Don't leave your e-mail address on forums.
Don't provide it to any site/person you don't trust unless absolutely necessary. If you visit dodgy (porn) sites and put your address in you deserve what you get!
Don't reply or try to unsubscribe to Spam - It will only get worse because they know you exist.
If you have to pass it on to someone, insert some other obvious text into it i.e. mr.bloggs@[NOJUNK]myisp.co.uk
Choose a good ISP, if you use hotmail what do you expect?

No junk mail in 3 years!

see poll reply ;)

Posted by Mertsch in poll comment:

during last days I get tons of VIAGRA eMails ... but since I use MailWasher ... it isn't that problem ...

http://www.firetrust.com

its free for one email account ...
its very easy to use ... got lots usefull options to delete emails automatically ... very good preview function ... which is 100% safe - means:
no pictures are loaded (tracking links)
no virus can be executed
no other malware HTML code ....

Version 1.0 of Advanced Spam Defense was just released under it's new name - Aggressive Spam Defense.

This new version sports quite a few enhancements. Most notably is the ability to learn from current spam and use it against future spam. Also the user-interface has been streamlined even further.

http://www.hace.us-inc.com/ :oops:

the filter in Oputlook 2003 is actually quite good :)

You can't really stop the mail from coming but there are a few things that can be done so you don't even have to see them...

Here are a couple that I do. First if you have Outlook 2003 set it to delete these items Automatically and you NEVER have to see them but you could delete some mail you may want - So set up rules that allow anyone from contact list to make it through - Even from those from places you may want their spam - Occassionally some do make it through anyway just add them to BLOCKED SENDERS LIST...

If you have an older version of Outlook another process I used for Outlook 2000 and Outlook from Office XP.

Set a rule that moves all items that have your first 4 letters of your email address to your deleted items folder then add to that rule that only people from your contact list will be allowed to enter your inbox and this will stop you from having to see anything from any spammers - Occassionally check your deleted items folder for email that you may want and add only those you want to your contact list and also set your Deleted Items folder to DELETE items on Outlook EXIT.... Once this is done for about a month you should have all contacts added to your contact list that you turly wanted and add any from forums like this one etc.

Once everything is set and all rules applied you will only have to see the emails you truly want - this will also elimate the possibility of ever getting a virus unless one of your contact individuals send it on to you.... :lol:

the filter in Outlook 2003 is actually quite good

It's excellent. One thing that's extremely important is to turn OFF displaying HTML email in your email tool (the viewing pane). One of the more elaborate schemes they're using these days is create an small image nested within an HTML email. The image file has a unique identifier (handle) associated with it and if your email tool is displaying HTML, the second you download that image file they GOT you. In other words, you've just authenticated your email address as being active. It then goes into a database and they can sell it to anyone they want.

So, my big tip for the day is TURN OFF HTML in your email tool.

Filters --- you've got several options. With Outlook 2003 you can create a filter to have ONLY email from your "safe list" (ONLY people who are already in your address book) get through. You can also have all that "unsafe" email (defined as "Junk E-Mail") go into the Junk E-Mail folder (or whatever folder you specify). You can also have it permanently deleted.

Another of the more interesting "features" of Outlook 2003 is that you can block an entire domain, which can be very handy UNLESS you know someone who is using that domain. For example, about 85% of all spam comes from Yahoo but a LOT of people use Yahoo for email (because they do such a great job of filtering spam, believe it or not). So, if you block Yahoo and have all that email deleted, the next time your buddy (or someone who is just trying to get in touch with you) tries to email you, you'll never get it. If you simply have all the spam go into the Junk E-Mail folder though, you'll at least be able to review what's in there and create more specific "rules" (filters) to deal with the spam.

One of the big problems with filters though is that for them to be effective, they have to be somewhat generic by nature. For example, if you filter on the word "viagra", you should also include such spellings as "v i a g r a" and "vi@gr@" and every other permutation you can come up with because the spammers have gotten so created (with spelling of words). And too, the next time your buddy or girlfriend writes to you and just happens to mention viagra in his/her email, it'll get squashed by the filter (if you're checking both the subject and the body of the email).

