Spam

[DGW]

I am getting a dozen or more variations on this every day, none specifically to my address:

I just reviewed your m o r tgage info. You are appro ve d with 2.35 % fixed

r a t e. Please visit this page today and specify your application ID #049017364244 to confirm everything.

Thank you.

Stella

TGY Bank

WTF is it all about? (I have deleted the details shown for 'this page' but the address was www quiz21 com etc)

PS The end of the posts contains lines of gibbersih.

[Stimps]

The spam contains extra spaces to try and avoid anti-spam tools matching the obvious key words in the message "mortgage", "approved", "rate", etc...

You have NIS (IIRC), Denis? The anti-spam stuff in that helps to make a decent-sized dent in the amount of crap getting through to your mail inbox...

Or were you just wondering why you'd had an imaginary mortgage approved?

[spinndrift]

I'gve not had much spam for a while now and haven't changed any of the software on my PC.

[flyingscot]

Thats the only thing AOL is good at as an ISP. I used to, until installing a new version of their software get 20 spam e-mails per hour, but I now get hardly any, 1 or so a week.

[Kentish]

Thats the advantage of having multiple email addys and using certain addys for certain things. I dont get any spam in my "official" addy.

[Welliesorter]

I get literally hundreds of these per day to my BT Internet address. The BT Yahoo! spam filtering gets rid of most of it. The gibberish at the bottom is also an attempt to to confuse spam filters.

If you use Windows, Mailwasher provides a good way of deleting spam without downloading it first.

[Alex]

I had a good bit of spam yesterday about mail order Russian brides :naughty:

[KLB]

I used to get spam by the bucketload when BTInternet was (were?) my ISP. Since changing to a relatively obscure ISP, and being a bit more circumspect about handing over my e-mail address, I've had... er, none

[DGW]

NIS is categorising most as spam email but the stuff is wasting bandwidth while it downloads. I did get a fraudulent email yesterday which was supposedly from Citicorp - but as I don't bank with them my bank accounts are still intact.

[rich1068]

I've had the CitiCorp one too. In fact I think I've had one from just about every financial institution on the planet. I make a point of letting the banks know because these e.mails come in waves and some institutions are more on the ball than others. Whether you get an automated reply or not it's worth the five minutes it takes to tell them.

I know you use NIS but does your ISP have spam filters? Sometimes these are not on by default. Mine weren't and a quick call to Clara cut my spam down to a couple a day. The weekly 'Mail Filter Log' they send me of all the spam they bounce is frightening.

[DGW]

A good question, Rich. Does anyone out there know if NTL Broadband offers spam filtering?

[Stimps]

Denis,

This is buried on the NTL Broadband site:

"Q. How can I protect myself against viruses, hackers and spam email?

A. Download ZoneAlarm from www.ntlworld.com/zonealarm for protection against attacks. A good anti-virus will help guard against viruses. Spam email can be combated with a good mail filter."

I think you can take that as a no...!

[MonkeyHanger]

Denis, get Mailwasher. (Do a Google search)

They do a free version for 1 mail address, or you can pay for a version for multiple addresses.

It allows you to preview your mail on the server, and then either download, and / or delete & bounce spam as you wish.

It won't "stop" the spam per se, but it will save you from downloading the junk, whilst ensuring you don't delete anything important.

Hope this helps

Ntl mail is a pain for spam, it's about time they did something.

[Welliesorter]

Denis, get Mailwasher. (Do a Google search)

Or follow the link in my post above!

NTL do give you the option of forwarding all your mail to an alternative address so one possible work round would be to send it all to a provider that does offer spam filtering. Yahoo! does this although you have to pay them if you want to download your mail to a POP3 client.

[A-B Girl]

I have incredimail XE. ( I like all the fancy backgrounds ect.)

The latest download ( update), out last week , has a extra spam/ junk folder. It sorts all your mail according to addys in your address book & if you have sent any mail to that person. You can add then check this folder incase anything inportant has slipped through, then delete it all in one go ( non of this touching dodgy stuff, just get rid of it ) Its made a huge difference to me. I can now see when i have proper mail, instead of just junk.

p.s. ( I use ntl for my e-mail addys , seems thats why i get so much)