Ed Bott's Microsoft Challenge--10/5/00

Different e-mail clients demand different solutions. I'll describe my various e-mail accounts which must be public, and the ease or difficulty of anti-spamming each.

My HOTMAIL has two features which are pretty good -- Block Sender and Bulk Mail. The Block Sender feature is a "never allow this inDUHvidual to send me mail again" and is quite successful against all spammers except those who can change their e-mail address each time. The Bulk Mail feature screens all e-mail with more than a user-configured number of addressees into a separate folder. This occasionally captures listserver traffic (depending on the sophistication of the listserver) but is otherwise pretty good. The down side of Hotmail is that you have to read it from MSN, there is no forwarding capability.

My permanent e-mail address (a web-based SSL e-mail provided by my employer) has no tools to help me. Therefore I forward that mail to my Exchange mail.

My Exchange mail, which changes for each new job location, has the usual Outlook 9x Rules Wizard for client-side and server-side filters. These are quite useful but don't seem to work on mail forwarded from my permanent address, I can't figure out why.

My Juno mail has no spam-busing capability.But with Juno you get what you pay for.

It is possible, using a combination of DNS lookups and careful reading of message headers, to determine where the spam really came from. I used to write the postmaster for any servers through with the spamwas relayed. However, I have never gotten an answer of any kind from these e-mails and, therefore, don't bother anymore.

The thing I suggest you avoid is responding to the spam in any way. That just verifies to the spammer that his web-bots arereturning good e-mails and you'll probably get more spam in the future.

I pretty much rely on the Rules Wizard in Outlook to take care of e-mail I don't want. Besides its junk e-mail filters, it also allows you to delete or move messages based on words in the message--it's not always perfect, but it does keep messages about Freelance Graphics out of my mailbox and ones about PowerPoint in.

Furthermore, you can use it to keep jokes out of your inbox by filtering for the words "joke" and "Fw: funny"--this helped protect my group against a virus that ran rampant awhile ago. Plus, joke e-mails are counterproductive anyway!

I have two email addresses. One of them I use for corresponding by email, and the other is a spamcatcher. I created an account at a free email service (hotmail, etc..) and use this email address whenever a suspect web page asked for an email address. I have the mailbox rules set to delete anything recieved.

One thing I do is have an account on an old email system that I don't even use for websites that request an e-mail address that I know will either use or abuse for the purpose of spamming. As well, I am always very cautious when filling out information to make sure and check/uncheck the "I would like to receive e-mails from X company". The third and final thing I do to prevent spamming is to make sure when I get a solicitation from a company, that I either respond to the e-mail to remove me from their mailing, or to select the hyperlinks that e-mails may have at the bottom to have you removed. I don't think that filters are 100% accurate, and I am afraid that I may get an email that might have information that I need to know.

I get approximately 20 junk messages a day hitting my Exchange box and they are dumped to a "dead letters" drop if the address is not specifically on the domain. The ones that do get through are handled by the Outlook clients rules. This seems to work well for all but a small fraction of the spam. For spam fighting I use combat.uxn.com and geektools.com. I get great results and even some get replies from offending postmasters.

Hotmail has a good filtering utility, but you say you already have an e-mail. If you are using a POP account there is a third party utility that I use called SpamKiller 2. Available at http://www.spamkiller.com , it uses less resources than leaving Microsoft Outlook open and checks my mail every minute. It also automatically gets updates for the filters, and you can add your own.

Rather than just using filters, I use multiple email accounts, all serviced through the same email client. For work, where I get just about zero spam, the company uses Outlook. Personally I use Outlook Express or Eudora (starting to play with Poco).

I use different addresses for different types of things. For high risk sites or sites I don't trust, I use one account. For sites I buy personal stuff from, I use another, for business purchases another, and for personal mail, another.

Then I use filtering on all of these. Each goes into its own folder, and I have spam filters for all incoming mail. The filters delete obvious spam, but I'd rather err on the side of keeping it than deleting it. The advantage of using multiple accounts is that I can set different strengths of filters on each account. For example, my personal account is very tightly controlled. But I'm more willing to let unknown people email me in my other accounts. That way I can address the stuff that's important to me, and put off the other accounts until I have some free time.

It sounds complicated, but setting up the accounts is the "tough" part. Once it's done, the rest is easy. And maintaining on a day to day basis is very simple.

Mark

There is a simple way if you can start from the beginning with spam. I have always used one email address for any internet situation such as posting news, ftp usernames, website registrations and surveys. I use a simple address for this and then have a more descriptive address that I only give out to business colleages and friends. This way I can setup a rule on my email client to send all mail sent to the simple address straight to a junk mail folder, and only people with the "secret" address can get messages straight to my inbox.

Simple but effective. This can be done with most accounts as you can have more than one alias. i.e. someone@somewhere.com and simple@somewhere.com

Regards

Richard
Richard Grundy (rpg@interoil.com)

Either use the Rules Wizard or have your Network Admin block a site from sending to your mailbox (Delivery Restrictions.

