Topic: unsolicited email

[Lin]

Hi

quick question, well more than one really.

Firstly i have been getting a lot of unsolicited email to my main email account, which is the one i give to friends, family and colleagues and dont really use to enter websites.  I have a hotmail and a yahoo email address which i use if a website requires an address so that i sont get a lot of spam.  A plan that has worked for me for many years.

Well the last two days I have been getting loads of unsolicited email to that account and I dont know where it is being generated from as it comes from all different people. All i have never heard of.

The other thing I downloaded a trial of bullguard , the virus stopper and it keeps telling me that these unsolicited emails are infected with viruses and that it has stopped them.

Well on to the questions, what do you think of bullguard, is it worth buying when the trial runs out?  How do I stop these emails if I dont know where they are generated from or where the got my email address from?  Or do you think Bullguard is telling me this to make me buy the full product and it is them that are sending me the emails.  If it is really stopping all these viruses then surely it is worth buying.

Whew, Bet your glad you got to the end of that.

Any ideas would be great.

Ta

Lin

[Adept]

Hi Lin,

If they are viruses, there probably isn't much you can do other than make sure that your anti-virus software is up-to-date.

Once a PC is infected the virus searches through every file on the PC looking for email addresses. It will then not only send out copies of itself to all of these email addresses, but it will also spoof the sent "from email" address with addresses from this list. This means that if your email address is on an infected machine, viruses may be sent out with your email address as the From address

I have never used Bullguard. I use AVG 6.0 which is free and can be obtained from www.grisoft.com. A list of other av packages can be found here.

[ketamininja]

Hi,

not familiar with bullguard, but it is possible that there are viruses in all those messages (check for attachments, but don't open).

Some places spam ISP accounts.. ie to mikea@xxxxxxx.com, mikeb@, mikec@ - I get a lot like that.

The best way to deal with those messages is BLOCK them. if it comes from an unfamiliar address ie xxxxx@timetolive.net, then I would suggest blocking all email addresses that end with timetolive.net (usually you have this option).

Those aren't real addresses of course.
eventually, after blocking enough, they get tired of geneating fake addresses and reuse those ones.

 

[chorleydave]

Hi, Lin.

The only sure-fire way of avoiding spam as a result of giving an e-mail address when signing up with a website, is to use a free Spamgourmet disposable address.

http://www.spamgourmet.com

If you are already getting loads of spam, use the free eprompter to read the headers and delete the junk on the server, before it even reaches your PC.

http://www.eprompter.com

[Lin]

thanks for all that, I have AVG as well, and its only in the last two days i have been getting these emails, I think I will see if they stop and try and block them.

thanks again

Lin

[ketamininja]

If you are already getting loads of spam, use the free eprompter to read the headers and delete the junk on the server, before it even reaches your PC.

http://www.eprompter.com

You will probably have noticed that spam tends to have strange headers:

gg3t yourr frree pen1ss enlarggemment pp1lls hhere

- usually always different, and it makes it harder for these programs to block, but still a worthwhile investment.