45 billion spam emails a day

[big x]

This is quite shocking...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2470742,00.html
Those involved in setting up the bots,and it's quite a small number, should be sent to the States where a 10 year prison sentence is available to the authorities.Most judges here are doddery old fools who have probably never used the internet apart from looking at spanking and corporal punishment fetish sites.

adam

 

[miro]

You may want to ask yourself why computers get faster and the internet doesnt.

These so called gangs are obviously making money doing these advertisements otherwise there would be no reason to risk criminal charges. Makes me wonder if SPAM is nothing more than a low quality TV commercial.

To be reasonable we must compare the bombardment with unwanted publicity in other media. Spammers are evading the law because they produce products which are no more unsolicited than TV, radio and print media.

I dont like SPAM but I find it impossible to differentiate from everything else.

If media companies had any idea on how to do it they most certainly would. They have already started attaching TV screens within the foyers near escalators so as you end your elevation you become aware of TV images at ceiling height. Rather annoying to say the least.

 

[Roger Jones]

Almost all of the spam that gets through to my computer is peddling offensive material. That's one difference for a start.

Spam clogs and slows down ISP systems to the detriment of other users. That's another.

The closest that other media come to spam is the mail-drop garbage that the Royal Mail delivers to you even though it is not addressed to you. That can be stopped. Next closest is the unsolicited commercial telephone call; that can also be stopped. All of these things -- including computer spam -- are delivered to you personally, and that's another dimension of their offensive nature, unlike broadcast media which by definition is undiscriminating and at least can be switched off.

For goodness sake don't entertain any thoughts of going soft on spam or it will be all over you. It is produced by criminals, even if their local laws haven't yet defined them as such. Report every instance, either to SpamCop

http://www.spamcop.net/

or directly to the source ISPs, who do want to hear from you, because spam is a serious problem for them. You can find out who they are. First, find their location by dropping their number into reverse DNS look-up at

http://www.dnsstuff.com/

or similar sites. You can get more detail there or from the regional authorities at:

Africa
http://www.afrinic.net/

Asia
http://www.ripe.net/whois

Europe
http://www.ripe.net/whois

Latin America
http://lacnic.net/cgi-bin/lacnic/whois?lg=SP

North America
http://www.arin.net/

Universal (but not always responsive)
http://www.uwhois.com/cgi/whois.cgi

You may find this relevant:

http://www.info-team.co.uk/spam-stopper.php

There are plenty of sites explaining how to identify the true source ISP after exposing all the headers in the spam message.

 

[miro]

I don't really need to do anything myself. My ISP filters all mail on my behalf.

I allowed the junk to transmit to my inbox for a couple of weeks and realised it had so many accurate checks that I would never lose a real email. So now it goes into junk before it arrives in my mail system.

The ISP systems now belong to a reporting network which is constantly updated. These reporting systems are the counter-network to SPAM systems.

As these systems evolve there will be as many systems deleting SPAM as there are systems generating it.

The only thing I can think of is that pharmacology students will get most of their emails deleted !

 

[wallingd]

I tend to just stick to a very limited number of sites than I know and trust. Dad must have got fooled by a realistic-looking error message a few weeks ago and immediately started getting 40 per day. We changed his email address (took just a few minutes)

I had trouble when I was on NTL a few years ago - apparently it was a well-known problem at their end.

<Changes his CD-ROM drive to make the internet faster>

 

[big x]

I've opted out of the Post Office unsolicited mail and registered with the marketing preference agency for mail and phone calls.Both work well,I don't get either.
I've also set up a mailbox on my ISP site so only mail actually addressed adam@xxx is forwarded to me which cuts out all the bounced stuff.
I have had a few stock option ones with the disguised word format come through in the last 3 days.A never ending war.It's becoming clear to me that many people who are not internet technically minded are missing the real emails I've sent them due to the weight of spam they are wading through.

adam

 

[SEM]

Little tip for people who use pop 3 and outlook. If you go to your account settings and where your logon information is. eg: Username: & password. Put in your FULL email address. you will only pick up the mail for that email name

 

[masqueraid]

And instructions for Outlook Express here

 

[Silvertank]

Most judges here are doddery old fools who have probably never used the internet apart from looking at spanking and corporal punishment fetish sites.

adam

That's not fair, I do that, and I'm certainly not a judge!

 

[Spinal]

Though I'm TOTALLY against spam, and was all FOR that nice little program that bounced allt he spam received to the websites/companies/products they were advertisig (sorry, forgot their name... the spammers DDoS'ed them and they had to close...); I MUST disagree with this:

Spam clogs and slows down ISP systems to the detriment of other users. That's another.

To watch a 20 minute simpson episode on Sky1, I must sit in front of the TV for 30 minutes. Why? Because 10 of those minutes are adverts (read SPAM)... That slows down both me and anyone relying on me for something
QUOTE=Roger Jones]
The closest that other media come to spam is the mail-drop garbage that the Royal Mail delivers to you even though it is not addressed to you. That can be stopped. Next closest is the unsolicited commercial telephone call; that can also be stopped. All of these things -- including computer spam -- are delivered to you personally, and that's another dimension of their offensive nature, unlike broadcast media which by definition is undiscriminating and at least can be switched off.
[/QUOTE]
I still get daily Junk mail, even though I opted out from it. I get mail from all my local companies, from the random political parties, and from other random companies who somoene got my business card or address somewhere (like Delta Force, who got my address on an insurance form eons ago, and still spams me)

For goodness sake don't entertain any thoughts of going soft on spam or it will be all over you. It is produced by criminals, even if their local laws haven't yet defined them as such. Report every instance, either to SpamCop

Totally agree with that. IMO the main problem with spam is the sheer volume of it. With any other form of advertising costs depend on quantity. 1 letter is 50p, 100 letters is £50. Prices go up. One billboard is £500; 10 billboards are £5000. With spam, one email is a click away, one billion emails is just another click away... You might receive the same thing again and again. The adverts are not passed through ANY censorship boards, not approved, and most offensively, try to pass as other emails. How many people have opened an email like "Re: (no subject)" (I've stopped sending no subject emails now ).

Spam is the Spawn of a very evil creature, (insert religious name if you prefer: Satan, Fekhlar, etc). Problem is, so are most types of non-controlled invasive advertising...

Forget witch hunts, I'm all up for burning on a stake anyone who sens SPAM!

 

[WLeg]

Junk mail filter in Outlook 2003 - set it so that everything that is not explicitly approved goes to junk mail folder. And remember to check your junk mail folder every few days !!

 

[Flyer]

Though I'm TOTALLY against spam, and was all FOR that nice little program that bounced allt he spam received to the websites/companies/products they were advertisig (sorry, forgot their name... the spammers DDoS'ed them and they had to close...

Blue Security (Blue Frog bot); interesting article in November's Wired about how they were taken down.

It's not just spam that's a problem either; my hosting company have just been subjected to a major DDoS attack that took every one of their sites (c. 87,000 domains) down for several hours. Doesn't make for happy clients