Dealing with SPAM

der kopfder kopf
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I have received some (not many, but more than I want - which would be none) SPAM-emails lately.



I have done what somebody here suggested once: write to somebody who might be in charge of the domain wherefrom the spam came.



Yet, I was wondering. Normally you have the possibility to unsuscribe by clicking a link. Now, these guys will remove you from their database if you FAX them. I kid you not. Is this in any way legal? I sure as hell am not going to fax my way across the big Atlantic to get removed from some spamming list.



So I ask you all, is there some institution where you can report this? Is there even some law against which this spamming acts? Is it illegal? Are there pressure groups that act against spammers?



Any ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    spam cop is supposed to be good, but i have not used it... it is too complicated for me... (I'm a lazy bastard tho)
  • Reply 2 of 7
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Spam Cop is the tool of the devil, my SMTP address that I use at home got blacklisted because someone on that SMTP address was sending out spam. I use my school's SMTP address in my dorm, but I can't use it at home.



    Of course, each party said to contact the other party. SpamCop pretty much told me "tough luck, talk to your ISP and make them stop spam" (as if that'll do anything). My ISP (Covad, when I'm at home) told me that it's not their responsibility to prevent spam coming through them... but it seemed like the person on the other end of the phone didn't even understand what SMTP is or anything. They didn't seem to happy that I was using their SMTP address for my non-Covad email account, even though that was the only way to send email (my university's SMTP server only works on campus).



    Anyway, I have to say that SpamCop is a bunch of jerks who put entire mail domains under interdict if anyone in that domain acts up - maybe you get a little bit of a spam filter but look at who has to pay for it. In the end, spammers couldn't really care less since most people don't have SpamCop, so only the innocent victims get punished.



    EDIT: Jaguar's Junk Mail filter is very, very accurate. The most spam that has slipped through in a day was about two messages, out of probably about 15 or so a day. Most days, nothing gets through, and it almost never classifies a non-junk message as junk. The only time it did that was when I got my paypal account, the email confirmation paypal sent me was filtered.



    [ 12-05-2002: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 7
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I used to have an elaborate set of rules set up in entourage to get rid of the spam, but now I just use mail.app. Seriously, it's the best filtering I've ever seen. I get maybe 1 email a week that gets misclassified (either junk for non-junk or vice versa). If you're not using it already, switch to it, if only for the spam filtering.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    I am using Mail, and it has correctly qualified the mail(s) as junk, but that's a bit of a post factum, nearly-good-enough-but-not-quite, solution. I would like them to just stop sending that shit, that's why I ask. I have to say that, up to now (and still), due to strict vigilance as to where I enter a real email address, as opposed to a jabberwokky one, spam has remained at a minimum. Yet it's that minimum that I'd like to nip in the bud.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    i use mail.app filters and of those filters all those spams i forward them to spamcop and delete without seeing them. also ... of those few that still pass my filters i remodify filters and still forward to spamcop... all together those seem to work. = less spam.



    i've seen ever send a letter to cancel from spamlist.. c'mon. spamcop, that's it .. never try to cancel yourself...
  • Reply 6 of 7
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    [quote]Originally posted by der Kopf:

    <strong>

    Yet, I was wondering. Normally you have the possibility to unsuscribe by clicking a link. Now, these guys will remove you from their database if you FAX them. I kid you not. Is this in any way legal? I sure as hell am not going to fax my way across the big Atlantic to get removed from some spamming list.



    So I ask you all, is there some institution where you can report this? Is there even some law against which this spamming acts? Is it illegal? Are there pressure groups that act against spammers?



    Any ideas?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yes, that is completely illegeal, you must have a valid unsubscribe address. Unfortunately usually if you use the unsubscribe function (DONT!) that just validates your e-mail address and your e-mail addy is sent to other spam lists. You can forward spams without unsubscribes to [email protected] but who knows what the hell they'll do with it.



    I just use Entourage with a lot of custom rules and a junk mail filter set on highest. Wish I could use mail.app but it doesn't work with my school's imap service very well.



    [ 12-05-2002: Message edited by: chych ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 7
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Followup:



    I sent a first mail to them complaining.



    Then I did as chych suggested (report to Federal Trade Commission).



    Then I tried to send them a mail (acscorp.com) to inform them that I had reported them. No dice. I could no longer get through: bouncy-bouncy.



    So I sent an email from my generic yahoo address.



    Man... these people are pissing me off. Treating ME like the offender.
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