After very little... lots of spam - How about you? system ok?

[dipole]

Yes, I get a half dozen spams a day that are not getting caugt. most from online doctorate.

[Mugwhamp]

Originally Posted by ChinaLamb

Is anyone still having a problem with this? Last week one of my email addresses suddenly started getting 6 spams per day when I usually get none...

Yep, getting anywhere from 7-10 spam a day since February (sometimes it ebbs to 2 or 3) sent to an address I use exclusively for Facebook. The spam characteristics are all very similar. Spam protection is doing its job, as none of it is reaching my inbox.

My spam settings: >=4 goes to my system spam folder Junk Mail. >=1 goes to a spam-learning folder I call Mini-spam. I check Mini-spam once a day or so and the dedicated Junk Mail folder once a week. I rarely get a false positive in Mini-spam, and never in Junk Mail. Spam slips by into my Inbox maybe 2-3 times a year.

[andrej]

Originally Posted by Mugwhamp

I rarely get a false positive in Mini-spam, and never in Junk Mail.

Then why have a Junk Mail folder? If it's junk mail, why not just reject and/or automatically purge the messages that would otherwise go into Junk Mail?

[ChinaLamb]

Originally Posted by andrej

Then why have a Junk Mail folder? If it's junk mail, why not just reject and/or automatically purge the messages that would otherwise go into Junk Mail?

Well, sometimes you get false positives. There are a lot of reasons you'd get false positives - especially if you work internationally...

Would you want your postal carrier to just throw away everything they thought was spam? Or would you want them to throw away everything that was definately spam and leave some for you to double check on?

/cl

[werewolf]

So far I've had no problem with spam on my new Fastmail account.

[ChinaLamb]

I sent some of my spams to the Fastmail development team. They found that spammers had found a way around their spam catcher -- a few lines of code and the problem was solved.

Spam is a game of cat and mouse!

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by ChinaLamb

I sent some of my spams to the Fastmail development team. They found that spammers had found a way around their spam catcher -- a few lines of code and the problem was solved.

Spam is a game of cat and mouse!

True, it is a game of cat and mouse. Re: the solution, was it a sieve rule or something they applied globally?

As for my own FM spam, it's been much better lately -- maybe your report to FM helped all of us!

[ChinaLamb]

Originally Posted by ioneja

True, it is a game of cat and mouse. Re: the solution, was it a sieve rule or something they applied globally?

As for my own FM spam, it's been much better lately -- maybe your report to FM helped all of us!

They updated the spam filters to look for (or rather, ignore?) the 'injections' that the various spammers were using to confuse the spam filters.

[andrej]

Still getting A TON of spam, mostly from the "my Who's Who" whatever that is.

Two months of me clicking Unsubscribe and I'm still bombarded by these emails. I've written a letter of complaint (actually two because I'm getting spam from a ton of others) and I'm still not being removed.

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by andrej

Still getting A TON of spam, mostly from the "my Who's Who" whatever that is.

Two months of me clicking Unsubscribe and I'm still bombarded by these emails. I've written a letter of complaint (actually two because I'm getting spam from a ton of others) and I'm still not being removed.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Who_scam
The problem is that anyone in the world can place any address with an unsubscribe notice at the bottom of their spam. So unless you know for certain (by examining the full headers, for example) that the message is from a reputable company you trust, you might have sent those letters to an innocent third party. It's similar to replying to spam messages -- the reply usually goes to innocent third parties, creating additional spam!

This rarely happens with physical postal mail, since it costs a significant amount to send you the mail piece and the sender usually has no wish to send you additional mail if you have no interest. But the cost to a spammer of sending you a spam email is nearly zero, and many of these messages are not really trying to get you to purchase anything -- they just want to install malware on your computer or get you to give them a password using phishing techniques.

So for such random spam (where you can't be sure it's a legitimate message), all you should do is mark it as spam (which moves it to the Spam / Junk Mail folder). As long as you have enabled your user Bayes filter (see the bottom of the Advanced>Spam/Virus Protection screen), messages in the Spam folder will train your future spam filtering. If the messages have some common theme (such as a subject containing "Who's Who"), you can easily filter them with your Fastmail rules as follows:

• If you enable the "Skip reject rules on known sender" box and save your changes at the bottom of the Discard rules tab, messages from those in your online address book will not be discarded.
• I suggest instead using a File into folders rule to move such messages into your Spam folder, where they will train your Bayes filter to improve future spam filtering.
• You can also filter based on the X-Spam-source or other headers. For example, if you are getting a lot of spam which shows Host='badspammer@example.org' in the X-Spam-source header, just create a File into folders rule as follows:
  • Go to Advanced>Rules>File into folders
    
  • Create a new rule as follows:
    • Message with: Any Header
    • That: Contains
    • The text: Host='badspammer@example.org'
    • File into folder: Junk Mail
    • Flag: (check this box)
    • Add (click)
  • Click Apply all changes at the top.
  • Click Mail to get back to your Inbox.
• Now any messages from that email server will be sent to the Spam (Junk Mail) folder and will be pinned (flagged), so you know that it wasn't caught by the normal spam filter but was instead filed by this rule.
• Unfortunately, some spammers are now purchasing new domains and using temporary servers and sending out spam for only a day or two from those domains and IP addresses. A friend is getting large amounts of spam from someone whose new domains are obtained by someone using the vvsdatabaserel.com domain when they register those spamming host server domains. This costs them more, so they probably have some really bad malware they want to install on your computer.

