Email spam

[Greyd]

Wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this. I've been using bigfoot.com email forwarding service for a long time and they've decided to sell off/give email addresses to outside parties. (have been doing it for awhile) Anyways I'm starting to get more and more spam in my mailbox and was curious about the "remove from email list" option. Does it actually work? do they really take you off of their email lists or give it to someone else? Or do they use it to check if you are really there?


Thanks for the help

 

[michaelh20]

I have heard from others that while they may take you off of "their" list, they can turn around and sell your address to others. My approach has been not to respond, and to just fine tune my filters (easiest one is to filter out mail not addressed to you or your email address)

 

[FOBSIDE]

you should never respond unless its a big company. big companies are normally responsible when it comes to their mailing lists. buy.com i wouldnt hesitate to unsubscribe from, or some other company like it. otherwise you shouldnt respond because if its spam, mail sent without your permission, then all your responding or click on the unsubscribe link does it lets them know youre a real person on the other end of the mail address. it often adds you to more mailing lists.

get a spamcop account. LINK basically this will parse through the headers of the mail and see which servers its gone through. itll report spammers to the hosts or notify administrators of open relays they have running, which spammers use to send their spam through. there are instructions on the web page on how to use your account. make sure youre reporting spam and not virus-sent emails or emails from people you dont like. every little bit helps but unfortunately with the high volume of spam everywhere its hard for spamcop to reduce the spam that comes through. youll notice over time though, that the spam doesnt come from the same people after a while.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

(easiest one is to filter out mail not addressed to you or your email address)

DING DING DING..We have a winner. Thats the best filter string to use and will probably cut about 90% of your spam problem. I worked on a friends computer who was without a internet connection for a week, tested his email settings by downloading his email...all 1245 of them...now thats what I call spam.