disabling HTML to stop spam ...

[rh71]

Is it a myth that HTML emails which load images can be used to trackback to the server, registering which email addresses it sends to are actually "live" accounts ?

I heard this once and it was enough for me to disable HTML altogether.

 

[imported_Phil]

No it's not a myth.
Outlook 2003 blocks images by default for a reason

 

[Sphexi]

I've seen some very sophisticated setups out there. Some are to the point where they send you the email with some fancy code in it (not so fancy actually) with a unique ID number in it, and when you read the email it obviously goes back to their server to load the images, and they register that ID number and have just verified that your email address is indeed active and used. Floods of spam will then ensue.

So yeah, disabling HTML is probably a good idea anyways, as well as turning off the Preview Pane in Outlook if you use it. You don't want people sending you emails to be able to run scripts/html in it, that's just ridiculous. Normal people don't send fancy HTML emails, most companies don't either, and the ones that do have an option for a non-html email.

 

[rh71]

I see entire spam messages as a single jpg nowadays... it could've been done to elude the text-filters. I just want to be sure that it can also be used as a trackback mechanism for email addresses.

EDIT>> I guess it's confirmed.

 

[tami]

interesting. too bad Microsoft's Junk Email protection sucks.

 

[eLiu]

Is there any program like Pine in Windows?

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: tami
interesting. too bad Microsoft's Junk Email protection sucks.

I think Hotmail has improved spam filtering a ton. Yahoo is still killing me and my webhost uses Webmail which does not have HTML disabling at all (I emailed them about it). I can always POP3 it, but it's actually slower for me to do that.

 

[wbresson]

Yes it can be, I used to do it with a non-spam email list so that I could tell how many people were actually reading the email. Its the images that matter, not the html.

 

[aux]

Originally posted by: eLiu
Is there any program like Pine in Windows?

pine itself has Windows version

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: aux

Originally posted by: eLiu
Is there any program like Pine in Windows?

pine itself has Windows version

*feels stupid*

thanks I'll look into that then

 

[imported_LoKe]

Gmail automatically blocks external images, unless you want them displayed.

 

[aux]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: tami
interesting. too bad Microsoft's Junk Email protection sucks.

I think Hotmail has improved spam filtering a ton. Yahoo is still killing me and my webhost uses Webmail which does not have HTML disabling at all (I emailed them about it). I can always POP3 it, but it's actually slower for me to do that.

If your webhost supports IMAP you can try that.

Edit: with IMAP you can delete the obvious spam from the server without even downloading the whole messages

 

[jfall]

get a domain name and don't advertise it anywhere, setup an e-mail account on it and only use it for personal use. Then use a gmail/hotmail account for all your website registrations and other sh!t. I've been doing this for years and never get spam

 

[nakedfrog]

Valid emails (newsletters and such) also use this technique for reporting. That way you can tell how many people actually read an HTML email versus how many you sent it to and so forth.

 

lately i've been altering my email address with +text to keep track of where i used it.

so lets say i register here at AT, i'd register with troy+anandtech@troytime.com

if i ever get spam sent to that address, i know anandtech sold my info, i can then take action and filter out all mail sent to that address.