Junk e-mail (specific)

antispam246

Firstly, apologies if this is not the appropriate thread, feel free to move. For a good few months I've been getting a horrendous amount of junk/spam e-mails, possibly through a freebie/points sign up. I can't work out the source. The thing is, they appear to be from many multiples of companies, however I know they are grouped in some way.

Everyone of these junk mails ends with this image, proclaiming to remove you from their mailing list.



However it doesn't because petty much every new junk mail is from a different company. The majority of the removal links are in the same format with slightly different details, sometimes not even pertaining to the company advertised within the e-mail. I know many of these unsubscribe links aren't exactly safe as they simply verify your prescence.

With that all said, from the image, can anyone identify the original source or how I might prevent them. I do junk and report them but as there are so many and always different they easily bypass filters.

Reluctant_spender

Set up a free e-mail account like G-mail. Give this address to who ever.

Then set up g-mail to forward all mail it receives to your real account. On a daily basis log into your g-mail account check all mail and either keep or mark as spam.

It may take a few days/weeks to do but you will reduce the spam in your real inbox dramatically.

I had three in my real inbox and 248 in g-mail spam box - it works for me

superscaper

I set up about 300-400 email addresses on my domain forwarding to a central address. Of those 300-400 unique email addresses I gave to different companies etc I currently get zero spam without any filters. When in the past I started receiving some phishing emails I could delete the entire email address and not use it any more. It also told me specifically which company passed my details on by which address they were sent to.

antispam246

superscaper wrote: »

I set up about 300-400 email addresses on my domain forwarding to a central address. Of those 300-400 unique email addresses I gave to different companies etc I currently get zero spam without any filters. When in the past I started receiving some phishing emails I could delete the entire email address and not use it any more. It also told me specifically which company passed my details on by which address they were sent to.

Is this your own e-mail server you've setup?

I understand the ability gmail offers, I do use it. However this is with a hotmail address which I can not afford to sacrifice right now.

Incisor

antispam246 wrote: »

And every time you press it, you confirm that they have a valid email address, which is actually worth a small amount of money in spamming circles. So now you have made yourself a sitting duck. No fix apart from abandon the email address.

antispam246

Incisor wrote: »

And every time you press it, you confirm that they have a valid email address, which is actually worth a small amount of money in spamming circles. So now you have made yourself a sitting duck. No fix apart from abandon the email address.

antispam246 wrote:

I know many of these unsubscribe links aren't exactly safe as they simply verify your prescence.

That's pretty much what I figured, but it's not what I want to believe. I just need to work out the original source. Perhaps someone else has the same e-mails but can recall what started them or uses gmail?

superscaper

antispam246 wrote: »

That's pretty much what I figured, but it's not what I want to believe. I just need to work out the original source. Perhaps someone else has the same e-mails but can recall what started them or uses gmail?

I don't think that's going to help. For one thing other people may have had their details passed on by different means and different places and if it's a single hotmail address it may have been guessed or harvested in some way. So in a way there isn't an "original source" and there certainly won't be any way to stop them or legitimately unsubscribe even if you found there was a specific company that leaked your address (may not have even been intentional). You'll have to just use hotmail's filter settings or ride it out until they die down (as long as you haven't clicked on the "unsubscribe" on any of them). I think unless you know right from the start how your email was passed on there's no real way of finding out now. And even if you did there's nothing you can do with that information that would affect how much spam you're getting.

antispam246

I understand what you're saying, I guess it's more a case of ensuring I avoid them in the future as I use multiple e-mail addresses and despite in inadequacies, I do prefer hotmails free service in comparison to the alternatives.

That single image (as posted in first post) would lead me to believe that they are all tied in from a single source.

BritBrat

I have a rule set up to delete from server, but I also use the same tactic of giving out unique email names so I can make rules to match.

I use almost free Orange accounts for PAYG dialup, why almost free?

Because you have to dial in every month or so to keep it active, I still have and use a freeserve account and they died years ago.

EXAMPLE:

Say I wanted to enter a competion with the Daily Mail as I did yesterday the Email they get given is:

DailyMail@MY EMAIL ADDRESS.orangehome.co.uk

Anything before the @ sign can be anything you like.

So if I get an Email with that address I know the original source.

I do go a little further sometimes but it does not always work as it may be to long.

Example:

moneysavingexpert.com@MY EMAIL ADDRESS.orangehome.co.uk

All the above is about starting with a good practice and maintaining it.

If you buy your own domain name and use that with the same idea above you do not have to worry about losing it so long as you pay the cost every 2 years or so to renew it.