Those Damn Spammers!

[Jason Dunn]

I'm ashamed to have to apologize for this again, but when we moved to this new format we didn't implement the "spam protection" tweak that we used on the last site - and the net result is that a spammer spidered our membership list and hit you all with some spam ("Easy Ad Post"). By default phpBB lists the email address in the membership list and on the user profile. I suppose this is to make it easier for users to communicate with each other, but the net result is that it exposes users to spam. I don't know why the people at phpBB think this is a good idea, but the solution we used was to simply stop that information from being displayed - we modified the source code to delete the Email column in the membership list, and edited the profile information the same way.<br /><br />The problem lies in the fact that we didn't replicate that fix on the new site, and I completely forgot that fact. Please accept my apologies for letting a spammer get to you. If you want to contact the company that spammed you, <a href="http://www.easyadpost.com/aboutus.php">go for it.</a>

[jweitzman]

After submitting a gentle reminder about the evil of spam ( :twisted: ), the web page was kind enough to inform me that:

"Your query was sended."

:?

[DaleReeck]

You know, I have never heard of anyone ever who said they liked to receive these garbage emails. Do companies really think that it helps sell their product/service? If anything, it does just the opposite. I know spamming is cheap advertising, but if it pisses off people and hurts sales, why do it? I think we need a law like they have for getting rid of telemarketers. Unfortunately, a lot of spammers come from overseas and any legislation in the US would be useless.

[jweitzman]

That's the bottom line. Believe it or not, spam is cost-effective. Not nearly as good as e-mail a qualified, opt-in list, mind you. But real spam, where you've scoured the 'net for addresses that you didn't pay for, that didn't opt-in to anything, is very, very inexpensive to send. You only need miniscule response rates to make a profit.

JW

[Jonathan1]

You can give out my e-mail address all you want.
HEY SPAM DUDES! [email protected] go nuts on it. I don't use this account for anything other then placeholders to activate online forums, etc. So :P Consequently I get about 75 e-mails a day and that is with Spam filters set to high. But I only go into that account to retreive passwords so who cares. F off spam dudes! :twisted: [/quote]

[icatar]

I just downloaded this utility called Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net) that will allow you to bounce messages back to spammers to make it look like your mailbox doesn't exist.

There are a couple of quirks in it, and if spammers don't use valid reply addresses it probably won't work, but it's a neat idea.

[garrans]

Anybody got a portable fax machine in the Kent WA area, setup a good old fashioned looping fax with some tape, then fax like crazy to their fax machine. Even if they have a fax server would cost them in storage.

Drop by a local phone box, 25c later, jammed fax line 8)

Legal Disclaimer
The above item is not a recommendation of action. Do not try this at home or anywhere else. They are submitted in the spirit of the list. The author does not endorse doing this to anybody

[ThomasC22]

I don't know, I have to give them credit for making the spam so personalized. Even had a picture of the web site in their ad. :D

[Mike Wagstaff]

According to the whois information (which you can get at through www.register.com), the company's technical contact details are as follows:

Technical Contact:
HiChina Web Solution Limited (GKXHGGFUDO)
[email protected]
HiChina Web Solution Limited
11/F., Building C Fuhua Mansion
Beijing, Beijing 100027
CN
8610-65547878 fax: 8610-65542377

Following the anti-spam link on the company's English version of the site brings you to this page:
http://www.net.cn/static/customercare/notice_0822.asp

It's all in Chinese, unfortunately, but the one thing that I can recognise is the abuse address:
[email protected]

If you forward a copy of the spam you got from EasyAdPost with a copy of the full headers included (in Outlook, right-click on the message and select "Options"), then they should take some action - especially if enough people complain.

[Ed Hansberry]

If you forward a copy of the spam you got from EasyAdPost with a copy of the full headers included (in Outlook, right-click on the message and select "Options"), then they should take some action - especially if enough people complain.
Assuming anyone reads [email protected]. Or can read English.

[WillyG]

Someone mentioned Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net/) earlier. Well i used that tool for over a year now, while the bounce messages looks real (i cant find anything in them wich tell me they are fake), the spammers must have found some way to identify them as fake. The spam decrease i got by using this tool was hardly notable :?

A tool that works (at least for me) is Spamnet (i believe i read about it here or in Lockergnome (www.lockergnome.com)first time i heard of it). Its an addin to Outlook thats still in beta stage, but works amasingly well (catches 95% of my spam)
Well now i start to sound like a spammer, so i better end it here :lol: , go try it if u use Outlook, its free and easy to set up. Read about it and download it here: http://www.cloudmark.com/products/spamnet/
Hope you guys/gals will benefit from this as much as i do (its P2P so we actually help each other here. The more users it got the more effective it gets). Havent been able to find any downsides or sideffects using it either.

