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Hi Marilyn,
Spam cannot be stopped at the source because the headers are not those
of the sender but usually forged and hidden. CCN filters much of it (as
much as a million pieces a day at one point) but some still gets through.
Many users of CCN and all other ISPs, for that matter, are troubled
with junkmail aka 'spam' etc, from individuals and/or companies wanting to
sell something. Your name may not even be in the header of the email but
that just means they sent it to you with your name in the Bcc: (blind
carbon copy) field with a fake name in the main header.
The important things to remember about junkmailers is that:
a) they usually only use a fake address once, discarding it and
creating another fake address for the next mailing so screening these
fake addresses is impossible because they are usually a one-shot deal.
b) if, by chance, you screen a global address, for example...hotmail.com,
because some junkmail comes from people with hotmail accounts, then the
thousands, if not millions of legitimate hotmail'ers get penalized by the
actions of a couple of junkmailers. Add to that, if this were the case
and you have friends using hotmail, you would not be able to receive mail
from them because the screening program would catch them.
You can't pick a typical address like: 'JunkMailer@hotmail.com' because
tomorrow they could be called 'Spammer@hotmail.com' and so on, continually
changing their names. This happens constantly with most junkmailers (having
learned to circumvent screening techniques).
Complaining to the service provider usually doesn't help much either
because they can't track each and every name change on their system. As
well, complaining to the provider usually only temporarily stops the
junkmailer until they can apply for another account under a different name.
Complaining to authorities may work for large scale pornography or other
pyramid schemes, depending on the size of the operation and how
widespread it is.
Some junkmailers run multiple accounts already. It is in violation of
the User Agreement for any CCN user to have multiple accounts under
different names and/or to junkmail anyone. Some providers, unfortunately,
aren't as diligent as CCN.
Junkmailers use a variety of 'tricks' to get email addresses.
They can buy them from other junkmailers, trade for new lists using their
lists as trading material, set up 'text skimmers' which pick up USENET
traffic, as well as using alpha-numeric schemes for junkmailing freenets as
such. Alpha-numerics run aa001, aa002, aa003, aa004...etc. Since the
return address is a fake, they don't have to worry about bounces from
inactive accounts.
The more you post to USENET, the more junkmail you can expect as a
result. Junkmailers also have 'free' sites set up for visiting but log the
email address of every visitor. They can sell these addresses for cash
to keep their 'free' sites operational. Changing your email address
would only work for a short time as the junkmailers do such a blanket
mailing, they will probably get you in the end. Also, by changing your
account, all of your past email acquaintances will no longer be able to
reach you. You won't be able to forward your mail because that would
forward the junkmail as well.
Changing your return address to add something like:
aa001@NOSPAM.chebucto.ns.ca
doesn't work anymore as spammers use filters to clean up certain
phrases from email addresses. Phrases like NOSPAM, REMOVE, XXX etc are
all checked and cleaned out by the spammer's filters.
The worst thing you can do is to respond to the junkmailer by demanding
they 'REMOVE' you from their mailing list. This is just telling them that
your email address is a 'good' one and that there is a human respondent
at that address. Proven respondents' addresses probably sell for even
more on the junkmail market. The most powerful weapon you have regarding
junkmail is just to delete it and and don't give it another thought.
Have you set your spam preerences to junkmail? That way, it will be
sent to the junkmail folder where it will be automatically deleted after a
month. Your reports have been sent through to the office.
CCN Help
-----------------
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010, Marilyn Langille wrote:
> Hello I am hoping that you can help me. My e-mail is
> henrimarilyn@yahoo.ca but recently I reconnected with you to get my
> messages from my old e-mail account with you henri@chebucto.ca I am
> getting nothing but spam and would like to have it stopped other than an
> uptodate message regarding my account with you would like to have all of
> that stuff stopped at the source. Can you do this for me. Thank you
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