The only way, that I have effectively, kept spam out my inbox, that I really don't want to have spam in, is to have a seperate e-mail account. I keep out my business/corporate/non-spam address private, and my give out my e-mail, from a free web e-mail service. It also serves dual-purpose: I send my techmails, to my web account, So, my address won't be given out, and also the main reason, I like reading my tech mails, and if I ever stop working at my current employer or, switch ISP's there's no hassle. Also, Hotmail, does a pretty decent job with spam. I've learned to accept it after all these years, so the bulk mail filter, is a breath of fresh air.

Ryan

I have used the same email client for many years - PMMail ( first under OS/2 and now under Win2K ) - which has a "remote control" option. Using this feature you download a header listing of waiting email and mark each for for deletion or download. If I don't recognize the sender or subject the message gets deleted.

I have been using Mail Essentials from GFI, a 3rd party utility, for blocking spam from reaching our mail server for the last 6 months. It has reduced spam almost to zero. This only applies if you have a mail server.
For info check:
www.gfi.com

Well what I find works best for me is this. Definately Setup a hotmail account or some sort of free HTML based email on the web. Then everytime you download software, or need to join something on the web use the free email as your address. Idont even check my email on the web unless i just signed up for something and need to get info off of it to successfully loging somewhere. The only time you should use your real email address is for places like here (techrepublic) where the emails they send you actually matter.

For your Outlook Express and your Outlook 98/2000 (I pray you are not using Outlook 97, if you are UPGRADE) you can use the inbox assistant and Rules Wizards pretty efectively, not only to get rid of spam but I can sort my email very effectively, this way you can read what you feel like reading. When all those Jobs are filling your inbox they could be filling the jobs folder and maybe they wont be cluttering up your inbox pushing those important emails below the preview pane.

Anyhow thats my 2cents
Thanks for reading =)
jmecucci@home.com

I tell everyone that I WANT to hear from to start the subject line with their initials (example: 'J.F.K.'). I then set rules to send these messages to individual directories. Any newsletters I get have the same subject line every time, so they get adirectory each. Anything left in the inbox is potential spam. I also have rules that send obvious spam subjects (example: '$$$$$', 'millions', 'you can') to the trash! I spend a little time maintaining this system but it is alot less than sifting spam for what I need to see...

I have tried every form of spam busting. The only logical choice is three e-mail addresses. One for the public, one for sign-ups for web sites, etc., and one that you use for private mail. It works, and so far it is the only thing I have found that does.

Aside from the mangled address for newsgroups (NpOiSePsAcMiNkOpS@PeAaMrNtOhSlPiAnMk.net), I had been interpreting headers by hand and forwarding mail to all postmasters involved. Occasionally I got a couple wrong, but.

Next I discovered SpamCop (spamcop.net) which did the work for me and forwarded the mail on my behalf. Several dozen spammers lost accounts this way (no applause--just send money).

Finally I discovered BrightMail, Inc. (www.brightmail.com) with their email proxy, spam-filtering service. Best of all, Earthlink teamed up with BrightMail to provide "Spaminator" which works even when I retrieve my mail via WebMail@Earthlink.

About 95% of the spam never reaches me; the rest is forwarded to BrightMail, never to darken my mailbox again.

My sugesstion is with the first answer... get hotmail which can dirict your unwanted spam mail to a special folder and then you can delete the entire folder every week. Yahoo has a similiar service but they can also delete the folders on a regular basis so you dont have to... addresses are www.hotmail.com or www.yahoomail.com

I manage a fairly small mailserver of about 60 users. We use Mailwatch.com to screen and filter all our incoming mail. It checks for keywords typical of Spam and gives each one a point value. I set the number of points that I want the mail logged, quarantined or deleted. For example the term "not MLM" may score 40 points. This in combination with multiple Free and Click references would score the average Spam high enough to be blocked. Any legitimate sites that are quarantined can be addedto a do not block list. This service also scans for virus and malicious code. I originally went with the service as a stop gap measure and planned to replace it with something in-house. Now that I am using it I decided the minimal cost is less than I would spend trying to stay ahead of the spammers.

For myself, I find that filters work best.

It started with my creating a filter that deleted anything with aol.com in the senders address. I didn't know anybody there and the volumes of junk mail I rec'd with real and forged address was astounding.

Gradually I added other filters, the next being a filter to send anything not addressed directly to me to a box called SPAM. As time when on I added more that redirect specific mailings to specific boxes. Presorted mail is great.

This isn't an instant solution, but it allows me to tailor the email problem to my liking.

I do not attempt to stop spam from coming through my e-mail. Instead I am trying a different approach. Each time I receive a spam message I send a response thanking them for their product info and informing them that because I care I will be fowarding all spam that I receive to them for their evaluation. Then I setup a contact list and add their addresses to it. Each time I receive spam I foward it to everyone on my contact list.