[daninnj]

It's all in Chinese, unfortunately, but the one thing that I can recognise is the abuse address:
[email protected]

It's all in Chinese? I see a Chinese and English version there...

It says "For spamming related issues please contact [email protected]." in the English version.

DanInNJ

[icatar]

Someone mentioned Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net/) earlier. Well i used that tool for over a year now, while the bounce messages looks real (i cant find anything in them wich tell me they are fake), the spammers must have found some way to identify them as fake. The spam decrease i got by using this tool was hardly notable

Thanks for the info. I mentioned that I had just started using Mailwasher earlier and am still hoping to see a difference. The spammers either found a way to identify the bounce as a fake, or they don't care if they send to invalid mailboxes. Either way, the Internet is clogged with the garbage they send out.... :cry:

[innersky]

I just downloaded this utility called Mailwasher (http://www.mailwasher.net) that will allow you to bounce messages back to spammers to make it look like your mailbox doesn't exist.

There are a couple of quirks in it, and if spammers don't use valid reply addresses it probably won't work, but it's a neat idea.

The idea is good, but it won't help you. 95% of the reply adresses in spam mail are fake...

[BadgerSoft]

A tool that works (at least for me) is Spamnet

I use this as well and it is very good. The peer-to-peer system for identifying spam is an excellent idea that works well. Chances are you won't be the first to classify something as spam and it is filtered automatically. It does have a few limitations with the implementation itself that are annoying for me but the concept is excellent. They update it often, so hopefully some things lacking are addressed.

[Ainvar]

I use SpamNET also, I just only wish it could filter my hotmail inbox in Outlook XP. Hopefully in the near future version they will be able to do this. I get maybe 1-2 spam msges a day now with my real isp email account in Outlook XP where before this I was getting close to 60-70 per account. I like there software and it works transparently and I have not seen any compatibility issues with other software running in Outlook XP.

[denivan]

I like Spamnet very much. It's a great tool and really shows that p2p can be used for something besides trading warez.

It would be great though if there was a possibility to add spamnet to an Exchange Server. Installing it for every client, and explaining every user how to use it properly is too much of a hassle imo. It's great at home though and I would gladly pay for software like this.

Ivan

[Kevin Tea]

I use Pocomail which has its own anti-spam filter utility built it and this works well with SpamPal, a free utility that acts as a proxy server and which checks spam databases before downloading mail. Get it at www.spampal.org

[WillyG]

I get maybe 1-2 spam msges a day now with my real isp email account in Outlook XP where before this I was getting close to 60-70 per account.

Yea, same here. Im extremely happy with this tool. My mailbox isnt as sick as yours, i get "only" 30-40 spams a day. Spamnet usually catches all but 1.
Great thing with this tool is that its no configuration at all. Just install it, and it works. :P

[Mike Wagstaff]

The one problem I find with tools like Spamnet is that they do tend to throw up the occasional false positive. Notably, newsletters and mailing list distributions that I've signed up to have been marked as spam. Nevertheless, I reckon they're still worth it.

Another one to try is SpamAssasin Pro:
http://www.deersoft.com/sp_pro.html

I tried it out for the trial period and got very good results - it integrates nicely into Outlook and had a very high success rate. The only downside is that it isn't freeware ($29.95).

[krisbrown]

I don't know if you have it allready in the States , but in the UK we have just introduced a nationwide phone code that allows you to listen to your e-mails, SPAM will destroy this system, I for one will never be able to use it, getting up to 50 spam's a day.
Hopefully if big business starts to suffer as more of these services appear ,then action will start to be taken against them.

Read some good articles here,
www.spywareinfo.com
plus really good help if your browser gets hijacked, like mine did, I was locked from Internet options and regedit!!! by a flippin dodgy script on a web site, my homepage became a 'lolita' porn site and I couldn't do anything about it.

[Mark from Canada]

The one problem I find with tools like Spamnet is that they do tend to throw up the occasional false positive. Notably, newsletters and mailing list distributions that I've signed up to have been marked as spam. Nevertheless, I reckon they're still worth it.

I had it on my system for a while as well, but I had way too many false positives for lists I subscribed to :( Unfortunately too many users seem to think this is a good way of not getting the e-mails any more they subscribed to instead of just clicking the "unsubscribe" link on the bottom of the list (reputable companies only).
I also found it through Lockergnome, and as soon as I had it installd, THEIR newsletter was blocked every day as well.
So I had to go through the spam-folder anyway to see if I have some false positives in it - which cost me more time than just looking through one folder.

Mark

[BadgerSoft]

Mike & Mark,

I believe you can "whitelist" e-mail addresses, preventing the SpamNet from filtering out your newsletters. I don't have it installed on this machine, but I'll check when I get home tonight.

Tony

[BevHoward]

Thanks to ChoiceMail, never saw it.

(http://www.digiportal.com $40 and worth every penny)