littlebone Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 These three e-mails were in my inbox for hotmail this morning. I'm sorry to say that I didn't open them so I don't know what "H gh" is. But if I ever need to save money on it, Colin, Rowddy or Claude would be where I'd surely go.Dr_Colin: You Deserve.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $.Dr_Rowddy: For You.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $.Dr_Claude: For You.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volunteer Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 These three e-mails were in my inbox for hotmail this morning. I'm sorry to say that I didn't open them so I don't know what "H gh" is. But if I ever need to save money on it, Colin, Rowddy or Claude would be where I'd surely go.Dr_Colin: You Deserve.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $.Dr_Rowddy: For You.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $.Dr_Claude: For You.. a Free Month Trial of H gh. Save $. I can't imagine that these "marketeers" can make money this way. Maybe they just resell the same email lists. I have several backup email address that I have never used. I login once a month to keep them active and there is always 40-80 spam messages covering the full range of "offers".The email providers or someone with records access must be selling lists of their clients. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebone Posted August 6, 2003 Author Share Posted August 6, 2003 It was interesting to see that the three senders were different and that there were two different subjects. Obviously some program generating sender names and subject lines and combining them. One of the bothersome things about this is that even though a computer was used to generate the e-mails, there was so little concern for me that they didn't bother to have the program weed out duplicate addressees, so I get three of these pieces of garbage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 Human Growth Hormone??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 Yes, it can be profitable to spam. Believe it or not but if you send out 10 million emails, 40 or 50 people [suckers?] will likely respond.Good story here today on MSN:http://www.msnbc.com/news/941040.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 I suppose that does make sence. It doesn't cost much to send emails, so you figure they have to making a profit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 In the 10 years or so that I've been on the web, I have only just started getting spam emails (say within the last week). I always uncheck the silly checkboxes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebone Posted August 8, 2003 Author Share Posted August 8, 2003 In the 10 years or so that I've been on the web, I have only just started getting spam emails (say within the last week). I always uncheck the silly checkboxes...The hotmail account here is my "throw-away", the one I use because I assume that giving it out to even legitimate sites will eventually result in spam. I do uncheck the boxes that allow vendors to share, but who knows if they honor this?Human Growth Hormone???That seems to fit. I assume there is a market for this? Are there illicit uses for this? Is this like Viagra or like Anabolic Steroids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 That seems to fit. I assume there is a market for this? Are there illicit uses for this? Is this like Viagra or like Anabolic Steroids?Is there a pharmacist in the house? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 A non-working one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 How did I know you were going to answer that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volunteer Posted August 9, 2003 Share Posted August 9, 2003 An interesting article on spam and one reporter's quest to trace the origin of a email spam.Who profits from spam? Surprise, many companies with names you know are benefiting.http://www.msnbc.com/news/940490.asp?0dm=B214TKen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebone Posted August 9, 2003 Author Share Posted August 9, 2003 An interesting article on spam and one reporter's quest to trace the origin of a email spam.Who profits from spam? Surprise, many companies with names you know are benefiting.http://www.msnbc.com/news/940490.asp?0dm=B214TKenIt was interesting to see that MSNBC has a mini-survey at the end of the article, asking how spam has affected the reader. And, oh yes, they ask for your name, address and e-mail. I wonder if anyone reads the article and then fills that information in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 9, 2003 Share Posted August 9, 2003 An interesting article on spam and one reporter's quest to trace the origin of a email spam.Who profits from spam? Surprise, many companies with names you know are benefiting.http://www.msnbc.com/news/940490.asp?0dm=B214TKenIt was interesting to see that MSNBC has a mini-survey at the end of the article, asking how spam has affected the reader. And, oh yes, they ask for your name, address and e-mail. I wonder if anyone reads the article and then fills that information in. I sent Bob Sullivan, the author a note after his first article using my real email address because they didn't have or I didn't notice the form at that point. But it doesn't matter to me. My spam blocking is virtually 100% effective using K9. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryM Posted August 9, 2003 Share Posted August 9, 2003 My Hotmail account is also a throw away account. I have the filter set so that only the names in my address book, or on my safe list will get to my in-box. All others are junk and are immediately deleted. If I use it for a forum to get a password, I set the junk filter to empty in 7 days. That way I can go to it and have the forum on my safe list.Jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 9, 2003 Share Posted August 9, 2003 Here is a funny site devoted to playing with the people that send these hoaxes out.Also, as I've said, I've started receiving spam only recently. What annoys me is that these spam emails have other people in the CC area of the email. This implies to me that others are also getting my email address from this spam. THAT annoys me much more than getting unsolicited spam that I missed a checkbox for. Now, all these other people could be using my email address they got from the spam to give me more spam (or perhaps selling email addresses?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Here is a funny site devoted to playing with the people that send these hoaxes out.Also, as I've said, I've started receiving spam only recently. What annoys me is that these spam emails have other people in the CC area of the email. This implies to me that others are also getting my email address from this spam. THAT annoys me much more than getting unsolicited spam that I missed a checkbox for. Now, all these other people could be using my email address they got from the spam to give me more spam (or perhaps selling email addresses?). Oh yeah, that's a big problem! If you send a few friends a joke, you can virtually guarantee that someone will forward it onto someone else and then that target will do so also, etc. Your email address WILL eventually wind up with some who is a spammer or sells it to a spammer. Similarly, sending a resume to a headhunter will almost definitely get your address sold to someone eventually.I use disposable email addresses in many cases these days (for registering for forums, when buying on Amazon, etc). I'm partial to http://www.spammotel.com. However, the problem is that use of these type of services all require some sort of form to type the new address into to send mail to someone and start the chain off on. I have yet to find any of the disposable email services with POP3 client integration (Outlook in my case), that would allow you to create and initiate use of a disposable email address right from the client. I would be willing to pay for a service like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 ...that would allow you to create and initiate use of a disposable email address right from the client. I would be willing to pay for a service like that.You lost me with this part. I understood using a pop3 client for a disposable email addy. I use a program called YahooPoPs. I was a bit unhappy about Yahoo disabling pop3 access except to "premium" subscribers, but then I realized they had to make (more) money somehow. I assume this is legal (YahooPoPs, that is ), but who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrainey Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 I installed MSN Messenger for the first time, and in the process signed up for a free hotmail account. I never used the account or posted my address anywhere. Within a day I had two offers for "enhancements" that you'd never read about in a biology text.How did they get my address? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 Within a day I had two offers for "enhancements" that you'd never read about in a biology text.Either that or you'll know how to get a Russian bride...My "other" brother has a system that he uses that he thinks gets rid of spam. He sets up mailing lists for joke forwarding and such with everyone Bcc'd and no one in the To or Cc fields. I haven't asked him if that helps or not but it might. If the addresses are in the message, embedded somewhere, spammers will have a harder time digging it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted August 10, 2003 Share Posted August 10, 2003 I installed MSN Messenger for the first time, and in the process signed up for a free hotmail account. I never used the account or posted my address anywhere. Within a day I had two offers for "enhancements" that you'd never read about in a biology text.How did they get my address?This is based on the fact that Hotmail lists are available to almost anyone for the right price... I NEVER use a hotmail account because there's no way to avoid spam as many spammers can buy the member list and only target Hotmail (because so many people use it)...Try a good service like http://www.fastmail.fm They've got free Web/IMAP email with NO SPAM incoming if you protect yourself... I've had an account there for a couple years and have yet to receive a piece of junkmail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 Within a day I had two offers for "enhancements" that you'd never read about in a biology text.Either that or you'll know how to get a Russian bride...My "other" brother has a system that he uses that he thinks gets rid of spam. He sets up mailing lists for joke forwarding and such with everyone Bcc'd and no one in the To or Cc fields. I haven't asked him if that helps or not but it might. If the addresses are in the message, embedded somewhere, spammers will have a harder time digging it up. It can help but it depends on what your email client does with the addresses. I've heard that with some, all the addresses are still in the header under BCC and can therefore be pulled out of the header. