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Author Topic: Sex-industry spam - again!
lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534

posted 24 September 2002 01:57 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm sure this topic must lurk somewhere in the Babble archives, but recently I, and a client in Europe, have been observing an explosion in the Internet spam we get - especially sex-industry spam. Oh that herbal pill for penis extension... or "expand your bustline"... the weirdest perhaps was one on "foreskin restoration" (why?) ... though "collection of leather bustiers" did have a certain kinky charm. My colleague in France never stops getting ones about "Russian beauties seeking husbands..."

I've complained to my provider but to no avail... Have any of you managed to get rid of this crap? The problem seems to be expanding exponentially.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3000

posted 24 September 2002 02:00 PM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've switched email accounts and since moving FROM hotmail TO yahoo, I've been spam free.

Hotmail seems to be the worst of them all, as far as my small survey of friends and loved ones indicates.


From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
Moderator
Babbler # 1130

posted 24 September 2002 02:22 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I get all kinds of the stuff on hotmail, and none on yahoo. I've reduced it a bit by blocking a lot of addresses. Quite a bit of it comes from yahoo addresses though, and I can't just block all addresses ending in Yahoo.ca.

My kids need hotmail accounts for some of the features they use, and it's pretty creepy finding some of this stuff in my 11 year old daughters email.

My 15 year old son got one called "Here's the teen porn you ordered, Frank". My name happens to be Frank. I still get a bit of teasing about that one.

[ September 24, 2002: Message edited by: oldgoat ]


From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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Babbler # 2534

posted 24 September 2002 02:33 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Although I do have another web-based account (moncourrier) this problem has occurred in my work-related e-mail, which uses the server's name as a suffix. Web-based accounts are inadequate for sending lots of weighty files and extensions, as I do almost daily.

Yeah, it's really creepy when kids get them. It would also be horrible for a person who has had real mutilating surgery or debilitating disease affecting the male or female body parts mentioned. In my case it is merely an annoyance, though it keeps increasing. I have to fight off the urge to write back to correct the spelling and grammatical errors so rampant in that industry!


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
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Babbler # 1292

posted 24 September 2002 02:36 PM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Perverts can't spell? Or spammers can't spell?

Either way, you had better all watch your spelling.


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
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Babbler # 3000

posted 24 September 2002 04:03 PM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
And it just keeps coming. The fact that there's so much all the time makes me wonder if it's actually a viable advertising method. Do people really fall for the ads?

Or is it just so cheap a form of advertising that the creeps just keep sending the emails, despite a low return rate?


From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
Alix
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posted 24 September 2002 04:06 PM      Profile for Alix     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's not porn, but I keep getting spam for lab supplies. And steroids.
From: Kingston | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
sheep
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Babbler # 2119

posted 24 September 2002 04:09 PM      Profile for sheep     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
And it just keeps coming. The fact that there's so much all the time makes me wonder if it's actually a viable advertising method. Do people really fall for the ads?
Or is it just so cheap a form of advertising that the creeps just keep sending the emails, despite a low return rate?

I think, given the ease of mass emailing, that if they were to get just one sale out of a million emails it would make it worth their while.


From: Vancouver | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
disobedient
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Babbler # 2915

posted 24 September 2002 04:47 PM      Profile for disobedient     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have a hotmail account that I have to check because I used it to sign up here and on a few other boards. From now on, I'll be using evilemail. They bought a bunch of domain names (some rather funny ones) and they're totally free.

I just read something this morning about how a lot of the spam is for rape porn. Lovely. Don't ever open the spam btw, there's executables in them that send a message back saying that it's an active account and then they send you more and more and more and more!


From: Ontario | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Pat
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posted 24 September 2002 05:08 PM      Profile for Pat   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
evilemail? I've never heard of it.
From: lalaland | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 24 September 2002 05:38 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I never get spam, even in my hotmail account. I use either my hotmail or yahoo account whenever I want to sign up for something on the internet that I don't completely trust. My home ISP email address is sacred.

I do get spam on my yahoo address, but that's because it has the least amount of my name in it, so I use it for the sites I trust the least when I need to give a working email address - and the spam I get there is generally only the spam that I have signed up for, which I guess doesn't make it spam at all.

How is it that you get porn email if you never go onto porn websites? I've never gotten porn email, and I've signed up on lots of sites, just not porn ones. Or maybe it's because I'm extra careful about checking boxes when it asks you to DEselect email updates on any web site.

