Spam prevention

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
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T

Tom

I recently installed Office XP and set up Outlook Express.

A few days ago, I posted my 1st question in this forum.

Unbeknownst to me at that time, the message posted my email address (from
the stored profile...shucks...). I already have been receving some SPAM
ever since.

I should have known better!!! Anyhow, before this is getting out of
control, any recommendations that could be done to may request delete the
post in Express.

I have a SPAM filter software installed... but again, I'd prefert to may
have my posting modified. Who would I contact to do that?

Thanks,
Tom
 
Select Tools | Accounts from the menu, and pick the specific account you're
using for the newsgroups.

Click on the Properties button, and munge your address in the "Email
address:" box. For example, I've set mine to
NOSPAM_djsteele@NOSPAM_canada.com so that humans can (usually!) figure out
my real e-mail address. Some people fear that the robots that harvest
addresses will also be able to figure that out, so they just use something
phony there.
 
Doug:

thanks... yes, I already did this.

what I'm concerned is that those "folks/scanners" will pick up the single
existing message which contains my email address... and then -- over time --
that single posting is going to result in some exponentially growing
spamming of my account.

I posted the question a few days ago... so the time frame isn't too big. I
was hoping to find out if there some method to erase that posting from the
Newsgroups server altogether in order to prevent a large number of spammer
to find it.

Any pointers,
Tom
 
Within a few minutes of posting your message, it was picked up by numerous
newsgroup servers and propogated around the world. In fact, I've seen Google
Groups pick up posts for its archives within a few hours of a post.

In short, you're out of luck to eliminate that message post from the
internet. It's out there for as long as people maintain archives.
 
Thanks... I appreciate the feedback.

Giving that's it's a single post (I won't do that mistake again and keeping
my email address in the profile), what do you think the chance are that I
get dozens or hundreds of spam email every day from now on? I don't need
an exact figure... just a good estimate such as the following 2 scenarios:

- "if it's one post... don't worry about it too much" or
- "whether it's one message in the newsgroups or hundreds, once you're in
the archives, you're out of luck..."

Tom
 
Actually, I don't believe you have done this.

Look how your e-mail address is showing up below (or is that not your real
e-mail?)
 
Tom said:
Thanks... I appreciate the feedback.

Giving that's it's a single post (I won't do that mistake again and
keeping my email address in the profile), what do you think the
chance are that I get dozens or hundreds of spam email every day from
now on? I don't need an exact figure... just a good estimate such
as the following 2 scenarios:

- "if it's one post... don't worry about it too much" or
- "whether it's one message in the newsgroups or hundreds, once
you're in the archives, you're out of luck..."
Click to expand...

This is just a guess, but I'd say the reality is somewhere in between.
You're going to get spammed for a while at least, but it probably won't
be as bad as if your address appeared in lots of messages, because it
won't be freshly harvested again and again. Keep using your munged
address in the future.
 
Doug:

yes, I don't use (e-mail address removed)... it's just to by-pass the OK message and put
stuff in the field.

Tom
 
First alter the published email addess to something like
(e-mail address removed) so that those of us that
might want to legitimately contact you can do so easily

Second, my @netscape.net address is not basically my spam address. I
closely guard my real address, although somehow that one's gotten out -
even though I thought that I never posted it anywhere.
 
If its just 1 post, you're at least better off, but don't get your hopes
up too high.
 
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