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 ...that would allow you to create and initiate use of a disposable email address right from the client. I would be willing to pay for a service like that.You lost me with this part. I understood using a pop3 client for a disposable email addy. I use a program called YahooPoPs. I was a bit unhappy about Yahoo disabling pop3 access except to "premium" subscribers, but then I realized they had to make (more) money somehow. I assume this is legal (YahooPoPs, that is ), but who knows. You are mixing up mail forwarding with disposable addresses. Two different things. Both do forward somewhere.However, with a disposable email address, you can allocate a DIFFERENT email address for every single email that you send. Under spammotel, I currently have 26 different email addresses allocated. Each one was allocated for a single purpose and forwards to my real email account. For instance, my email address on this forum is a spammotel address. If any one address becomes compromised, I can delete it and stop all mail forwarding from it. Anyone who then tries to send to that address will get a bounce. If you get an email from someone through spammotel and reply to it, it goes back through spammotel and is "cleansed" of any clues related to your real email address or ISP.So let's say I need to allocate a disposable address. That is easy enough for me to do with spammotel. The question is how do I use that address to send an email from my email client? In my case, I can't because my ISP won't let me change my email address in account settings (using Outlook 2002) to stop relaying, which is used by spammers to hide their original tracks. And even if I could change my email address, it would still show my ISP info.What is needed, is the ability to create an email in the client, send the email to the disposable vendor who will then "cleanse" the email of my root settings and then forward the mail onto the destination. I've looked at a lot of these services but haven't yet found anyone who offers this functionality from within the client. The value of doing this form within the client is that you have a copy of the original email and can store it in your folder structure (my Outlook PST is about 80mb at this time and I save a lot of email that I send and receive).If this interface existed, you could theoretically have hundreds or thousands of email addresses. Every single time you sent a new email to someone, you would create an address for them and them only. They would always see the email address allocated just for them. If they then forwarded the email to someone else and that someone else spammed the original address, you would know who was the weak link. You could then disable the address you used (no more spam on that address then), allocate a new one for your friend and maybe tell him not to forward your emails to anyone else. If you started out as a new user following this scheme, you would almost never get much spam and any you got would be because of a compromised address that you could quickly dispose of.The single email address for a single person or use would solve a lot of spam problems.I hope this helps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 Interesting.I am not entirely sure why you would want something like that. It seems an extremely complicated process just to avoid the slight bit of spam you would get if you were very careful with what you subscribed to. Wouldn't it be an ultimate irony to have this "service" sell your original information to other lead generators or whoever? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 Interesting.I am not entirely sure why you would want something like that. It seems an extremely complicated process just to avoid the slight bit of spam you would get if you were very careful with what you subscribed to. Wouldn't it be an ultimate irony to have this "service" sell your original information to other lead generators or whoever?Oh, I'm careful these days. But wasn't back in the past. How's about 115 spam emails daily strike you? That's what I am totaling these days.Once you get on any spam list, you're email address will be sold or traded to others in the business and you will never stop receiving spam, it will only increase.Of course, my spam filter program (K9) traps them all but with disposable addresses, you probably wouldn't need spam filter programs.As to the service selling the real email address, that is definitely a risk. Despite all the privacy guarantees in the world, all it takes is one employee to steal the data and sell it (I believe I have experienced this in the past). Hmmm, maybe need to add another level of email indirection (a second email address that forwards from the disposable addresses to your real email address). But that would be subject to compromise also. Oh well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonegiant Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 I think we both see the infinite regression of the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 What about periodically changing your email addy?Or make a new set of email addresses for spam? Might take a while to get switched over but would be worth it during the time that the spam people would catch up.You sound like you're getting hammered with spam...a lot more than the rest of us. What works for you is likely inappropriate for us negligible receivers of spam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebone Posted August 12, 2003 Author Share Posted August 12, 2003 Another Doc checked in today: Dr_Kain who also thinks that H gh will cure what ails me, or at least that I "deserve" H gh. I wonder if (s)he would be pissed if (s)he knew about the other docs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 Another Doc checked in today: Dr_Kain who also thinks that H gh will cure what ails me, or at least that I "deserve" H gh. I wonder if (s)he would be pissed if (s)he knew about the other docs.Hmmm. Don't forget Viagra. HGH + Viagra could be a potent combination Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 spam is a bit over-rated. i've had a domain name i own and can set up all emails i want. my personal one, i've used as my main email for over 4 years now. i get ONE or TWO junk mail a week, if that. and if i go to website i dont trust, they get my hotmail account which has about 300 junk mails a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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