Re: how do I stop a spammer or at least get my isp to listen to me?

From: Bruce Chambers (bchambers_at_h0tmail.c0m)
Date: 05/07/05 

Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 10:57:12 -0600

Rich wrote:
> I know GetViagraNow.Com is one of the biggest spam clearing houses on the
> net. I have tried to block their unsolicited junk for about 8 months now. I
> don't know if it is related but I have had more virus attacks on my computer
> since their junk email has come in. It feels like it is coming from them. I
> have tried getting my isp to block them but Bellsouth.net has been no help
> at all, for the past months they have been sending me around in circles
> saying send us email-no call tech support-then you call tech support and
> they tell you to email them with the problem. I have sent them emails of the
> spam I am getting and after the first couple of times, they blocked me from
> emailing tech support. Bunch of great guys. You would think they would care
> because obviously these spammers are sending mail to all of bellsouth's
> customers, but it is like they don't care or they are in it with the
> spammers.
> In despiration I even contacted the offender-GetViagraNow.com at their site
> through their communications system but they didn't respond and there has
> been no change. I still get 30 of the exact same email every day.
> Anybody know how to block them?
> Appreciate any help.
> RichMason101(at)hotmail
> Thanks
>
>

     While it's not possible to completely eliminate spam (unsolicited
commercial email), there are some precautions and steps you can take to
minimize it's impact:

1) Never, ever post your real email address to publicly accessible
forums or newsgroups, such as this one. For years now, spammers have
been using software utilities to scan such places to harvest email
addresses. It's a simple matter to disguise your posted email address
so that these software "bots" can't obtain anything useful. For
example, insert some obviously bogus characters or words into your reply
address, for example: "name@NOSPAMisp.com."

2) Never, ever reply to any spam you receive, even to "unsubscribe" or
"remove" yourself from the spammers' address lists; you'll only compound
the problem. If spammers had any intention of honoring the your desire
not to receive spam, they wouldn't have become spammers in the first
place. When you reply to a spammer, all you're doing is confirming that
he/she has a valid, marketable email address.

3) Be especially leery of any offers from websites for free software,
services, information, etc, that require your email address, or that
require your email address so you can "login" to access the offered
service and/or information. Many such sites are supplementing their
income by collecting addresses to sell to the spammers. For instance,
subscribing to CNN.COM's Breaking News Service will garner you a lot of
additional spam. (Of course, not all such sites have under-handed
motives; it's a judgment call. If the offer seems "too good to be
true," it's most likely a scam.)

4) DO forward any and all spam, with complete headers, to the
originating ISP with a complaint. Not all ISPs will make an effort to
shut down the spammers, but many will. One tool that makes forwarding
such complaints fairly simple is SpamCop (http://spamcop.net).

4) Another useful tool is MailWasher (http://www.mailwasher.net). This
utility allows you to preview your email before downloading it from the
server. Spammers can even be blacklisted, so that any future emails
from them will be automatically deleted from the server.

5) Within Outlook Express or whatever other email client application
you use, add any spammers to your Blocked Senders list, so the their
messages are automatically deleted from the server without being
downloaded to your PC. 

-- 
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having 
both at once. - RAH

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