Spam e-mails, revenge options?
Spam e-mails, revenge options?
Author
Discussion

minghis

Original Poster:

1,578 posts

280 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
Even though I have a 'Cloudmark Safetybar' spam filtering thingy I still get something like 40 - 50 a day and it's getting increasingly worse.

The spam goes to a seperate file but I still find myself going through it all in case something has slipped through the net.

I feel like saving up the entire contents of my spam folder for a few days and then sending it all to some of the spammers - is this a good idea or will I be wasting my time even more than I am at the moment?

Guidance needed...

burnt

1,371 posts

278 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
Live with it

Sorry probably not what you wanted to hear. Replying will only make things worse, but I'm sure you knew that.

>> Edited by burnt on Monday 9th May 17:41

Fer

7,773 posts

309 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
That will just prove you are alive and a valid email address. How about looking into setting them up with 419 offers from Nigeria. It is possible to add thier email addresses to guest books that are harvested by scammers and they will get loads of "GREETINGS Friend, my name is Colin and I am the daughter of Mr. WHITE Philip who dies in ..." (you get the plot).

I had some nasty spammer who this may have happened to!

Mrs Trackside

9,299 posts

262 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
I can totally empathise with you. I got back to work today to find over 200 emails in my inbox - 3 were for me and the rest were spam!

Unfortunately, if you reply to spammers, it confirms your email address exists, which means they can sell it to other spammers, so you get more spam.

I have three email addresses now, one that is open only to friends and family, one that I use for buying things or making genuine enquiries on the internet, and a third that I use for silly stuff that is likely to generate spam.

If you can find the internet provider for each spammer, you can forward the emails to their customer service desk, or some IPs have dedicated addresses for reporting junk mail.

Pigeon

18,535 posts

275 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
Never, ever, reply to spam, or click any links in it.

Complaining about it is pretty pointless. Most spammers use compromised relay hosts or ISPs who don't give a shit.

Spambayes from sourceforge.net is a jolly good bayesian spam filter.