[ September 24, 2002: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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posted 24 September 2002 06:28 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I get loads of porn on Hotmail. I never use it and I too don't understand why I get it. anyhow I never use Hotmail. I think I got it for the MSN. I have cancelled the MSN so I will just not go near hotmail for a month and they will delete me. I guess I could uninstall them but I'm not sure. I get no porn on Yahoo.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
lagatta
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Babbler # 2534

posted 24 September 2002 06:42 PM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Michelle, as you see if you read my first post, most of the "sex-related" stuff I get as spam is not porn - the promises to expand various male and female body parts and the foreskin restoration stuff seem more to respond to people's anxieties or something...

I've accidentally logged on to porn sites while looking for medical or other information, I'm sure a lot of folks have. Not frequently or recently - and the porn explosion is very recent. Nor am I prissy about it - I'd love to find some good erotic lit on the net - hmmm!!! - but any porn sites I've happened upon seemed dreary, sad and dull.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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posted 24 September 2002 07:05 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
For good erotic writing I'd recommend either nerve.com, or cleansheets.com. Not all of their stuff is good, of course, but a fair percentage is.

I generally laugh when I get both "enlarge your breasts" and "enlarge your penis" spam in the same batch. The combination would be fun at parties, anyway.

Anyway, I get spam not only on hotmail, but on the community net email account I use far more often. Hotmail sells your address to spammers, but on the community net, anyone can see a list of members' email addresses. I'm thinking of switching for that reason.

I'm told that when spam includes the phrase "to be taken off this list, reply including the word 'unsubscribe,'" it's a mistake to do so. That only tells the spammers it's a real working email address, and you'll be absolutely deluged after that.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 24 September 2002 07:52 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have gotten exactly three spams in the last year and a half. I have gotten better luck, though, in going to the website and searching for the "contact us" email, and telling whomever is at that address not to spam me again. It has worked for me, all three times. I haven't gotten any spam for months now. I say that crossing my fingers - just because I wrote that, the spam gods will decide I'm too arrogant and will send a batch for my impertinence.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 24 September 2002 09:24 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
On the other hand, I've gone to lots of porn sites, and it didn't seem to increase the amount of spam I got.
From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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Babbler # 518

posted 24 September 2002 10:18 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
ASlmost every day, I get an e-mail from Brittany Spears in which she offers to allow me to watch her do various athletic acts on her "cam."

I never respond, and she just keeps sending them.

I honestly do not know how she got my hotmail address; I thought perhaps she links to Babble.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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Babbler # 1064

posted 24 September 2002 10:59 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
But aren't you afraid of hurting her feelings by not responding, jeff?

I have it on good authority she has a thing for Canadian lawyers -- from the emails she sends me, in fact. Which is odd, because I'm not a lawyer.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
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posted 24 September 2002 11:06 PM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't get why people use hotmail. It's like begging for spam.

Every time I find out someone uses Hotmail I insist they try KMFMS. The only spam I get is from their "partner announcement" thing, which I just delete. Way better than the 5 or 6 spams a day I get on my other e-mail address.


From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
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Babbler # 370

posted 24 September 2002 11:17 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think that if you use it for your main E mail you are not bothered. I never use it. I should have never taken it in the first place.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
Moderator
Babbler # 1130

posted 24 September 2002 11:57 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
ASlmost every day, I get an e-mail from Brittany Spears in which she offers to allow me to watch her do various athletic acts on her "cam."

I responded to that one, and we've actually become good friends. In fact we usually get together on alternate Fridays.

quote:
I've accidentally logged on to porn sites while looking for medical or other information, I'm sure a lot of folks have.

That happened to me in my early internet/babble days. Someone was discussing age of consent laws, and I knew they were incorrect, but I wanted the right information. I threw a few words into the search that I thought would get me to the relavent legislation, but I got some sites with images that were pretty jarring. And a lot of them were just free sample teasers, I didn't even have to download anything. The scary thing is, any kid could easily bump into stuff like this.


From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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Babbler # 518

posted 25 September 2002 01:47 AM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Reports that Brittany Spears adores Canadian lawyers are likely well-founded. It seems like quite a natural response.
From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1064

posted 25 September 2002 11:45 AM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, more to the point (so far as I'm concerned), Julianne Moore loves Canadian geologists. True.
From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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Babbler # 560

posted 25 September 2002 12:01 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
But aren't you afraid of hurting her feelings by not responding, jeff?

Yes, Jeff, you terrible heartbreaker, you. I know, it's your years lawyering that have jaded you to the heartbreak of a sweet, innocent, virginal young thing like Britney, right? After all, she's not quite a woman, not quite a child...


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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Babbler # 1448

posted 25 September 2002 05:09 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've gotten all kinds of really awful porn spam on my email... One of them that really threw me had "My baby almost lost her eye..." in the subject header, and thinking it was some sort of parenting safety thingy, I opened it (I rarely do if I don't recognize the sender), and was confronted by a large male appendage in an *ahem* excited state. Just glad the wee grils were not bumbling around the office at the time...