Bill

[andrej]

Originally Posted by n5bb

As long as you have enabled your user Bayes filter (see the bottom of the Advanced>Spam/Virus Protection screen), messages in the Spam folder will train your future spam filtering.

It says under Spam Bayes Status: No bayes database. Advanced options not available at this service level. Please see the pricing table for details.

And I know that I could use SIEVE mail filters, but I typically don't like to block emails that have an unsubscribe method. It's just that their unsubscribe method isn't working.


The only reason that I sent those letters is: I cannot find any other contact information for any of these newsletters. Someone showed me a free DNS website that I could use to contact the host/provider (I had never even heard of that before), but I can't find it and there are so many that I found which require special software or a payment.


So:

1. How do I call or otherwise contact the providers of these domains?
optout-gmrv.net
optout-wmwh.net
safeoptout.info

2. How do I file a report with Fastmail.fm so that Fastmail can get in contact with these and other domains?

3. And if the Who's Who scam has been going around for as long as it has and I'm just getting it now, then why haven't they already been prosecuted for illegal spam/scamming?

Originally Posted by n5bb

You can also filter based on the X-Spam-source or other headers.

There is no X-Spam-source. See my post at: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/show...9&postcount=40

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by andrej

It says under Spam Bayes Status: No bayes database. Advanced options not available at this service level. Please see the pricing table for details...

This means you have a free Fastmail account which is no longer offered to new users. There is no spam filtering for these accounts, and the Report Spam button has no effect on your future spam. You will have to pay for an account to get spam filtering. I really can't suggest any other way to reduce your spam load unless you use a free email service which offers you plenty of advertising, scans your emails and offers you targeted ads based on your email, or does both of these. Fastmail has chosen not to do either.

1. You can look up the contact details for those domains at: http://whois.domaintools.com
As I said before, if you have never heard of the apparent sender and can't find them easily with a simple Google or Bing web search, I strongly suggest you simply delete the spam email. There is nothing you can do to get them to stop sending you spam.

2. Fastmail only provides personal support for paid accounts. And they can't (and won't) intercede on your behalf for a few spam messages. I can't imagine them being interested unless you had a paid account and were receiving at least hundred messages from a sender per day. Spam filters remove those messages, and you have chosen not to pay for a spam filter.

3. I respectfully think you don't realize the magnitude of the problem. As I said before, the From address usually is fake. You really can't tell who is sending those messages, since the server they use is often hijacked. It costs nearly nothing for a spammer to send you a message, and it is nearly impossible for you to stop a spammer from sending you their messages. All you can do is to filter them out after you receive them, and you have chosen not to do that. The cost would only be about US $0.19 per week.

Bill

[andrej]

Originally Posted by n5bb

This means you have a free Fastmail account which is no longer offered to new users. There is no spam filtering for these accounts, and the Report Spam button has no effect on your future spam. You will have to pay for an account to get spam filtering.

I disagree that I have to pay for webmail to have better spam filtering. I think that is wrong, and therefore, I do not agree to upgrade my service.

Originally Posted by n5bb

You can look up the contact details for those domains at: http://whois.domaintools.com

Alright so when I copy the domain from the X-Mail-From field of one of the Who's Who spams into the entry on the DomainTools website, I get a lot of information under the Whois record. I assume that I can just send a report to the "Registrar Abuse Contact Email," correct? Or is there some other information that I need to look for?

[paul29]

Originally Posted by andrej

And I know that I could use SIEVE mail filters, but I typically don't like to block emails that have an unsubscribe method. It's just that their unsubscribe method isn't working.

Obviously you don't understand how spam works. The purpose of the unsubscribe link is to confirm to the spammer that the spam mail is actually reaching a human. Once you have done that, your address is much more valuable for spam mailing lists, so the spammer makes more money and you get MORE spam. You cannot ever actually unsubscribe to spam. All you can do is block it or filter it.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by andrej

Two months of me clicking Unsubscribe and I'm still bombarded by these emails. I've written a letter of complaint (actually two because I'm getting spam from a ton of others) and I'm still not being removed.

I have to agree with the others, unfortunately your efforts are not the most effective way to combat spam. Two months of clicking Unsubscribe equals two months of proving that your email is valid and is therefore of much higher value to spammers and will be added to more lists.

Originally Posted by andrej

Alright so when I copy the domain from the X-Mail-From field of one of the Who's Who spams into the entry on the DomainTools website, I get a lot of information under the Whois record. I assume that I can just send a report to the "Registrar Abuse Contact Email," correct? Or is there some other information that I need to look for?

Sending a complaint letter to a legitimate authority is fine, but...since the spammers move so fast to evade easy tracing (with clear examples earlier in this thread), even if your complaint was handled relatively promptly, by the time it was acted on, the originating server and IP address and account of the spam you complained about would have been abandoned long ago. There would be no one left there to stop or prosecute.

That's why so much of the burden of stopping spam falls to the ISPs, email services, and us users.

Originally Posted by andrej

I disagree that I have to pay for webmail to have better spam filtering. I think that is wrong, and therefore, I do not agree to upgrade my service.

I don't think you have any idea how expensive it is to deal with spam. The volume of spam is so high that a significant portion of the server space, processing power, and manpower used to run an email service is spent just on receiving spam, storing it, and trying to block it.

There are many free email services out there you can use, and some like Gmail have decent spam filters. But most of them depend on advertising since their users, like you, do not want to pay. If you want Fastmail to be good at handling spam but you don't want them to mine your data for ads...well, the money has to come from somewhere.

You are free to use another free email service that has a good spam filter, but chances are you will not be able to configure it as extensively as the paid level at Fastmail.