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Author Topic: Spam took over one of my email addresses  (Read 4922 times)

Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2014, 07:09:54 AM »
Update,,,,,whatever MacHighway did, sure worked, its cut way way down on the spam. And I still get the messages that I want.
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Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #16 on: August 07, 2014, 11:38:47 AM »
Now I am getting more again, so Machighway cranked the level up to the highest setting. They also 'whitelisted' the addresses that I want to come thru.
I will see how that goes for a week, then if I start getting more spam again, I am going to take Paddy's advice and do the change. I have a nickname that my family knows, so I will just use nickname(at)jcdouglass.net.

I think I do remember the site that did this to me, I was looking for a new summer dress, and didnt find what I wanted on LLBean or the ones I usually shop at.
So I Googled for floral summer dresses, got a bunch of sites and went to all of them.
Then about 3 days afterwards, thats when the spam started.
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Offline Paddy

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #17 on: August 07, 2014, 12:43:40 PM »
QUOTE(jcarter @ Aug 7 2014, 12:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Now I am getting more again, so Machighway cranked the level up to the highest setting. They also 'whitelisted' the addresses that I want to come thru.
I will see how that goes for a week, then if I start getting more spam again, I am going to take Paddy's advice and do the change. I have a nickname that my family knows, so I will just use nickname(at)jcdouglass.net.

I think I do remember the site that did this to me, I was looking for a new summer dress, and didnt find what I wanted on LLBean or the ones I usually shop at.
So I Googled for floral summer dresses, got a bunch of sites and went to all of them.
Then about 3 days afterwards, thats when the spam started.


Uh...Jane, unless you gave all those sites your email address, they can't spam you just because you visited their websites. So unless you did that, it's something else. As I noted previously, your email address is available in plain sight online, so all it takes is one spambot and one list that gets sold over and over again.
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Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #18 on: August 07, 2014, 02:03:06 PM »
I think that I do have it on some of my very very old picture pages too.
So I guess I better do what you say and create a new one with my nickname and get rid of the old jane one.
I will carefully go over your instructions.
Thank you
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #19 on: August 07, 2014, 02:38:11 PM »
doh.gif Why is your email address still in plain view?  jawdrop.gif There are dozens of free methods via a simple Google. Granted, bots have been developed to bypass most of the old, simple methods, OTOH, why leave the barn door open and complain about the horses walking out?! dntknw.gif

Plain text is actually just publishing your address for all bots. It's an open and public invitation to "take my address and SPAM me"! You don't (hopefully!) hang the key to your front door beside that door, why place your email address in the html? wallbash.gif
« Last Edit: August 07, 2014, 02:39:53 PM by Xairbusdriver »
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Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #20 on: August 07, 2014, 03:26:01 PM »
The people who have that Nevil Shute site dont communicate any more.
And it would take me days to go thru my old stuff and find the few that have it. Its not on many of mine.
Unless there is another way to quickly find which of ANY sites that my email is listed on?
If there is, let me know.

Odd that it was only this spring, that spam hit me, all these years there was no problem on any of my email addresses?

I probably should follow Paddy's excellent instructions and change it to my nickname.
That would take care of it.

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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #21 on: August 07, 2014, 05:39:02 PM »
I'm confused. Are you saying you don't have the html files for all and any of your sites on your local drives? That's where you edit them. With whatever software you used or now have, even TextEdit (just be sure to "Save as..." plain text and have ".html" as the suffix). You then upload them to where ever the server is and that changes what's seen on the web. No need to "communicate" with anyone about it, you have control over what files are on those servers (via FTP, at least). dntknw.gif

If Paddy says your address is in "plain sight" it's because that's what she (or anyone else, including a 'bot') sees when looking at the source. She may tell you what site that is, but you certainly already know where all your sites are better than anyone here.
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #22 on: August 07, 2014, 07:37:47 PM »
Oh, yes I do that all the time, I know all that, I use TextWrangler.
I have all the html and css stuff, but sorting thru them all, egads that would take a long time. Its finding which ones thats the problem, it would only be my old pages.
Guess what I meant was how to find which ones had my email address in plain site on them.
Its hard to explain how many small pages that I have. I could do a screenshot? You would laugh.

I will take her advice and just create the new one.
Wish I knew how that happened, how they got my address and spammed it.

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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #23 on: August 07, 2014, 08:01:12 PM »
QUOTE
Its finding which ones thats the problem
To find the files with your address in "plain text" I'd suggest entering your address in the 'Search' field of Text Wrangler, TextEdit, etc. That's pretty much what makes "Search" is handy. If you're really lucky, the "Search" function will also have a "Search and Replace" option. Amazing what programmers can do with ones and zeros... whistling.gif

BTW, adding/creating a new address won't change the fact that you get SPAM from an old one. If you simply change your "plain text" addy in your html, you'll simply get that one harvested, also. The problem is the "plain text" part. wallbash.gif
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline Paddy

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #24 on: August 07, 2014, 09:05:22 PM »
Jane's email address is on the Nevil Shute site, as I already mentioned, and it's also in this list here:

http://www.emaildatalist.net/1/download-em...-8353/8353.html

So...it's now completely useless, IMHO. Create a new email addy as I mentioned, let all your friends and family know, and then, after about a week, annihilate the old troublesome email address. Save the old emails you want to keep in folders (in the "on my Mac" section) in Mail, BTW before you do that.

