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re: Getting lots of Mail delivery failure emails? Friday, September 30, 2005 at 5:32 pm Posted by gewg_ (4444 messages posted) |I am getting about 50 different "Mail Delivery Failure" emails every day. | Ian If you make your email address easy to guess, it will be easy to spam or to use as a spoof address. Any combination of common names will be susceptible to a "dictionary attack" as will something like John23. If your email provider does not run SpamAssassin, get a new mail provider that does. You shouldn't even be aware of 99.9% of this junk. The problem is that your email address has gotten out into the wild. Set up a new email account and abandon the old one. Then: 1) Never publish your primary email address on the Internet. 2) Before you give your primary email address to someone, have that someone explain the difference between CC and BCC. 3) Never give your primary email address to someone whom you would not trust with your wallet. Set up throw-away email accounts for contact with everyone else. http://www.spamgourmet.com/ http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_web.htm [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Getting lots of Mail delivery failure emails? Saturday, October 1, 2005 at 9:58 am Posted by Ian (154 messages posted) I think this is a virus that sends itself over and over again but my AVG antivirus doesn't seem to pick it up.I am using Mailwasher to get rid of them but its so time consuming. On Friday, September 30, 2005 at 5:32 pm, gewg_ wrote: >|I am getting about 50 different "Mail Delivery Failure" emails every day. >| Ian > >If you make your email address >style="background-color: rgb(204, 255, 204);">easy to guess, it >will be easy to spam >or to use as a spoof address. >Any combination of common names will be susceptible to a " >href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:dictionary+attack"> >style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 255);">dictionary attack" >as will something like John23. > > >If your >email provider does not run >style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">SpamAssassin, >get a >new mail provider that does. > >You shouldn't even be aware of 99.9% of this junk. > > >The problem is that your >email address has gotten out into the wild. >Set up a new email account and >style="background-color: rgb(150, 204, 204);">abandon the old one. > >Then: >1) Never publish >style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 102);">your >primary email address on the Internet. >2) Before you give your >primary email address to someone, >have that someone explain >style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 204);" >href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22BCC+blind-carbon-copy+CC+carbon-copy+inurl:russharvey">the >difference between CC and BCC. >3) Never give your >primary email address >to someone whom you would not trust with your wallet. > >Set up throw-away >email accounts for contact with everyone else. >http://www.spamgourmet.com/ >http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_web.htm > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Getting lots of Mail delivery failure emails? Saturday, October 1, 2005 at 10:16 am Posted by MartinM (7550 messages posted) If you are using Outlook as your mail client I'd download the SpamBayes add-in (free) which will rapidly learn what you regard as junk and sequester it for you. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Getting lots of Mail delivery failure emails? Saturday, October 1, 2005 at 10:52 am Posted by gewg_ (4444 messages posted) |I think this is a virus | Ian Probably--but it's not likely it's on YOUR box. What has probably happened is that someone has hijacked the Address Book of someone else who has you listed. As I said, **your email address has gotten out into the wild**. You can install a Bayesian filter on your box as Martin suggested, but as I have already said, **You shouldn't even be aware of 99.9% of this junk**. YOUR MAIL PROVIDER[1] should be filtering for spam. If the boss there had any business acumen, he would make sure it was done. The last figures I saw on email traffic said that 80% of it was spam. If your guy had half a lick of sense, he could cut down his bandwidth costs by not re-transmitting the garbage. (It makes for happier customers too.) The way I see it: Subsidize the best businesses and the others are forced to find work for which they are better suited. Giving your money to inept people is a sign of poor decision-making skills IMO. YMMV. [1] For most folks, this is their ISP. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 98 Discussion Forum