to delete me,(!) but I thought that spam tried to sell you something more specific, and that maybe this was a newish phenomenon.
I don't get how they ALL manage to fool Yahoo's spam filter SO efficiently, and was wondering if some ghastly new unstoppable spam mutation had spawned, or something..? I don't WANT to lose that e.mail address, dammit..

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Comment from Bud on 2007-06-02

2007-06-02T11:17:55Z

Leo,
I am not interested in any email that "domains" from China, or Russia. Is there a way of blocking all mail which has any connection to these countries. What I'm asking I guess, is there a way of simply having this mail not even leave my ISP or at least auto delete forever without my even knowing it existed.
I'm not concerned about 'good' mail not reaching me because I'm not interested in *any* mail that has in its headers any reference to China or Russia.
MailWasher blacklists most of these but I still have have to go through them and manually delete them. I would rather they didn't even show up in MailWasher at all.
--
Mark Clydesdale
Vancouver, Canada

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Comment from Amy Mutlow on 2006-10-14

2006-10-15T02:47:33Z

How do I get rid of something that is saved on to my Search Program?I have tried to get rid of it but no success. Can you please tell me?

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Comment from alrub on 2006-10-02

2006-10-03T05:08:29Z

I tried to use different spam filters for Outlook (not Express): Inboxer, Spam Bully, Outlook Spam Filter and others. Finally I came to Spam Reader and it's most suitable for me - very simple but very effective. http://www.spam-reader.com

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Comment from Pat on 2006-06-03

2006-06-03T22:36:24Z

I get rid of SPAM by hitting MESSAGE and BLOCK SENDER. It would send it to TOOLS, BLOCK SENDER LIST. But Recently the list of blocked addresses has disappeared and if I do it, the address only goes on the list for a minute and then disappears!! What is happening??????

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Comment from Leo on 2004-08-05

2004-08-05T18:32:03Z

Please read the article.

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Comment from Jennifer on 2004-08-05

2004-08-05T18:24:53Z

hi there i was wondering if you could give me a list of steps on how i could get rid spam.

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Comment from Don on 2004-06-28

2004-06-28T22:59:55Z

For Outlook users:
I have been having a lot of success with a Spam filter called spambayes. You can find it at spambayes.org. I've yet to have a "good" email get deleted. If the filter isn't sure, it will deposit it into a folder called Junk Suspects and then you can tell the filter whether it is good or bad. The filter learns from past emails which is good and which is bad. If you have a bunch of emails saved up (both good and spam) you can give it a headstart when it first initializes.

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Comment from GW on 2004-02-11

2004-02-11T20:15:06Z

Also remember to not make getting your e-mail address easy..... Like posting it on a website ..... hey why did my inbox just fill up? I'm the President!

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Comment from Leo on 2004-01-27

2004-01-27T21:20:05Z

If it's a result of the current virus infection, you may not be able to do much. I just wrote an article on it: http://ask-leo.com/archives/000065.html - see if that doesn't at least explain what might be going on.

Leo

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Comment from Felicia on 2004-01-27

2004-01-27T20:12:47Z

I have an email address that someone is using without my promission. I want to get rid of it but don't know how. I am angry. Felicia

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