Spam that hurts

[wellard]

G'day cobbers

My wife got upset the other week when a E-mail dropped into our mailbox similar to this one.

Hi there, how's it going? Well for starters I must confess that this is indeed pretty awkward. I noticed your profile online and figured I'd drop ya a line....I bet that doesn't happen to you everyday! I never really even thought about it until someone saw mine and got in touch a little while back. ANYWAY! My name is Kara, I'm 26, and I'm a sale rep for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. Goodness I can't get over how strange this is! I'm sure you're probably thinking the same thing! hehe. Oh well, I really don't want to go on too far. Especially since I'm not sure whether or not you have any intrest. But if you would like to get to know more about me, please drop me a line. I'll be more than happy to include some pics as well. Any pics you might have would be greatly apreciated as well Well I hope to hear from you soon! Take care. xoxo, Kara P.S. Do you use any messenger services, maybe we can chat on there sometime? My email address is kara_939_little@hotmail.com

Now before you all laugh, my wife who is the brains in the family but not internet savvy, read this first and got all worked up by it. Ok most of us would see through this straight away but I was so pissed of about it upsetting my wife ( Its the best feeling in the world to be loved [img]graemlins/lovestory.gif[/img] ) That I was wondering what if anything can be done about this?

ps this is the 3rd one [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]

[Mouse]

I had the very same one. It took about 30 seconds to read it and a couple more to delete it.

[Callum Kerr]

Just delete it... it's just another spam... but why does it upset?

Edit: oh wait... is it suggesting porn?

[ 02-03-2003, 07:48 AM: Message edited by: Callum Kerr ]

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Callum Kerr: Just delete it... it's just another spam... but why does it upset?

Doh, because it implies Wellard has been surfing the net looking to meet someone else than his wife.
I can imagine if your wife doesn't know about spam emails, that must have upset her. Maybe you could show her the replies you get to this thread? Mouse seems to have gotten the same one, that proves that it's just a fake message.

To prevent this sort of thing happening, try to set up filters. If you use hotmail, for instance, you can filter out any mail that includes the word "viagra" or was sent by an address ending in @datingservice.com or similar

[andrewas]

Havent seen this one, but its not an uncommon type. If you have a hotmail account turn on its spam filter, otherwise youll have to figure out how to do it withing outlook or whatever. Sometimes spam will get thrh anyway though.

Its tempting to send replys along the lines of "F, er, I mean "go away" but all that does in confirm that the email account is still live. So just delete and ignore.

[wellard]

Yeah I know about hotmail.porn.com filters, but we use a local server with no filters, we are carefull about giving out our address but I guess they have ways around that. And the timing worked out with the fact Ive spent a lot of time just recantly on this forum....

Goes to give wife a big hug. [img]graemlins/kiss.gif[/img]

[wellard]

In my anger I hid the real question.. What can I do about this spam and others? Have any oz users of optusnet got a filter running? Is there a way of stopping e-mails from certain countries like USA. Judging from most of the wording it seems to all come from there.

I'm off to bed now but all advice/tips are wellcome

[img]graemlins/sleeping.gif[/img]

[Mouse]

Originally posted by Melusine: Mouse seems to have gotten the same one, that proves that it's just a fake message.

I prefer to think I got it because I am irresistable to the opposite sex..... [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[Callum Kerr]

Originally posted by Mouse: quote: Originally posted by Melusine: Mouse seems to have gotten the same one, that proves that it's just a fake message.

I prefer to think I got it because I am irresistable to the opposite sex..... [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] [/QUOTE]Nah... it can't be that... otherwise I'd have 100s of junk mails a day... wait a sec! on my old e-mail i DID have 100s of junk mails a day...

But none like that... so it can't be what you think... [img]graemlins/blueblink.gif[/img]

[andrewas]

Originally posted by wellard: In my anger I hid the real question.. What can I do about this spam and others? Have any oz users of optusnet got a filter running? Is there a way of stopping e-mails from certain countries like USA. Judging from most of the wording it seems to all come from there. I'm off to bed now but all advice/tips are wellcome [img]graemlins/sleeping.gif[/img]

Outlook includes its own filter software. Dunno how effective it is and I dislike straight keyword filters - they tend to hit legit mail far to often for my liking. Id bet theres a more sophisticated filter available if you dig a bit though. Search on M$ site as well.

If your running some other email client then youll have to hunt through its docs for yourself.

And if your using some online client (similar to hotmail) then your only way forwards is to bug them for spam filters, although they probably have one hidden somewhere in the options.