'Bounce' spam, is it effective?

[jcarter]

In addition to setting up rules in Mac Mail, I read that you can 'bounce' mail. Sounds like it goes back to the sender and makes it look like it couldnt get delivered.

Im doing this to the ones that are spam that somehow manage to slip thru my filters.

I tried to add viagra and all those offensive words to the filters, but it seems that if they are mis-spelled, they wriggle thru.
Then I read that MacMail will 'learn' what is spam and what isnt.

Im learning too, its great.

[Paddy]

Jane, "bouncing" spam is utterly useless, since 99.99% of spam comes from users who forge the sending address. Mail isn't quite smart enough to sort that out, so the bounce just goes to either a non-existent email address or some poor sod whose email address has been purloined for this purpose.

Which email address is generating all the spam? If it happens to be the one associated with your web site, the reason is that your email address is sitting there out in the open, just waiting for a spambot to happen along. It only has to happen a few times and you end up on a list of email addresses that gets sold and so on, and so on.

HIDE your email address on your site!! Although I've read that "some" spambots can read this too, in practice I find it almost 100% effective. In the code for your email address, remove the "@" and put "& # 64;" - without the quotes or the spaces. That's the ASCII text for the "@" symbol and most spambots ignore it.

Even if the email address on your web site is NOT the source of all you spam, you'd be wise to hide it, because sooner or later, it will be. Also, if that email address is not a vital one that you actually use a lot, dump it and make up another one to use in association with your site - and hide the "@" of course. (You should be able to add an email address in the control panel for your web site). If you can do that, say goodbye to ANY spam from the web site.

If the spam is coming in on other email addresses, try to figure out why. Where have you used your email address? Is it "out in the open" somewhere on the web? Have you signed up for anything on a site that may not have been trustworthy?

Use a "throwaway" email address for ANYTHING that is not important/frivolous/untrusted. I have several levels of "trust" - I use my personal email address from my ISP for friends, very secure online ordering (sites like Apple, Amazon etc.) and that's about it. Forums and memberships (Facebook etc.) - still trusted, but not top-tier, get my gmail address. Everything else gets one of my Yahoo addresses. And I have a completely different email address on my web site, so that I know that anything/anyone using that email address got it from the site. If I start getting spam, no problem - I change the email address on the web site. (Any legit contacts through the site will be responded to via one of my "real" email addresses.)

[jcarter]

Thank you!
Its only my old Earthlink email that is getting the spam, about 12 per day.
And it all says 'viagra' now, seems Ive got the other crap filtered out now.

I wont bother to bounce it any more.

The very strange thing that I noticed, is I never got any spam until my MacMail crashed on my old Mac, and I started using Earthlink WebMail about 5 weeks ago on this new Mac.
This is odd, as Ive had that same email address for years and years, and use it for all my shopping and its my main contact.

Also, very odd, the 2 other email addresses that go with my 2 sites, never get any spam at all.
Its just this old original earthlink one.
As of today, Ive seen none with the words cialis or rolex watches. So the filters seem to be working pretty well.
I should put in the word viagra with different spellings, and maybe that would solve it all.
Got a lot less today anyway.
This sure is interesting how MacMail deals with things and actually can 'learn' to sort out what is spam and what isnt.
Thank you again,
Jane

[Paddy]

QUOTE

The very strange thing that I noticed, is I never got any spam until my MacMail crashed on my old Mac, and I started using Earthlink WebMail about 5 weeks ago on this new Mac.

That's probably because Mail was screening the spam out (you may have had a setting that was sending it directly to the trash) whereas the Earthlink Webmail didn't have that extra layer of filtering. Now you're training a new version of Mail to do what the old version was probably already doing.

[jcarter]

That sounds promising!  I really dont know much about mail, and I probably did have it sent to the trash now that I try to remember.
I just made a screenshot of my Junk Mail settings, does it look like its set up OK?
Thanks again,
Jane

[Xairbusdriver]

Two things I'd change: 1. Just have Mail dump the stuff into the Junk Mail box, no use leaving it in the Inbox. Let Mail do the hard work, you can always check the JunK if you think something got there by mistake. 2. If you have a lot of rules, take the Junk out before they run, what's the point of checking stuff you don't want/need anyway.

Not sure about exempting too much. Just because a senders name is in the header, that doesn't mean it's not SPAM. If someone in your address book has a virus, their name will probably be where you expect it. But Mail (and SPAMsieve) check more than just the headers, they look, with varying degrees of success) at what's actually in the messages (words, spellings, etc.) to determine what might be SPAM. So, let the functions do their thing on every message. YMMV.

[jcarter]

[attachment=1837:MailScreenSnapz002.jpg]Hi Jim,
Thank you. Here is the way its set up now, in screenshot one,
And I am trying to create a new Junk mailbox for that stuff to go into, but I get this message, and I cant see a Junk mailbox here?
Screenshot two,

I just quit and started mail again, and my junk box is there, whew.

[Xairbusdriver]

OK, but I think you should edit that post (#7) and remove the images, they have several (all!) your addresses showing, even though they are images, prying eyes can see them. No need to encourage any more SPAM.

[jcarter]

Oh, I didnt realize images could be picked up, but thank you for removing that image.
One of my PS classmates said that she puts her email address in as an image and the spambots cant use it?

Gee, already my spam has almost quit, you people are amazing at helping me figure this out!
Thank you again,
Jane

[kimmer]

QUOTE(jcarter @ Apr 8 2010, 02:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, I didnt realize images could be picked up, but thank you for removing that image.
One of my PS classmates said that she puts her email address in as an image and the spambots cant use it?

Spambots can't read images, but human prying eyes can -- and do -- and you don't know who drops in here. I'm glad you edited out the image.

[Xairbusdriver]

"Bots" have nothing to do with this...

QUOTE

even though they are images, prying eyes can see them.

"Bots" don't have "eyes," people do.  And you never know who might be viewing your posts. It's very simple to blur/cover/obliterate/scratch/blank/re-write/erase data in an image before uploading it anyplace. "Better safe than ... Oops!"

"Bots" don't snoop around public bulletin boards at your grocery store/gas station/library/etc. But I still don't recommend leaving your email address (phone number, SS#, back account info, etc.) in such places.

[jcarter]

I sure dont leave stuff for the public, but I didnt know that 'prying eyes' would mess with a forum, as there are so many forums to look at.
I do realize that this one can be read by outsiders even tho they arent logged in.
But I will blur it out with PS from now on.

I guess Ive been lucky so far with no problems, but thanks to you all, I will be more careful with images on the net.
Jane

[Highmac]

QUOTE(jcarter @ Apr 8 2010, 11:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I do realize that this one can be read by outsiders even tho they arent logged in.
Jane

To emphasise the point, when I signed in this morning, there were 11 guests and one member viewing the forum. Although I'm sure most are genuine Mac fans checking us out, nobody has any idea who these guests actually are or the reason they are visiting. It's always worth being cautious about putting personal details on any forum...