Make sure you DO NOT use an auto-responder to tell people you've changed your email address, or you're likely to tell at least a few spammers that as well, which completely defeats the purpose of adopting a new email addy.

Jane, if you want to enable a method of contacting you via your websites, you should do so via a contact form which doesn't have your email address in it anywhere. I'd also suggest that you create another email address just for that contact form, as the people contacting you via that method aren't likely to be your near and dear. That way, should you respond to these people, you're still not showing them the email address you use for friends and family.

If you don't want to use a contact form, create a Gmail addy for this purpose. Gmail is great for this sort of thing. Utterly disposable if need be, and good spam filtering too.
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #25 on: August 08, 2014, 10:47:34 AM »
Here's a <perfectly easy to customize> "Contact Form" that uses PHP, which any descent web hosting service will have available to you. With your experience with html, you'll have no problem installing the code you download. Simple instructions include, of course.

Your actual address is only on the server, it is never seen in the html source document. It even includes a CAPTCHA function (this is the main 'bot' blocker). There will be a link to the developer but for $9 you get a license allowing you to remove that. I paid the guy $15 to add a couple of things and I still include a link to his site. He's very helpful, fast and friendly to amateurs! blush-anim-cl.gif

This method won't stop "children" from sending you an email but you are probably already applying rules to your friends and family to easily find 'good messages'. Any email address you want can be used and you can always change that. Here's a <link to my Contact Form>, highly modified with CSS, of course. wink.gif
« Last Edit: August 08, 2014, 10:55:01 AM by Xairbusdriver »
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #26 on: August 08, 2014, 12:02:16 PM »
Never used an auto-responder, so thats OK.
And will never use a contact form on my sites any more. Was leery of that anyway.
Will strip that part of code out of my old ones. And upload the corrected html.

Actually the prime use of that addy is to upload pix from my iPhone on the fly, to my Mac so that I can PS them later on. Then I delete from the iPhone.
And family and friends. Ive already warned them that they should use my other family addy.

I do use my Gmail too, but maybe I will start using it more.

Coming up with zero on the searches, thats good.
The Nevil Shute one and the emaildatalist seem to be the only ones I can find at the moment. I will keep digging.

I am going to do this very soon,,,,,, And thank you for helping me thru this, its the first time Ive gotten into a spam mess. I sure thought it was one of those summer dress sites with ads on their page, thinking I clicked on an ad with a picture of a summer dress. And perhaps communicated with them asking about color or size or whatever.

QUOTE
"So...it's now completely useless, IMHO. Create a new email addy as I mentioned, let all your friends and family know, and then, after about a week, annihilate the old troublesome email address. Save the old emails you want to keep in folders (in the "on my Mac" section) in Mail, BTW before you do that."
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Offline kimmer

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #27 on: August 08, 2014, 02:28:17 PM »
QUOTE(Paddy @ Jun 10 2014, 08:38 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
And last, but not least and even (potentially) much more damaging, it's in this list here: http://www.emaildatalist.net/1/download-em...-8353/8353.html which is a scummy business operating out of Vietnam - and NO, I would not recommend trying to "remove" your address there, as I wouldn't trust this site at all; they're in the business of providing email addresses to spammers, so why would they actually remove your email address? More likely, they'll just put it on a few other lists! In other words, that email address is now officially TOAST. Get rid of it. You will never get rid of the spam for the foreseeable future. Forget trying to do battle via Spamsieve - this requires taking that email address out to the back forty and putting it out of its misery.

Just out of curiosity, how does one determine if their email address is on this charming site? I started loading list after list and after 20 minutes, I couldn't take any more -- but there were still plenty of lists to go!
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #28 on: August 08, 2014, 02:37:33 PM »
QUOTE
And will never use a contact form on my sites any more. Was leery of that anyway.
Huh! dntknw.gif What happened? What type form did you use? Enquiring minds...
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THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
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And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline jcarter

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Spam took over one of my email addresses
« Reply #29 on: August 08, 2014, 03:02:36 PM »
I dont remember, it was part of a class.
But now that I think about it, it was a while before I had the jcdouglass one.
So the contact form couldn't be the problem. Glad you got me thinking about that source.

And I had a button on some of my pages that said, 'click to send me a message' but those were really old ones too, with different email, not this one.

This is a mystery, I am wondering if it was the Nevil Shute site, or the search for summer dresses? Or something else.

But I think I will take Paddys advice and can that one and create another addy.
First giving Machighway another chance, they said they would crank their filters up to the top, but it would take a couple of days to work.
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