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Author Topic: Anatomy of a SPAM email  (Read 2978 times)

Offline krissel

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« on: October 14, 2006, 11:22:23 PM »
This is from the other thread on high-tech crime but I thought it deserved a thread of its own.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6038236.stm
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Offline pendragon

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2006, 08:40:48 AM »
Thanks Kris, salute.gif

I get almost no spam, but still,, 'tis good info worth knowing.
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Offline danf63

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2006, 09:50:02 AM »
How do you manage not to get spam?  I get about 5/day

Dan
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Offline LR827

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2006, 12:28:02 PM »
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with TS lately... trying to complete some projects.

But this caught my eye, because my Yahoo e-mail acct. has recently been swarming with spam.  The Yahoo filter may have caught 2/3 of them, but that is in the 20+ range now, and there are another 10+ in my mail that did not get filtered.

I just don't know why this is happening over the last couple of weeks.
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Offline kimmer

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2006, 12:58:59 PM »
I like the opening words ... "A daily chore. (emphasis mine)

Interesting that we now think of email as a "chore". It used to be fun, exciting, interesting and filled with possibilities. Now it is a reminder of chores from mom and stars on a job chart.

Since I don't open stuff like this, I've not really viewed a spam mail in ages. I can testify with LR827 - my mailboxes are all swimming in spam suddenly. I don't know why and I sure wish my spam filters would catch them. Even the amount of spam hitting my junk box is triple the norm.

It's truly annoying.
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Offline pendragon

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2006, 01:44:59 PM »
Dan: "How do you manage not to get spam?"

It’s not that I have done anything per-se, e.g., I do not use SpamSieve or the like. It’s that my ISP (AOL) is fairly heavy-handed/draconian re tolerating other ISPs which allow themselves to be a conduit for SPAMers. Accordingly, 1-2 SPAMs a day is the norm.  clap.gif
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Offline Gregg

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2006, 03:42:53 PM »
QUOTE(danf63 @ Oct 15 2006, 09:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
How do you manage not to get spam?  I get about 5/day

Dan


One way is to have net savvy friends and family - all of them. Alas, no one does. Just one "forward" with your address exposed to the world will get you spammed eventually.
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2006, 03:51:13 PM »
QUOTE
Just one "forward" with your address exposed to the world will get you spammed eventually.
Yeah, I gave up 'educating' people on that several years ago. wallbash.gif My newest plan is to not have any friends. It seems to be working, at least on the SPAM side...

My theory is that 'surges' in SPAM is related to the success of SPAMmers finding ways around the current batch of filters. Then, the filter makers figure out how to make them better and the SPAM decreases, for a while. It's like a pendulum ( remember those? ).
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Offline LR827

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2006, 02:01:14 PM »
Maybe I'll go back to using my AOL account.  I do still check it now & then, and it seems to have much less spam.
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2006, 05:50:33 PM »
Looks like we can thank at least some of our judges and one British company ( not to mention Monty Python ) for help in trying to throttle SPAM. <From MacWorld: Court blocks request to shut Spamhaus domain>
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Offline jcarter

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2006, 07:20:28 PM »
Whew, luckily Ive not been bombarded too much lately. I keep messing with my filters.
But I have missed some good mail, and to get it, I have to go to my ISP WebMail site, and catch it.
Only 2, one is the Pandora music messages and the other is GoLive forum messages.
So its easy to do that, and I have found nothing else.
But the TIME that it takes to delete the few I get, and go back and see what is missing, and to change filtering is all a real pain in the butt.
I just wish there was a way to get rid of spam, as we have managed to do with unwanted phone calls.  We get almost no telemarketing on our various phones nowadays. Its really nice.

Hey, Tacit, you are the expert on this.  Can you give us another tutorial on how to thwart spam?

Anyway, MacMail is pretty easy to set up to deal, and the deleting process is not too painful, it just takes a bit o time.
I miss very little, and get less spam than last year, so something must be working.
And I get zero porn-spam thank goodness. Nothing at all.
Jane
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Offline kimmer

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2006, 08:24:38 PM »
Both of my addresses, and "our" address are being bombarded - AGAIN. Every spam has the subject:

"Insert adjective of choice here Letter. You need to read."

Yeah, like I want to read a grand letter, or a weighty letter, or a simple letter, or a momentous letter, etc. rolleyes.gif

I've been downloading these by the dozens. I'm annoyed, upset and tired of it all. dry.gif
« Last Edit: October 20, 2006, 08:25:40 PM by kimmer »
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Offline D76

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2006, 09:04:14 PM »
You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait'll you start getting it from the future! This stuff is piling up in a yahoo junk account I have.

« Last Edit: October 20, 2006, 09:05:12 PM by D76 »
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Offline kimmer

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2006, 09:34:35 PM »
Well, if you'd just refinance your home it would go away. rofl.gif
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Offline sandbox

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Anatomy of a SPAM email
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2006, 06:45:10 AM »
I've been a member of Spamhaus for some time now; their project is fair, their list is accurate. http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/index.lasso
Their purpose so far has been to let folks know who the spammers are, even if they're U.S. companies or U.S. based Spammers.

All my public email addresses get spam, my private addresses do not. The trick is to create an address that is not typical, like one2me@yourIPS.com and guard it.

Your other addresses can be used publicly and can be filtered heavily.

My personal address will only allow the email in that is in my address book and any domains that I allow. For example I'll let anyone through my filters that has my City's  email Domain ci.mycity.fl.us because I get a lot of mail from different departments, some of which I don't know the exact address so I leave it open to anyone, knowing that they have secure severs.

I redirect any email that has the wrong address, like sandbucket@mydomain.com is not sandbox@mydomain.com so it will go to a default mailbox, which I look through once a week on maintenance day. Open email addresses, like on web sites are managed by Spamassasin http://spamassassin.apache.org/ on the server side, using webmail adjustments. Of course these addresses, some have been active for 9 years and get more than a thousand spam’s a day are easily handled with this Apache tool.

A good ISP has web mail filters and can control the flow of spam right down to only letting in the people that are in your address book. Most ISP's let you have more than one email address. So if your having trouble with spam, just create another address using letters and numbers, (one2sandbox@mydomain.com)and guard it. You'll be glad you did! wink.gif If the people you email to put you one a list and send the list out publically, it's only a matter of time before your address becomes public. don't give those people your new address and it will be a secure address for years to come! wink.gif
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