Another disturbing one was some sort of "Nabokov Society", which I assume has something to do with child pornography. I didn't open it.

The only address I don't get much spam on is my business account, which has its own domain name -- I only get harrassed for industry stuff. My cable access account and my hotmail account are pretty bad for it. Penis and breast enlargement, pornography, credit, Nigerian letters, herbal viagra, pot alternatives, free grants....


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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Babbler # 518

posted 25 September 2002 06:12 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Michelle, I do not understand why you think I am jaded. I believe it is quite natural to begin a conversation with any new person by asking about the length of their criminal record and what jails they prefer.

to be honest, though, I have not given Brittany Spears much thought, despite her persistent importunings of me. Somehow I fear she might be too...energetic or something.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mandos
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Babbler # 888

posted 25 September 2002 06:18 PM      Profile for Mandos   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
jeff: Does she play with your heart? That oughtta hurt! Particularly when she gets lost in the game...


I tend to get lots of Nigerian letters. One of them was a teary story from the widow of a Nigerian minister who died in an accident. She called upon my chivalrous self to rescue her by transferring money through my account. Then I got one from the son of some deposed dictator, who wants me to rescue him from his troubles by transferring money through my account.


From: There, there. | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
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Babbler # 1064

posted 25 September 2002 06:20 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
I believe it is quite natural to begin a conversation with any new person by asking about the length of their criminal record

You legal eagles certainly are bold. I'd have thought that a rather... personal question, to be held until the third date or so.


From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 518

posted 25 September 2002 06:49 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
You legal eagles certainly are bold. I'd have thought that a rather... personal question, to be held until the third date or so.


Thank you. We ARE bold.

But on the first date, it is usually dutch treat, and what if she is using counterfeit money? A stolen credit card? False id? These things automatically occur to me, but that isn't being JADED! (Is it?)


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
'lance
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1064

posted 25 September 2002 06:51 PM      Profile for 'lance     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Sounds like proper, judicious caution, to such an edge-dwelling type as yourself.
From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 25 September 2002 08:15 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hey you too, Jeff? My personal favorite is Metro West Deten--er...I mean...
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 518

posted 25 September 2002 09:38 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
All of our many detention centres are worth a short visit.
From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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Babbler # 560

posted 25 September 2002 09:41 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Snerk...short is right. 20 minutes.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
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Babbler # 490

posted 25 September 2002 11:31 PM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I say 10 minutes.
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Trisha
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 387

posted 26 September 2002 01:58 AM      Profile for Trisha     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
There was an announcement not long ago on Zdnet that many servers had been hacked and address lists stolen and sold. That's one of the reasons for the influx of spam. Another reason the porn sites come to people who haven't done anything to get them is that these sites are "piggybacked" on more innocent websites and sometimes creep into your cookie lists to activate themselves at a set-in time. Some of the sites piggybacked are the joke and card sites, some are other information sites. Phonebusters is trying to trace down some of these spammers and stop them, Yahoo is doing it's own search and destroy thing and trying to stop the offensive spam using its server. I assume the other servers are trying as well.

There are blockers available but the problem is that they also block totally innocent websites because of names and words that can be taken more than one way. For instance, a recipe site could be blocked because of the use of the word "breasts". I don't want my access to the net to be as restricted as these blockers would make it.


From: Thunder Bay, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 518

posted 26 September 2002 11:26 AM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Some of the sites piggybacked are the joke and card sites,

you mean to say, if someone sends me an internet card, they are sending Brittany Spears too?


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Amy
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Babbler # 2210

posted 26 September 2002 08:04 PM      Profile for Amy   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm pretty sure that hotmail sells email adresses... the pop-up ads that I get when I open my account are by some of the same sites from which I get corporate spam... I mean seriously
if people are using hotmail as their main email account they are most likely not going to be looking for someone to provide the service of protecteing their millions from the tax man... it's absurd...

to be legal email solisitation(sp?) in the US, there has to be a link or option to remove your email from the databas, but most of the time it is a "faulty" link that takes you to their site (especially porn and ,erm, enlargement pills) There are also plenty of illegal email solisiation... meh.

the best way to get out of it is to find out if any groups that you are involved in have webmail... they are often splam free (excluding group stuff) or to have work/school email...


From: the whole town erupts and/ bursts into flame | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 26 September 2002 09:22 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Are you serious about the card and joke sites? So really, you have NO control over whether you get on spam lists because as soon as someone sends you an e-card your address gets put on a list? Geez.

