Default email - avoiding spam

  • Thread starter Thread starter T Benedict
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T

T Benedict

I upgraded my OS to XP Pro a few months ago, which included reinstalling and
configuring my email client. Since then, I've been getting a lot of spam to
a private email account I rarely use. I use MS Outlook Express as my mail
client, and the said email account is the default. My guess is that somehow
my
system is sharing this information with websites I visit. Is this true, and
how do I stop it?

Thanks in advance!

Tom
 
T Benedict said:
I upgraded my OS to XP Pro a few months ago, which included reinstalling
and
configuring my email client. Since then, I've been getting a lot of spam
to
a private email account I rarely use. I use MS Outlook Express as my mail
client, and the said email account is the default. My guess is that
somehow
my
system is sharing this information with websites I visit. Is this true,
and
how do I stop it?

Thanks in advance!

Tom
Click to expand...

Your system does not share your email address with a Web site unless you
enter it.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 
T Benedict said:
I upgraded my OS to XP Pro a few months ago, which included reinstalling and
configuring my email client. Since then, I've been getting a lot of spam to
a private email account I rarely use. I use MS Outlook Express as my mail
client, and the said email account is the default. My guess is that somehow
my
system is sharing this information with websites I visit. Is this true, and
how do I stop it?

Thanks in advance!

Tom
Click to expand...

The increase of spam after reinstalling and configuring your email client is
more likely to be a coincidence, you PC can not give out your email address
unless you give it out in some way. I never use my primary address and
never used to get spam on it, but, one day it started coming in 40 to 50 a
day. How does it happen? It's called a dictionary attack. Mr. Spammy has
a program that generates addresses using a dictionary or even random
letter/number generator. If your email follows your name or is a regular
word then sooner or later it will get spammed. If your address contains
letters and numbers then it takes longer. If you use random letters and
numbers and have around eleven of them then it is fairly secure. Of course
any address no matter how complicated can succumb to a dictionary attack,
but, you have to count on Spammy wanting to make money easily, he's lazy, so
he won't waist processing power on generating complicated addresses to try,
he'd rather generate easy ones and spend more time in sending the spams to
more people.

Rob
 
T Benedict said:
I upgraded my OS to XP Pro a few months ago, which included reinstalling
and
configuring my email client. Since then, I've been getting a lot of spam
to
a private email account I rarely use. I use MS Outlook Express as my mail
client, and the said email account is the default. My guess is that
somehow my
system is sharing this information with websites I visit. Is this true,
and
how do I stop it?

Thanks in advance!

Tom
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies & explanations. I'm not happy about the spam, but at
least I feel better knowing I didn't miss something that directly
contributed to it. Coincidence is the likely culprit. Looks like it may be
time to create a more cryptic email address. Thanks again!

Tom
 
Look for a program called "MailWasher"
It has a free trial period.
It will connect to your Email acct and download only the headers.
You tell it what to keep and what to bounce or delete.
It keeps those addresses in memory and pretty soon all of your spam will be
automatically bounced...as if your email addie did not exist.Reduced my spam
to about 2 per week........Yea!!.
Posting you real email address in a news group does not help.
I use 2 mail addresses...one for people I actually wish to communicate with
and one for those lovely web forms that you need to fill in if you wish
information or whatever.If you are worried that your system is leaking info
maybe its time to get a real firewall like ZoneAlarm and do away with the XP
Mickey Mouse one.Or to buy a Router with build in Firewall.
hope this helps in some small way
peterk
 
peterk said:
Look for a program called "MailWasher"
It has a free trial period.
It will connect to your Email acct and download only the headers.
You tell it what to keep and what to bounce or delete.
It keeps those addresses in memory and pretty soon all of your spam will be
automatically bounced...as if your email addie did not exist.
Click to expand...

MailWasher is an excellent application, I use it constantly and have been
doing so from its early beta days. However, Please please please do not set
it to automatically or manually bounce spam. 99.9% of spam uses a forged
From address quite often stolen from an innocent person and I have often
seen the From address the same as the person receiving it so you could end
up bouncing mail to innocent people or even yourself. Spammers generate and
send many mails with a fair percentage sent to dead addresses and they
either ignore bounces or have their filters set to ignore and delete any
returned. At best bouncing spam will get you nowhere, at worse it could
confirm your address is live due to the path of the bounce. A spammer can
read headers and if they wanted to take the time could trace that the bounce
did not originate from a server but from the recipients machine.

Rob
 
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