Question about reducing spam

[The Raven]

I tried OT first because I thought I would get a ton of views and subsequent help. But it didn't work out that way.

I have noticed several people that have modified thier e-mail addresses by adding the words UNSUBSCRIBE or REMOVE in them in an effort to reduce the amont of spam received.

Does any one know if this works or how to use it effectively?

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

[corkyg]

Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. Those links really can't be trusted. They can sometimes lead to malware. I screen all my mail before downloading using Mailwasher Pro 5.2. It lets you delete crap off of your POP3 box before downloading - you can also inspect it, headers, etc. And, you can bounce it back to the sender.

My primary line of Spam defense, however, is with my ISP. It is part of the Nationwide family, and uses Can-It by RoaringPenguins. That traps about 95% of all my spam automatically. I review it daily to make sure something I want hasn't been trashed. They hold all rejected mail for a week.

Bottom line - Spam never reaches my PC.

 

[The Raven]

Sorry I think maybe I wasn't clear about this. I meant that I have seen people that post their email like this on Anandtech: Mail Me
Note the link contained therein.

Thanks

 

[The Raven]

Oh and also I forgot to mention that I use Gmail and have zero problems with spam in the inbox. But to help those still using outlook...

Also I think it would be nice if I didn't get 6 spams a day in my spam folder so that i don't accidently lose something good in the fracus.

 

[The Raven]

Sorry, bump for disbelief.

Has no one even seen this used?

I'm not on here that much and I've seen it.

Thanks again!

 

[Lord Evermore]

The AT forum software automatically adds the REMOVE into your email address in your profile if you make it visible.

Adding any sort of nonsense to your email address will help to some degree in preventing spam. People use REMOVE or something like that in order to make it obvious to actual humans that the word needs to be taken out in order to get the real email address. The way it prevents spam is that many spammers using software bots to read through pages on forums and websites looking for email addresses. If they find your address with REMOVE added, they'll try to send email directly to that adress including REMOVE, so it won't ever get to you.

Of course it's not foolproof, as a spammer could write a bot which knows that any email addresses coming from for example AT which have REMOVE in them, the bot needs to strip that out to get the actual address. But at least you prevent the spam from the ones that don't bother to do that.

Another way some people try to foil spammers is writing their address with spaces in it, like "me @ domain.com", or in such ways as "meATdomain.com" or similar. Again it works to varying degrees, but at least hinders the spammers who don't put a little more effort into it.

If your email address is anywhere online, no matter how you try to obfuscate it, you're going to be likely to get some spam. That's why most people "in the know" use spam-catcher addresses whenever possible, such as a Yahoo or Gmail or Hotmail account, to sign up for forums and stuff (like when you have to register to download software). If like AT you can't use certain mail providers, many ISPs provide 5 or even more email addresses for every account, so you can just make a spamcatcher address that way. Of course with any spamcatcher that you use to sign up for something that could result in you getting legitimate email, you have to monitor the account anyway. That's why 3rd party spam filters are popular.

 

[The Raven]

Wow thanks for the detailed reply!

I had no idea that AT did that by default. Interesting.
For our business I think it would be best to use a form for initial contact, and e-mail thereafter. So that will prevent future spam, but I was hoping that there would be a way to repair past damage.

Again, thanks a lot!