Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...

[Shakey]

...As Monty Python once sang.

I am currently receiving over 120 spam emails a day.

The vast majority of this is for 'Cheating Housewives Services', internet pharmacies (that seem to specialise in nothing but Viagra, Cialis and Xanax), cheap loans, tablets that apparently increase the volume of one's ejaculate and fake Rolex watches. The best one is the one currently offering the '#1 spam blocker' !

God only knows how these people got my email address, I blame a certain used to be well known nightclub in the Elephant & Castle as I only ever got spam after I signed up for their newsletter prior to a job interview some years ago.

Anyway my questions are: Have you or do you know anyone who has actually responded to a spam email?

What is the take up rate of spam email? How many spam emails have to be sent out to get one sale? Especially when they all seem to be offering the same products? How desperate or stupid do the vendors have to be to think people will respond to their 'Re: your account #F4585674' emails etc.?

What are other forumites experiences? Are there any spammers reading this who can give a honest answer?

PS - Well meaning advice to get a spam blocker won't work, I'm currently using an old PC running Windows95.

Whilst writing this I have received 'Affordable online prescription here' and 'Software for your office use -bvu'. Idiots.

 

[snowleopard]

in the days of direct mail it was generally reckoned that if you got over 1% response it paid your costs. with spam that figure is now down to 1:100,000 so even if you've never heard of anyone responding to these things they may still be making a living at it.

to get rid of spam the easiest way is to change your email address and go for one that can't be guessed by randomly combining names so john.smith@... would get hit on immediately whereas jsmith234795x@... won't.

never post your email address on a public site. if you want to give someone on this forum your address for instance, send it in a PM, don't put it in a posting.

your ISP should provide spam blocking - it doesn't need to be on your PC. hotmail has quite a good one and it's free.

 

[graham]

Hotmail doesnt keep trhem all out but on enhanced level certasinly gets rid of most of it.What intrigues me is how do they know I want to invest in "sure things" or need an a penis enlargement.

 

[Shakey]

Good advice with regard to email address! Unfortunately back in God knows I chose an email address that is an English word but quite random, the sort of word that guarantees you a win at Scrabble. The spammers have still got it though!

I still blame a certain nightclub owned by a merchant banker for flogging my address left right and charlie.

As for those emails offering me an 8" penis - I'm not chopping 4" off mine for anyone.

 

[henkm]

A few remarks.

-
I thought the hit rate of spam was something like 2 in 10000. Spam is mailed in enormous numbers. There are really people that have gotten miljonairs this way.
The point is that you and me pay for their activities (i.e. internet traffic, time lost).
Example: http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend22_20021122.htm
(this mentions a lower hit rate).
-
Just checked the small business server that I manage:
Mails from Feb 6 04:02 to Feb 12 00:15
- 15763 mails accepted
- 60752 refused: spam
This is spam-filtering ON the server, which is not complete, as the following shows:

One of my e-mail addresses has been published on the internet for years.
In the last months it received about 110 spam e-mails *per hour*.
I closed it down.

Over to your problems:
-
Your e-mail address does not have to be 'given away'. Spam senders (or rather their sophisticated software) can simply 'compose' e-mail addresses, and try them out. (i.e. john@domainname, info@domainname and bugs@domainname will work most of the time).
-
There are spam filters that will work on Windows 95 (i.e. Mailwasher, but there must be more).
-
Some internet providers provide e-mail addresses that are subject to a spamfilter on their server.
-
Without changing providers you could also take a gmail account
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html
that has intelligent spamfiltering included.
[There is a waiting list for @gmail.com addresses. I have 2 left to give away. Send me a PM if you want one.]

henk

--
http://www.filo.nl/zeilen/

 

[FullCircle]

I used Mailwasher - its free........ but will only handle one account on the free version. My BT mail (around since 96) gets averagely 6000 a month, and mailwasher sorts out the rest.
But I have changed main mail address, and I live in an email mud creek now. Nil..

 

[poter]

Shakey,

you can always add a spamkiller & set the security to accept only incoming mail in your address book. You still get spam but its in a seperate file & you just clean it on mass, say once a week...

Just a thought.

Or change your email address say every 6 months & be spam free for a little while.


poter

 

[Becky]

I used to get all these obnoxious spams before I changed my e-mail address. But what would I need a penis enlarger for, I can make them grow as big as I want, any day, so there.

 

[nicho]

We use Wanadoo, with their broadband package. This includes a "spam" filter, which sorts them out before they hit our computer, and dumps them in a wastebin. We can then go into that 'bin at our leisuire, and delete them en masse. On rare occasions, we have found an e-mail there that is not actually "spam", so it's best to check the rubbish bin weekly.

 

[whisper]

Mmmm!! What are you doing a week on Monday??