Help with Spam.

[Kiwifan]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me or suggest that it may be easier to get a new account. :)

A few years ago I used my Ziplip account on two racing forums, one since deceased and one pay-per-view ;) which was quite silly. The spam started but ziplip has a feature where you can block the domain, ie spam@taildraggers.com which was cool until this week when things changed. For some reason the spam stopped last week and I thought bloody great but they were only catching their breath. Now the sods are using spam@1.moosq.com, spam@2.moosq.com, spam@3.moosq.com or spam@'randomletters'.moosq.com. See the picture? Whereas before I could just block the moosq.com with the numbers and letters it's a case of whacking every number in. Grrrrr.

Should I just email everyone in the address book and tell them I have a new account or is there a way to foil the basterds? I have my private email addy, spam free and a hotmail account which is manageable but I still like my encrypted ziplip. ;)

Cheers, Rusty.

[Warlock!]

Help with Spam
Cut it about 3/4" thick and fry it a couple minutes on each side. Put it between some nice dense bread with onions and course-grained mustard... then ya got somethin'!

(sorry man... I'm hungry this mornin')

Winter Warlock!

[Insomniac]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me or suggest that it may be easier to get a new account. :)

A few years ago I used my Ziplip account on two racing forums, one since deceased and one pay-per-view ;) which was quite silly. The spam started but ziplip has a feature where you can block the domain, ie spam@taildraggers.com which was cool until this week when things changed. For some reason the spam stopped last week and I thought bloody great but they were only catching their breath. Now the sods are using spam@1.moosq.com, spam@2.moosq.com, spam@3.moosq.com or spam@'randomletters'.moosq.com. See the picture? Whereas before I could just block the moosq.com with the numbers and letters it's a case of whacking every number in. Grrrrr.

Should I just email everyone in the address book and tell them I have a new account or is there a way to foil the basterds? I have my private email addy, spam free and a hotmail account which is manageable but I still like my encrypted ziplip. ;)

Cheers, Rusty.

I'd say make a suggestion to Ziplip to allow you to block out a whole domain. So you can block using something like spam@*.moosq.com. Maybe they'll implement that feature. Especially if you explian how spammers are circumventing their filters.

[Mike Kellner]

Here are my standard instructions for dealing with spam. They work if followed.

First, you need two e-mail accounts. Get one at Yahoo or Hotmail, use it to register for everything that you need to register for that will allow you to use free accounts. Especially product registrations, free e-cards, contests, and free-bees. Change your e-mail account at your ISP to something similar to your current address, and mail it to those few people you really want to get mail from. Never give this account out to anyone you do not want to get mail from.

Then you need a smart e-mail client. I use Mozilla/Thunderbird*. Both have smart spam filters that learn from each item you mark as spam, or retrieve from the spam bucket and unmark, what you consider as spam and not spam. They are very efficient, and will toss 95% or more of the much smaller volume of spam you will still get.

Using this method I have had the same address for 18 months now, and get very little spam. My Yahoo account, on the other hand, is filled to overflowing with it. I go about once a week and dump the wastebasket, after doing a quick search for goodies. Yahoo also has a smart spam filter that does a good job of gleaning out what little important mail that ends up there, and putting it in the in-box, while putting spam in the spam bucket.

*Mozilla is the combined browser, e-mail, news group reader, and simple HTML editor, succssor to Netscape. Thunderbird is the e-mail & news group reader only. They also make Firefox, which is the stand alone browser. Both have a pop up killer. I use Firefox & Thunderbird. I live in a spam free, pop up free world, which is nice. The Mozilla products are also less vulnerable to attacks than IE/OE which most viri are designed to exploit. (Mozilla products are free)

http://www.mozilla.org/download.html

mk

[Kiwifan]

Thanks guys, my main email addy is spam free Mike but thanks for the tips. :thumbup: I do have a hotmail acc and use Mailwasher Pro so I can delete the sods from the server but this week they changed tack. :(

Thanks Insomniac, I may have to write to ziplip as I tried to block the domain earlier this week (like you suggested) but it didn't work.

Thanks to all for the input, even you Warlock! :)

Rusty.

[JoeBob]

Tell your ISP to sign up with postini: http://www.postini.com/

My ISP sends all mail through postini, and it does a great job of filtering spam. Some gets through, but very little. And, you can use whatever mail client you want. (I'm a Pegasus man, myself.)