But I've gotten lots of e-cards and I don't get spam. I HAVE told a friend of mine not to input my email address into the thousand-and-one joke sites she has emailed into her account every day though. No word of a lie, the woman gets something like a hundred emails a day, most of which I would consider spam spam spam.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
SuperGimp
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Babbler # 3090

posted 27 September 2002 04:21 PM      Profile for SuperGimp     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Also, people in chat rooms copy your address and sell it...I have done experiments with various email addresses and chat rooms, and the nasty emails go up exponentially after entering certain chat rooms...the absolute hands-down worst is political chat on AOL, and the second-worst is YAHOO.

After visiting various health sites and ordering health supplements, I got the Viagra and steroids spam virtually nonstop.


From: Dixie-USA | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
Trespasser
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Babbler # 1204

posted 09 October 2002 10:24 PM      Profile for Trespasser   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
For cryin' out loud. On one of my hotmail accounts I get 32 (!! yes!) pieces of junk mail every 8 hours! I have to check that account at least three times a day to prevent it from clogging and bouncing those rare real messeges. &%$#&@*&$*(&@*&##@
From: maritimes | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
clersal
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 370

posted 09 October 2002 10:39 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah. I am waiting for Hotmail to die a natural death. I never use it anyhow. someone said after 30 days Hotmail flushes E mail. Youpi. I have a main E mail with Yahoo and there is no spam. Hotmail is a pain in the ass. I think if one uses it a lot it is okay. Or something like that.
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
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Babbler # 1292

posted 09 October 2002 10:49 PM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hotmail is another great example of Microsoft quality control.

I mean, look, it isn't that hard. Spammers do not use real reply addresses and they fake stamp their origins. A simple rejection on all failed DNS lookups for incoming connections will eliminate the lions share of all spam. A little manual labour for any complaints thereafter will take care of the rest.

What is the big deal?


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490

posted 10 October 2002 12:55 AM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Can't. DNS lookups fail for several reasons, not just nonresolution of an invalid domain.

People get mighty exercised when legitimate e-mail traffic gets KABRONGED.


From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1292

posted 10 October 2002 06:37 AM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
You will have to explain for KABRONGED.

Are you saying when DNS servers fail? That shouldn't be a problem. Because when my DNS server fails it can't find hotmail.com to relay any mail in the first place.


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Trisha
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Babbler # 387

posted 11 October 2002 02:12 AM      Profile for Trisha     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The card and joke sites attempt to police their output and usually succeed but the piggybacking of porn especially is well know. One porn site based in Russia, since closed down, used crafting and gardening website to piggyback on.

Most of these sites use a sort of relay system to make their origin harder to track. They change this almost as frequently as most spammers change their addresses.


From: Thunder Bay, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
WingNut
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1292

posted 11 October 2002 10:45 AM      Profile for WingNut   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is called taking advantage of an open relay. In short, a legitmate business with legitimate business needs decides to host their own mail server. In previous years, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, GroupWise and other mail server software shipped with relaying open by default.Spammers would send test mails through mail servers to test if the relay was open. If it were, they would begin sending their mail through that server.

This has resulted in organizations such as mail-abuse.org establishing black hole lists comprised of open relays. There have been lawsuits. I do not know of any succesful lawsuits. Even hotmail was black holed. Being black holed means that mail originating from hotmail, for example, will be rejected be servers subscribing to the service. Hotmail, BTW, has not been on the list for quite some time. Hotmail may let a lot of spam through but it is not an open relay.

Today's software all ships with relaying closed by default. They must be configured to relay your own mail or mail for networks and domains you administer. Still there are a lot of older systems out there in the hands of non-tech people who are unaware of these security issues or how to correct them. But open relays are becoming a thing of the past.

Below is an example of an attempted and failed relay attempt. What is nice about this is we now also have the email id of the spammer as well as his assigned host name. We can now, if we choose, block both domains from communicating with our systems, period.

Oct 8 14:07:12 gate postfix/smtpd[18632]: reject: RCPT from s211-49-24-216.thrunet.ne.kr[211.49.24.216]: 554 : Recipient address rejected: Relay access denied; [email protected] [email protected]


From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mohamad Khan
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1752

posted 22 October 2002 12:07 AM      Profile for Mohamad Khan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hotmail is Satan.

but for those of us who are users, just set the Junk Mail Filter to exclusive. all email from addresses that aren't in your contact list will go into the Junk Drawer. i no longer get any crap in my Inbox; i just make sure my contacts are updated and peek into my Junk Drawer once in a while to make sure no actual mail has snuck in there--if not, Empty Folder.

of course, this doesn't help people who are *supposed* to get a lot of mail from people they don't know, e.g., for business purposes.

my girlfriend was complaining to me as well recently about receiving those penis enlargement ads. i used to get those a lot too...why the fuck to they want to drive it into guys' heads that we must have cocks the size of Mount Caucasus?!


From: "Glorified Harlem": Morningside Heights, NYC | Registered: Nov 2001  |  IP: Logged

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