Pornographic spam

[kriskwery]

How do I stop this? I've tried blocking senders but they use different addresses - indeed, one is even using MY e-mail address as sender (how can they do that?!). Help, please - I don't want these pictures in my In Box.

[WendyW]

One way to stop it is to report it to Spamcop their address is http://spamcop.net/#map and on their site there is lots of info on Spam and how to cope with it. There is also info on use of your E Mail address in the way you mention.

[WendyW]

I forgot to mention that you are able to report spam free of charge or for a small payment they provide spam filtering services.

[bluedolphin]

I think you leave yourself open to that kind of spam if you have signed up for newletters, updates etc at various sites ...be it shopping etc . Somehow the spammers get those address data banks and voilla you are inundated with spam. So if you want a pure email acount set one up and do not give it away to any sites that request it for newsletters or updates as above. Good luck.

[Cactus]

There is something you can do to combat this - with emails like this there are usually certain "Keywords" in the subject line, usually very offencive ones. Let's assume you're using Outlook Express - set up a message rule in the Outlook options to delete all emails with these offencive keywords in them. But this doesn't entirely solve the problem as they'll stay in your Deleted Items folder, so what you do is this. Set up another message rule to "Mark as read" all the emails with the same keywords as before, then by clicking "View" along the top bar of Outlook Express, then highlighting "Current View" so that it expands, select "Hide Read Messages". Finally, set up Outlook Express to "Empty Deleted Items Folder On Exit" (in Options under Maintenance). You shouldn't see anymore offencive emails if you do all of this. You should still report them to the relevant autorities, but you could set your email client up like i've described in the meantime, especially if you're worried about children stumbling across something they shouldn't see. Hope you manage to get it sorted out, i know what a pain it is. I got sick of people trying to sell me bodybuilding drugs and viagra!

[desertrat]

There are a number of packages which you could install which will help reduce the number of spams you receive. If you are currently blocking unwanted emails as you receive them you should also go into your blocked senders list and amend the email address to block the entire domain. For example if you receive an email from [email protected] and you choose to block it, it will only block that particular sender. If you go into your blocked senders list and amend the entry from [email protected] to sex.com any email email from that entire domain will be blocked. Some ISPs also offer a service to block spam. BTinternet have recently started this and it is free. It will not stop them all but it will certainly reduce them.

[xyzzyplugh]

"Create Rule from message;" - "Where from line contains People" - "Action; Delete from Server." That will do you nicely in OE6.

[AussieGeoff]

If you have a POP3 email account, there is a simpler way of preventing porn getting into your inbox than using rules in your client. Go to http://www.mailwasher.net and have a look at mailwasher, there is extensive tutorials and assistance available there. I use it to preprocess all my mail, it downloads the headers and classifies the mail for you, it is extremely simple to set up and use, it works with dial up/broadband/network connections and any email client including Outlook Express/Outlook/Eudora etc. The one thing to note is that you should set your email client NOT to check the mail on a regular basis, leave it upto mailwasher. I have OE set up to download the mail when launched and at no other time. I never launch OE, I launch mailwasher, it checks the mail and when it has finished it then launches OE. The only time the Send/Receive button is used is to send mail, the little down arrow next to the Send/Receive button on the toolbar. It is completely free, but you can send a donation to the author so that he can continue development. Have a look, it took me about 2 minutes to set it up after having a quick glance at the tutorial and I now wouldn't be without it. Geoff