I've been using different email accounts. When a site request an email address, I use one of my dummy account. But when I see that the site is good and no spam is done, I change it to my email add. I also use filtering in Exchange to filter out jokes and move them to folders.
But spam doesn't only occur outside the company, it may also happen inside. Example when a user tries to send something to everyone and somebody replies "to all" your mailbox get to be flooded and it won't stop for days or even weeks specially if all joins in. My solution to this is filter and sends them reply automatically to let them realize they are already spamming.

I use the Bigfoot.com forwarding service for my e-mail needs. Not only do I get the convenience of having a permanent e-mail address not tied to any ISP, but SPAM filtering is offered as well. How much does it cost? Nothing - it's free!

Third party utility - World Secure. It scans for incoming viruses, chain letters, jokes, spam, etc... Also if you are very consious about what goes out - you can filter on those topics above, also if someone may be sending out information that they shouldn't be. (ie company secrets, etc...) On all of these you can set the levels, tracking, holding the messages, keywords, etc... This helps keep your Exchange server running at higher optimization levels than if you were trying to run all of the above items on it.

I have had the same e-mail address for almost 8 years now, and If it were not for my spam filtering (which I will explain below) I would recieve about 10-20 junk messages a day.
I discovered two free spam filtering services that work extremely well, and are both free! The first and main line of defense is Brightmail (www.brightmail.com) They actually act as a proxy between you and your POP account. They maintain a large filtering service that weeds out almost all of my annoying spam, and with an option, I recieve a weekly digest of all the spam that they have filtered.
The second line of defense is a service called DeSpammed (www.despammed.com). They create a free forwarding e-mail address in the form of Username@despammed.com that you can use in places that are at high risk for spam. I use this address when posting at newsgroups, or subscribing to any sort of online membership.

I just use Outlook 2k for my email client. However, in an effort to defeat spamming attempts, I use a bit more proactive approach. I use anonymizer a LOT. If a certain web site is obnoxious about wanting an email address, I use a fake address.At work, I run a shell script on the mail server that looks for broadcast msg's. If it turns up any, the sending domain is auto-sh*t-listed.

We deal with SPAM the same way we deal with unwanted viruses...by scanning and quarantining them before they hit our exchange servers. In our case we use Tumbleweed's Secure Mail Server. It allows us to scan all incoming mail for viruses (and unwanted content, if need be) as well as set up rules to block specific senders or domains.
Using this system, we prevent the SPAM from enlarging our Exchange stores, and make it easier on our end users, as we set the rules, they don't have to.

One great feature I have been able to utilize is to filter out messages that do not contain "@" in the originator's address. This cuts out a mass of messages for me.

I also have a degree of success in forwarding unwanted spam To: abuse@ and/or postmaster@, as well as Cc:'s to UCE@ftc.gov and SpamRecycle@ChooseYourMail.com.

The former Cc seems to instill some response from the To's, since it looks official and imposing. However, I don't believe that the U.S. FTC actually does much with spam forwarded to its server at this address, set up years ago just for this purpose.

The latter Cc feeds a database of spammers that is maintained by a group affiliated with CAUCE.

No this hasn't cut out spam. But, I have noted on many occasions that the originators have lost their privileges through their providers, even if temporarily.

If you ask me, I still lose by taking time to address individual e-mails. Even a few seconds for each message can add up over a weeks time. Deleting the messages is easy but brings no satisfaction. At least with the weak countermeasure above there is the occasional sense of satisfaction, that the originator will be frustrated for even some short period in their attempt to continue to issue spam.

I report all my SPAM to http://spamcop.net. In my mind, if we aren't part of the solution, then we're part of the problem. Merely deleting (or filtering) SPAM does little to deter SPAMMERS. I know they will always exist and you could certainly have your plate full if you receive hundreds of SPAM per day. But if you're like me, then you only get a few a day and the few minutes it takes to report them to their provider is a small yet important step toward stemming the tide of abuse.

I used to get a lot of spam. Now I don't. When I first started, I used a product called spammerslammer. It worked ok, as it automated the responses to spammers and then deleted the mail from my mailbox. I still had to keep adding spammers to my longlist of spam addresses. This got old real soon.

What really seemed to do the trick was a manual effort on my part to stop the spamming. It takes time and effort (a bunch at first), but it seems to have become well worth it at this stage.

If you have a filter or an automated system that just deletes the mail, then you're simply ignoring the problem. What I did was identify the sender from the header. Then I notified the sender's postmaster or abuse account that they were sending out spam. Usually, it was not permitted by their ISP and they put an end to it. I also copy my ISP and the FTC.

What I'm doing is getting to the source of the problem instead of ignoring the problem. Many sites were being used as relay sites and they didn'teven know. Many postmasters have thanked me for my efforts.

Don't ignore the problem, fix it!

Since most of the SPAMbots are automated, I was told (And it appears to be pretty sucessful) that you can SPAM proof your address.

Example: I'm mike.crain@lexis-nexis.com. You can put mike.crain@DELETETHECAPSlexis-nexis.com

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