I've tried every combination of filter imaginable, tried every spam tool add-on out there and NONE of them are 100% effective at dealing with spam. One of the more notorious methods of dealing with spam is the email front-end that sends an email back to the spammer. This email is basically a form, of sorts, that has to be filled out (a request to send email to you, actually) but again, as soon as the tool responds to the spam, the sender has just verified your email address as being active.

I had a pair of email addresses for nearly 10 years that this past year I had to cancel because I was getting an average of 130+ spam emails a day (from each account). I've more or less come to the conclusion that email addresses are only temporary and that once they (the spammers) get you on their list, you might as well cancel your old email address, create a new one and send everyone in your address book an email with your new address. Since doing that myself, the amount of spam I receive (daily) averages about 3. That's down from over 250+ a day.

Another useful method of dealing with spam is to have 2 email addresses --- one from your normal ISP that you use for communicating with friends (and ONLY friend) and another one for EVERYTHING else (forum registration, web site registration, whatever). The one you use for everything else might be from Yahoo, MSN, whoever, but it should be from an on-line service that is fairly effective at dealing with spam and that allows you to change your email addresses whenever you like. Then, when the spammers get their hands on it, it'll only be temporary and you'll only get spam for as long as you can stand it.

The same thing applies to your normal email address. When it gets to the point where you're getting 100+ spam emails a day, I'd say that email address has outlived it's usefulness and it's time to get a new one. There is NO stopping them (the spammers) so just accept the fact that you'll either HAVE to get used to all the spam or get used to changing your email address occasionally (once a year, once every 2 years, whenever).

Well, I guess that's a little more than just one tip for dealing with spam. Sorry 'bout that. Good luck and do whatever it takes.

Later.

n'evening

just tried that ASD tool ....
1. installion is good
2. going into programm setup ... now it starts to get tricky ...
whooooooooooooooooo stop it .... thausands of options floating @ u ..... lots bars without any descriptions
... its not bad ... there is an idea behind it ... but its useless to make that much trouble of fighting spam ... I will stay with MailWasher mentioned above ... its way more easy and does the job really good

ah btw not to forget ....
3. uninstallation sucks its unclean

Most of us these days have unlimited email address's on a sub-domain provided by our ISP. The best option is to create a brand new email for each thing you sign up to online, for example here I have an email w2s@mydomain.com, this way I can tell where the spammer got my email address from and v-easily filter out all mail to that email address to my trash if I start getting lots of spam to it.

First of all, I must admit... OL2003 is brilliant!

2nd: My own domain, catch-all and "block-all"-function... (not receiving email for certain names)

3rd: Spamihilator - a wonderfull programm, lots of additional filters to it... works with an estimated accuracy of 99,8% in my eyes.

Hi m8s

Outlook is not a bad program, 2003 is maybe the best of the releases of it, but there is a thing that sucks big time in Outlook and Outlook Express:

If you receive some nested e-mail (must forwarded emails have this behavior) you can not see them in-line, you have to double click on every other e-mail that is included in the main one. This is really lame from Outlook because in must e-mail clients you have the option to have forwarded mail to be displayed in-line. This is what I like from Mozilla Thunderbird. I was a user of OE for long time and I have moved to Thunderbird. The only think that I miss from OE was the ability to hide the folder bar, nothing else.
I have been a registered user of Mailwasher long time ago, and the program is very good, but I have stopped to use it because with it you have to open first a program and after you clean you go to your e-mail client, this has pissed me off for the time consuming. A must better solution is a program that acts directly inside of your e-mail client. I have heard very good comments of POPfile, but have not tried it yet. There are a lot of other apps that promise heaven, but I prefer the ones that are already reviewed for respected people in the net and must of these ones are not.

