over 250 email messages, help

[DTrider]

Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
have a few messages from friends.
Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
Thank You,
Don

[Richard Goh]

Welcome to the world of SPAM.
Either your email address was captured and sold recently, or your ISP
stopped filtering junk mail.
1. Check with your ISP to see if they have junk mail filtering.
2. Change your email user name (with the support of your ISP) and notify all
of your real friends of the new address.
3. Protect your address. Don't use it for news groups or web site
registration (get a throw-away address for those) and be very firm to your
friends that include you and multiple other address when they forward jokes,
etc. Make them learn how to use the BCC header.
4. Last resort, buy a email spam filtering program. Be prepared to spend
time teaching it what is and what is not SPAM.

"DTrider" > wrote in message
...
> Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
> from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
> virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
> have a few messages from friends.
> Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
> Thank You,
> Don

[philo]

"Richard Goh" > wrote in message
...
> Welcome to the world of SPAM.
> Either your email address was captured and sold recently, or your ISP
> stopped filtering junk mail.
> 1. Check with your ISP to see if they have junk mail filtering.
> 2. Change your email user name (with the support of your ISP) and notify
> all of your real friends of the new address.
> 3. Protect your address. Don't use it for news groups or web site
> registration (get a throw-away address for those) and be very firm to your
> friends that include you and multiple other address when they forward
> jokes, etc. Make them learn how to use the BCC header.
> 4. Last resort, buy a email spam filtering program. Be prepared to spend
> time teaching it what is and what is not SPAM.
>
>

good suggestions
i suggest the free utility called mail washer
(just google for it)
you can view (and delete) email right on the server
without having to download it to your computer...
you can also black list it ...
(just don't use the bounce option as it will actually make things worse)

[Bill Watt]

On Sat, 7 May 2005 19:50:07 -0700, "DTrider"
> wrote:

>Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
>from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
>virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
>have a few messages from friends.
>Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
>Thank You,
>Don

Don,

You need an e-mail previewer like MailWasher. It checks the mail on
the server, identifies most spam and you can easily delete them on
the server, so you don't download any viruses with your e-mail
program. You can also preview them before downloading.

There's a free trial version.
MailWasher.
http://www.firetrust.com

There are others, try Google for possibly a free one. Search for
e-mail previewer.

Regards,

Bill Watt
Computer Help and Information http://home.ptd.net/~bwatt/

[AAH]

Mailwasher may do the trick.
I had the same problem then started using the
"Bounce" command on the Mailwasher, after
few weeks the spam senders, I think got fedup
with this and now I am in peace.
Any observations by other users using Mailwasher?.



"DTrider" > wrote in message
...
Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
have a few messages from friends.
Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
Thank You,
Don

[Lil' Dave]

Yes, its trickled down to 25 or less per day using the method you stated.

Some businesses sell/give away your email address, so don't give it out.

Mass emails of some inspriing story, in text-only, that go from one sender
to all their personal acquaintances, and spread that way to many, many
people. And those many, many people to all their acquaintances etc etc.
etc. In that email header is your email address if its just forwarded.
Therefore, all of these people have your email address stored in some
fashion or another on their PC. Chances are your email address will be
found by an illegitimate emailer.

"AAH" > wrote in message
...
> Mailwasher may do the trick.
> I had the same problem then started using the
> "Bounce" command on the Mailwasher, after
> few weeks the spam senders, I think got fedup
> with this and now I am in peace.
> Any observations by other users using Mailwasher?.
>
>
>
> "DTrider" > wrote in message
> ...
> Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
> from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
> virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
> have a few messages from friends.
> Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
> Thank You,
> Don
>
>

[PCR]

I only had two posts in any of my folders larger than 90 KB. One had an
attachment. The other was HTML with a picture inside. The largest post
on this NG in my 40 days of download is 58 KB. So, I feel it is
acceptable to...

(1) "OE, Tools menu, Message Rules, Mail".
(2) Check "Where the message size is more than size" in first window.
(3) Check "Delete it from server" in second window.
(4) Click "Size" in third window, & set it to 100 KB.
(5) Use the "Move up" button to move this rule to the top of any other
rule you may have.

Those Swen posts are 144 KB. So, they will not download. Naturally, if
you expect a large post, such as one with a legitimate attachment, then
you must disable that rule before it is sent to you. Otherwise, you will
never see it. (Update: Your ISP may STILL have them at their "E-Mail on
the WEB". So? Go do it there too.)

However, the fake "returned mail" posts will still get through. They
seem to be far fewer, & certainly are quicker to download. These also
are a danger, if they contain an attachment. Just delete them, or create
a rule to delete them automatically. It seems to work to...

Conditions:
Where the To line contains people.
Where the message has an attachment.

Actions:
Delete it.
Stop processing more rules.

Description:
Click "Contains people". Have it select all posts that do not have you
in the "To" field. (Mine says "Does not contain 'PCR'".)

Move the rule up, if necessary, to just below the other.

Now these smaller mail will all go into your "Deleted Items" folder.
When you are sure nothing of value is in there, R-Clk the folder &
select "Empty...".

They can safely be viewed (to see nothing of importance is there) by
"R-Clk Deleted Items, Find", & check the "Received before" box. If the
Headers don't say it all, then "R-Clk one of them, Properties, Details
button, View Source" is very safe to do.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"DTrider" > wrote in message
...
| Today when I checked my email, I had over 250 email messages
| from people and places I never heard of. I thought I might have a
| virus but my Norton Antivirus did not show anything. I normally only
| have a few messages from friends.
| Help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated
| Thank You,
| Don

[Don Phillipson]

"AAH" > wrote in message
...

> Mailwasher may do the trick.
> I had the same problem then started using the
> "Bounce" command on the Mailwasher, after
> few weeks the spam senders, I think got fedup
> with this and now I am in peace.

Mailwasher "Bounce" is a good feature because
the sender gets an Undeliverable Message report.
Some of the people selling email addresses to
advertisers/spammers try to gain credibility by
guaranteeing all addresses are valid: so possibly
these prune from their lists addressees who
Bounce unwanted material.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)