How do I attempt to block a specific spam email I keep getting?

[BigToque]

The email is always about some stock, but the text is sent as a single image. The header always had a different address.

How do you find out the real source of the spam message?

 

[Alex]

there's probably a better solution than mine but if you can identify some common words in the subject or body you can try blocking e-mails with those keywords, regardless of the sender

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Image based spam is a bit harder to control, your best bet is to contact your email provider, web host providing email, etc. and ask them for recommendations.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

block email with embedded images

 

[BigToque]

Originally posted by: franguinho
there's probably a better solution than mine but if you can identify some common words in the subject or body you can try blocking e-mails with those keywords, regardless of the sender

There are no words in the body and the subject is always random (sometimes not even real words).

Here is an example of what the body of each message looks like:

symphonik.gif

The file name of the image is always random as well.

 

[archiloco]

getting these as well.... yeah a solution anybody??

 

[Slickone]

I've been getting those with medication lists/prices in an image for years.
Today I got one I haven't seen. Pic, with misc text about modding a car engine obviously taken from a forum, plus an image about stocks stuck between the text. The To field didnt have my address correctly (often like that).

 

[dartworth]

In the last 30 days, I have over 5K emails in my spam folder...:|

 

[Aves]

You'll likely need some kind of spam software. Either at your end or the ISP's.

The randomization of the addresses, filenames, etc is done specifically to prevent any simple filters from being able to block it.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Informative stuff on Pump and Dump stock spamming: :

http://oddhammer.com/index.php/site/com..._youll_get_rich_buying_into_it_really/
http://www.user-groups.net/safenet/0604-22_stock_scam.html

To date (that I can find) there is no spam filter that reads and blocks the images they use in the emails, and there is no way to block the address, since the emails are bounced around all over the planet before being fed to hijacked computers and then mailed to you. The spammers use all the normal tricks as well including buying domains, spamming from them for a few days, and then abandoning them like drug dealers using disposable cellphones (burners).

As Mikey suggested, you could block all messages containing images or attachments, but that screws you up when your relatives send pictures of the new baby or something. Other than that, I found this:

http://www.spamnation.info/stocks/FAQ.html

"3.3 Is there anything I can do?

The best thing is to try to filter the spam. Unfortunately, this isn't easy. Stock spammers try particularly hard to avoid spam filters. Recently, many of them have taken to sending their messages as embedded images accompanied by random 'hashbuster' text in order to get past filtering.

If your mail program or your mail server lets you write rules that 'score' incoming messages, you might want to give higher scores to messages with embedded images. Because stock spammers make heavy use of 'botnets' - networks of hijacked home and office PCs on dialup or broadband connections - you might also want to be suspicious of messages that originate from dialup/broadband hosts. Some ISPs or mail forwarding services can flag messages that were sent directly from such hosts.

Stock spammers like forging other people's addresses in the 'From:' lines of their messages. This makes them a candidate for filtering using SPF. If you manage your own mail server, you might want to consider rejecting or flagging mail that explicitly fails an SPF test."

If anyone else can shed some light or has any ideas, please share. They are coming in faster than I can ban them all.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm half tempted to set up a whitelist of people who regularly e-mail me and just block the rest. I once had a Mindspring e-mail account that got 120 spam e-mails A DAY, and using a whitelist was the only way I could get the spam under control.

As a bonus, you end up with a really well maintained address book. You better maintain it anyway... because if you forget to add someone, their message gets bounced back to them.

 

[skyking]

thunderbid is kicking butt on that type of spam. I don't know, maybe I got lucky training it.

 

[DeviousTrap]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
I'm half tempted to set up a whitelist of people who regularly e-mail me and just block the rest. I once had a Mindspring e-mail account that got 120 spam e-mails A DAY, and using a whitelist was the only way I could get the spam under control.

As a bonus, you end up with a really well maintained address book. You better maintain it anyway... because if you forget to add someone, their message gets bounced back to them.

It's really not worth the effort. What is the point of an email address if a person cannot contact you without first warning you that they will, and you adding them to your whitelist? As much as I hate it, something like cPanel's boxtrapper would be a much better solution.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: archiloco
getting these as well.... yeah a solution anybody??

Yeah, same here. They've been impossible for me to block so far. The ip address changes everytime as well. :|

 

[Slickone]

Originally posted by: DeviousTrap

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
I'm half tempted to set up a whitelist of people who regularly e-mail me and just block the rest. I once had a Mindspring e-mail account that got 120 spam e-mails A DAY, and using a whitelist was the only way I could get the spam under control.

As a bonus, you end up with a really well maintained address book. You better maintain it anyway... because if you forget to add someone, their message gets bounced back to them.

It's really not worth the effort. What is the point of an email address if a person cannot contact you without first warning you that they will, and you adding them to your whitelist? As much as I hate it, something like cPanel's boxtrapper would be a much better solution.

And if it's like the Earthlink whitelist thing, if I try to email someone (ie. an ebay seller) and get that automated message that I need to do something to add me, I just forget it. Especially since the one time I tried to get added to someone's, I couldnt get it to work right.