Junk Mail

Author
Discussion

robp

Original Poster:

5,769 posts

263 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
OK, I'm getting fed up with recieving 15 plus emails a day about utter crap.

I cant block the senders because they always come from different domains.

The question is;
Do I click the link on each email that says "unsubscribe" or whatever? I was told before NOT to as it would just tell the scrote that I was reading the emails and my account was active? Any ideas

ErnestM

11,615 posts

266 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
www.mcafee.com/myapps/msk/default.asp

or some such...

The only thing that products like this do not do is send a "fake" bad mail adress response. To do that, you would need a server based anti spam system...

ErnestM

dontlift

9,396 posts

257 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
Rob have a word with your ISP regarding SPAM, they may have filters which can be enabled for a small cost

TJMurphy

239 posts

262 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all


The question is;
Do I click the link on each email that says "unsubscribe" or whatever? I was told before NOT to as it would just tell the scrote that I was reading the emails and my account was active? Any ideas



Definitely not - confirms that your e-mail is working - and that you read the spam too.
Personally I use a Hotmail account whenever a website is looking for an e-mail address and that seems to keep my personal e-mail clear of spam. Of course, once you start getting spam it seems to never stop so that may be a bit like shutting the stable door at this stage.

annodomini2

6,860 posts

250 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
simple, change your email address

robp

Original Poster:

5,769 posts

263 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
Have sent Freeserve an email, will be waiting a few years for a response i am sure. The only thing that puts me off having a filter is that I'm paranoid that I'll miss some important emails.
Suppose its the best comprimise though

smeagol

1,947 posts

283 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
I have the similar problem. The nature of my business means spiders etc. get my email address dead easy. I have bought the spam inspector at:

www.giantcompany.com/company.aspx

Very good product. You still get spam but you can mark it as spam and never get more from the same email address. It also will bounce the email back although I'm not convciced on how effective this is. The main advantage is it quarentines them so you can check for any non-spam. My settings are quite low to accept if in doubt (some of my clients/students may email for the first time) but you can also set it to higher security (ie only from friends etc.) I've found it very useful. Hope that helps.

Robertuk

591 posts

261 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
Tips

1).You need two email addresses.

Much like a home number and a mobile number

you would give a mobile number to most people,
the home number is for friends and family.

Similarly, you have a work/personal email for trusted friends and contacts. Your second email is for mailing lists, online friends/associates, publishing on your website e.t.c

2). Never put your email address as a link on your website.
Ideally you could use a small image (GIF preferred)
with the text. These spiders/robots that crawl the web cannot read and harvest email address in this form.
(it takes the human eye to read it)

3.) never post your website address in newsgroups /public lists.

4.) If your part of a 11-a-side/car/tennis/events mailing list, make sure the admin /company in charge is using mailing list software. Just putting everyones email address in the cc field is bad. There are plenty of free mailing list programs which makes it easy for users to subscribe and unsubscribe.

5.) set up filters which weed out emails with

hair loss
septic tanks
build muscle fast
russian brides
(this is what my personal filters are set to)

Good luck !

smeagol

1,947 posts

283 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all


2). Never put your email address as a link on your website.
Ideally you could use a small image (GIF preferred)
with the text. These spiders/robots that crawl the web cannot read and harvest email address in this form.
(it takes the human eye to read it)


Not sure thats true I believe the spiders/robots read the HTML not the page. Therefore there is no difference between a text hyperlink and a graphic hyperlink as the HREF would be exactly the same.

zumbruk

7,848 posts

259 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all

smeagol said:


2). Never put your email address as a link on your website.
Ideally you could use a small image (GIF preferred)
with the text. These spiders/robots that crawl the web cannot read and harvest email address in this form.
(it takes the human eye to read it)


Not sure thats true I believe the spiders/robots read the HTML not the page. Therefore there is no difference between a text hyperlink and a graphic hyperlink as the HREF would be exactly the same.



I suspect he means that if you want to put your email address on a web page, put it in an IMG that cannot be read by a spider, rather than in an mailto: URL.