SpamBayes for outlook
Very accurate, and it learns (unlike keyword or address blocking) to get new spam
No false positives
You can still use HTML mail and everything.

It gets damn near all my spam, maybe the worst thing that happens is it only suspects a junk message instead of being certain.

www.spamcop.net

Register to use a free account! You can, then, forward the source-code of spam messages to an address they'll give you.

Every spam forwarded to that address will be automatically processed to locate the spammer origin (ISP) and his site host.

The responsible administrators will receive complaints about spam and the spammer accounts will (in most cases) be closed.

Most of the administrator accepts reports from SpamCop without your e-mail address, so you're protected. When an administrator does not accept reports without your e-mail, the boxes on the report page appear not checked (you can check it if you want to take the risk of confirming your e-mail address to a possibly administrator-spammer).

This is the right way to fight against spam: beating it at their source.

yeah ..... Mailwasher support spamcop ....and also got its own reporting engine ...

I've been using Cloudmark SpamNet for the past couple of months, since non of the rules i made In OE worked.

Well anyway I find this app really good I still get one or two messages through but 90% of the time they're filtered with no problems.

I use the free SpamPal program available from: http://www.spampal.org

SpamPal is a spam filtering system whose main aim is to separate spam from the mail you really want to read, by filtering the spam into a separate spamtrap folder. You can then look through the messages in the spamtrap folder at a later date and once you're happy they are all spam, you can delete them!

SpamPal works as a POP3/IMAP4 mail proxy server, in other words, SpamPal sits between your email program and your ISP's server. When your receive an email, SpamPal processes the email you receive, works out if these messages are spam and then marks them as spam by adding **SPAM** to the Subject line and by adding a header, X-SpamPal: SPAM

This process is carried out, mainly, by comparing your emails against lists of known spam messages, using Public Blacklists (also called DNSBL lists) such as SpamCop

You can also use various additional plugins, such as the Bayesian and RegEx filters (providing a choice of SpamAssassin or Regular expression filters), to provide additional ways of detecting if a message is spam or not, without relying on the DNSBLs. Using the HTMLModify plugin, you can remove web-bugs from your emails and it will also rename (or delete) dangerous attachments (such as .bat,.scr and .pif), which usually indicate a virus!

SpamPal by default comes with a plugin called RegExFilter, which has a SpamAssasin ruleset and you can add your own rules (as long as you understand regular expressions)

SpamPal also has a Bayesian filter plugin, which is very good as stopping spam and it quick too.

One of the best plugins though, has to be HtmlModify (available from http://www.ib-hoebel.de/SpamPal/)

HtmlModify does many things:

a) it removes web-bugs (indicators hidden in your email spam that announce to the spammer you've read their email)

it renames dangerous attachments such as .pif/.scr/.bat etc, which could indicate a virus

c) it has a small md5 checksum database of known virus attachments, which if matches your attachment, will result in your attachment being killed (if you select the option to delete)

SpamPal download page: http://www.spampal.org/download.html
SpamPal plugin download page: http://www.spampal.org/plugins.html
SpamPal Manual: http://www.spampal.org/docs.html

Although HtmlModify shouldn't replace your anti-virus software, it certainly does help, in fact, it stopped the Bagel virus the other day, well before Mcafee updated their virus dat files !!

Go for it...

Steve

I am using this as a outlook add on

http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

over 95 % success

try it, it free....

:)

I've used Spamnet for nearly a year now.
Its no nonsense and very good.
About 90% of emails are already tagged as spam. It checks a database populated by everybody running Spamnet and they have their own Spam tools on the server too.
Any Spam that does get through, highlight it and click block. Once enough people block it, it becomes spam too.

Works so well, I have no need to look at other solutions :)

http://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumers/optoutform_emps.shtml

should help you stop spam from the legitamite companies.

I dont know what to make of putting my name on another list.
If these people get hacked, thats the biggest list ever!
If ever there was a list worth nabbing this would be it, even if its not used for emails, it would be worth a fortune!

Just my 2p's worth