ICQ Messages - how to stop the spam???

[gtd2000]

I have been a user of ICQ for some 4 years and have built up quite a collection of "friends" via this very useful piece of software but it is becoming irritating with the number of "view my webcam" messages that I am receiving from "Becky", "Amy", "Emma" etc etc.

I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but I think it is ridiculous that I should be consistently receiving porn site messages when I have no interest in the bloody things - I'm more of a participator than a spectator to speak

I have changed all my security settings to stop URL's being sent from people outwith my contact list. This also applies to e-mail express and www pager.

Is there any way to stop messages "containing" URL's from being received from unknown users - I don't want to completely stop messages from "unknown" users as there are often old friends of mine that "discover" that I am using ICQ and wish to add me to their list or message me etc Or being totally honest that fabled really hot (unknown) babe that messages you to meet her that weekend and sort her out

 

[rcraig]

I recently started using Trillian. It's an IM that interfaces with ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, IRC and MSN. It gives you the options of not accepting any messages from people not on your ICQ list as well as several others. So far, I haven't goten any ICQ spam ince usint this. It's freeware and doesn't have the ads that ICQ has either.

Trillian Link

Hope this helps.

RCraig

 

[Raspewtin]

trillian is great, but i am getting icq spam over it. i wonder if i set it wrong

 

[gtd2000]

I have a download of Trillian on my PC.

I did try it briefly a couple of months ago and ended up reverting back to the original programs for reasons that I can't remember now

I'll maybe re-load it and give it another try

 

[FOBSIDE]

the software cant actually stop the spam being sent. it can choose not to receieve it but the only way that i know you can do that is by not receiving messages from people on your list. if you do that, someone that is not on your list that you may want to add to your list cant message you and youll never know they exist. its not the software. i dunno how to stop the spam either. ive been getting about one a day recently. for now i just delete them. my friend adds them to his ignore list but i dont think its the same person every time and i think that list gets quite big after a while.

 

[gtd2000]

Yeah they all generally start with the numbers 14XXXXXXX - I just add to the ignore list - that way I don't delete them repeatedly - there must be some way of filtering the messages "do not accept messages that contain www. - from unknown users".

I'm not saying that this option is available now but it should be something that could easily be enabled.

Have you also seen the spam bots that they have now also? Got my first one the other night - it even sends you replies...lol. I was quite impressed really

 

[Staver]

There is a setting to accept messages only from users on your list. This excludes requests for additions which are system based. I have had this setting turned on for several years after I received the first spam, and have never gotten any since. I wish email spam filtering was this easy.

 

[gtd2000]

So you mean just choose to ignore everybody not on your contact list, then you will only receive "unknown" messages from users wishing to be added to your list?

That sounds reasonable - I was just concerned that I would not receive any future messages other than those from my current contacts