According to recent research, most spammers are getting their email addresses from web sites these days.

Robertuk

591 posts

261 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
sorry it was not clear.

That is exactly what I meant.

type your email address in a graphics program and save it. Then place this image on your page.
To email you, a person would have to type your address into their e-mail program.
Clicking on the image does nothing (it is not a hyperlink ).

Regards,

rsvnigel

600 posts

265 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
Another technique to hide your email address from spammers is to use a bit of javascrpt to write the email address on the client machine, simple spider programs shouldn't spot the email address that way e.g.

<html>
<body>
<a name="mailto" href="">email me</a>
<scrpt language="JavaScript1.1">
var me = "rsvnigel";
var at = "@";
var domain = "pistonheads.com";

document.links.mailto.href="mailto:" + me + at + domain;
</scrpt>
</body>
</html>

mrsd

1,502 posts

252 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all

Robertuk said:
5.) set up filters which weed out emails with

hair loss
septic tanks
build muscle fast
russian brides
(this is what my personal filters are set to)



Septic tanks ? I only ever get 'Rezolve [sic] your credit problem' and 'Impress the girls with your 10 inches...' (err , no thanks)

smeagol

1,947 posts

283 months

Monday 9th June 2003
quotequote all
Robert, fair enough

nevpugh308

4,398 posts

268 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all

rsvnigel said: Another technique to hide your email address from spammers is to use a bit of javascrpt to write the email address on the client machine, simple spider programs shouldn't spot the email address that way e.g.



email me

var me = "rsvnigel";
var at = "@";
var domain = "pistonheads.com";

document.links.mailto.href="mailto:" + me + at + domain;







rsvnigel : the above scrpt wont work .... I've spotted the "scrpt" should be "scrpt" (2 places) but even changing that, it just opens the folder where the .html file is held .... ?

Ta

Edited to say : is the forum changing / interpretting the scrpt ?

Edited to say : it must be ! cos I keep typing "s c r i p t" and it automatically removes the "i" .... so what else has it changed ?

>> Edited by nevpugh308 on Thursday 12th June 10:44

rsvnigel

600 posts

265 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all
I know it's Teds software keeps removing the 'i' from s c r i p t and J a v a S c r i p t... fookin VB programming numpties

Edited to say it is just the < s c r i p t > tag that has been renamed.

Edited again cos it freaked on < s and went into strikethough mode

>> Edited by rsvnigel on Thursday 12th June 11:04

nevpugh308

4,398 posts

268 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all
rsvnigel ...... still doesn't work mate ... this is what I've got :

< html>
< body>
< a name="mailto" href="">email me< /a>
< scr ipt language="JavaScr ipt1.1">
var me = "rsvnigel";
var at = "@";
var domain = "pistonheads.com";

document.links.mailto.href="mailto:" + me + at + domain;
< /scr ipt>
< /body>
< /html>

(ignoring the extra spaces of course)

but all it does it open a folder (my desktop as it happens, as that's where the html file is)

thanks for your help

rsvnigel

600 posts

265 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all
Bugger, I knocked up the code and tested it in Mozilla, IE doesn't like it give me a mo...

You need to replace the document... line with:

document.links[0].href="mailto:" + me + at + domain;

>> Edited by rsvnigel on Thursday 12th June 11:53

nevpugh308

4,398 posts

268 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all
Oooh ! Spot on !

Cheers mate .... I've been after something like that for ages !

simpo one

85,150 posts

264 months

Thursday 12th June 2003
quotequote all
One of my PC gurus set up a spam test. He opened a new account and sat back to wait for the spam to arrive. When it did, he studiously clicked on every 'unsubscribe' and 'delete' link that was provided. Some people say this is a bad idea because it simply tells the spammers that your address works. However, he said that 90% of the spam disappeared...

NB I find Message rules (Message/Create rule from message) are rather more useful than simply blocking e-mail. And several people are no longer on my TVR mailing list becasue they put anti-spam filters in and forgot to tell me!