Heartland

Hi people,

as you know by now I'm a mac-user and therefore usually safe from viruses (it's no fun creating one that will only affect about 5% of the computer users worldwide at max.). Besides, I'm more or less protected by a weekly updated Norton Anti-Virus.

BUT: I get virus and spam mail sent anyway, huge loads, daily!

Recently, before Heartland broke down, some of you computerwise more skilled people posted something along the lines of being able to have unwanted mail bounced back as if the e-mail-adress didn't exist.

Can anybody of you tell me, how this trick can be done?

Thank you very much!

If you're using a Mac, the "Mail" program on OSX has a useful little thing under the "Message" menu called "Bounce", which, as its name suggests, bounces the message you're currently looking at back.

Keyboard shortcut apple-shift-B.

Eva
can you tell me what e-mail program you use and who your ISP is, I know it'll be different where you are but I'm with ntl: here in the UK and I find the MacMail program suits me.

I'm Spam Free BTW!

you can be a right show-aff at times mark!

James Blast wrote:you can be a right show-aff at times mark!

Sorry!

Well, not really

I only found it by accident. When I was setting up mail accounts on Mail and sending test messages between various accounts, I accidentally bounced one of them. "Oooh that's handy!" I thought.

Thanks to you both, guys!



I'm working with mac OS X 10.2.8. and with "Entourage", Microsofts mailprogram. Maybe I should use Eudora instead? Or Apple Mailer if that's what you were talking about?

I'm at work at the moment, but I'll find out what I have and I'm determined to find that "Bounce" button. It's the damn best thing Apple have ever thought of!

And it's so good to have you well-informed and skilled people here...

Cheers!

Talking from the ISP standpoint:

Virus mail can mostly be stopped by your ISP. We run all incoming mail through two scanners. One is a normal pattern file driven scanner that downloads updates every few hours, the second is a custom thingy that renames any dodgy executable files that make it past the anti-virus scanner.

Spam isn't as easy, there are several ways we try to block it. Firstly we blacklist any open mail relays. Then we do searches on the mails for spam like behaviour which is the tricky part, if its too agressive you risk blocking legit mail and people get pissed off. If you make it too relaxed people get spam and get pissed off

The best way to make sure you don't get junk mail is only hand out your address to people you trust. For dodgy stuff create a throwaway addy at hotmail of something like that, one that you can kill off at anytime and not risk losing anything important.

hallucienate wrote:The best way to make sure you don't get junk mail is only hand out your address to people you trust. For dodgy stuff create a throwaway addy at hotmail of something like that, one that you can kill off at anytime and not risk losing anything important.

sound advice Sir!

Sorry, people, but what is ISP?

as for spam and virus mails:

all the virus mails reach me through a "very safe" (that's what it's supposed to be) gmx adress, that I've only handed out to the people I was sending the questionnaire for my research (thesis). Trouble is that I still need that adress for a last mailing after I've handed in my thesis.

I'm protecting myself from spam mail with a professional spam blocker company (and I pay for it), which keeps me safe from spam, and at the same time allows me to check the junk mails for legitimate e-mails. But after I'd read that post here (I guess from MarkFiend, if you so readily knew what I was talking about) I thought that I have better use for 50 euros per year if my computer should be able to do the trick for me.

ISP: Internet Service Provider

GMX is a huge ISP and I wouldn't be suprised if they have been the subject of a dictionary attack on their domain (some bastard has a list of common names and mails every combination of that with @gmx.de at the end)

These days there are ways of fending off things like that too.

Eva wrote:...after I'd read that post here (I guess from MarkFiend, if you so readily knew what I was talking about)...

I guess it was me; I seem to recall saying something about bouncing an email from someone from Peru

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should include spam and virus checking on your email anyway without you having to pay extra.

ah! Thanks Hallucienate!



I have a virus problem with ISP: gmx.ch

And I have a MAJOR spam problem with freesurf.ch

The trouble with freesurf, or "sunrise", as the company is called is that they don't give a f*** about their clients and their problems, plus the supporters there don't have ANY clue.... And I can't give up my freesurf.ch mail adress yet...

markfiend wrote:

Eva wrote:...after I'd read that post here (I guess from MarkFiend, if you so readily knew what I was talking about)...

I guess it was me; I seem to recall saying something about bouncing an email from someone from Peru

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should include spam and virus checking on your email anyway without you having to pay extra.

Yes, with the emphasis on should....

PS! The problem seems to be sorted, I've found the "Bounce" button - what a clever piece of work that is...

All I need to do is to work with a different mail-program...

Thanks to you all!

Oh, and I should add that you should never reply to spam in any way. Don't even click the unsubscribe thingy, by doing that they know that they're got a live address and will just spam you more.

Bouncing and blocking seldom work as the real spammers rarely use the same address twice.