computer help needed OT

[John Reddie]

I know that many of the board members here have more computer knowledge than I do (not really saying much) so I am asking for help:confused:. Recently, I have been bombarded with spam email featuring everything from dating services to sweepstakes winnings along with many other foolish things. I know that I can delete these all of the time which I do but I would just like to know what would prompt something like this to suddenly start happening. The internet and other features are fine. I am using Windows 7. Thank you for any info here.

John R

[TodFitch]

Once your email is out onto anyone's spam list it is out and no getting it back.

Maybe your nephew's machine got hacked and the contents of his address book was captured. Maybe some on line retailer you bought something from years ago had their database hacked and your email was captured there. Or maybe attempts at sending mail to random addresses came up with your address (bad addresses are rejected but good ones aren't so even if you never opened the mail they can know that the address is real). No real way to tell how your email address got into spammers hands.

Your best hope is that your ISP has reasonably good anti-spam filters. But you can augment them by installing programs/filters of your own on your computer.

[Don Coatney]

Have you tried asking this question on a computer forum? When my tractor has a problem I go to the tractor forum. When my washing machine has a problem I go to the washing machine forum. There is a forum for most anything these days. Google can be your best friend.

[TodFitch]

Have you tried asking this question on a computer forum? When my tractor has a problem I go to the tractor forum. When my washing machine has a problem I go to the washing machine forum. There is a forum for most anything these days. Google can be your best friend.

Is there a forum for helping you figure out what forum you should be asking the question on?

And the washing machine forum I went to when my washing machine broke was much less help that I expect this forum would have been...

[greg g]

Change your email provider and address. Have a seperate email account for all business you do, all craigslist enquiries, all correspondence with new or untested contacts, find one where you can adjust the anti spam settings.

But the best way is to do a new account and give that out to just trusted contacts.

And don't just ignore or delete the unwanted items mark them as spam before you delete them.

[John Reddie]

Thank you for the advice. I found the information I received here more helpful and easier to understand than the computer sites that were suggested. I will in the future keep my posts here strictly automotive related.

John R

[Plymouthy Adams]

as long as it is not e-how..I think that website is hosted by PS31 kindergarden class...

[Eneto-55]

One way an email address can get "Out There" is if you correspond with anyone who sends on a lot of forwards. If you write them, then many email programs will automatically add you to their address list. (Usually there is a setting to control this.) Anyway, if they think some message is really cool, and forward it to all of the people on their address list, and some of those people do the same, then pretty soon your address is in the lists of a LOT of people. Eventually it gets into the hands of someone who is willing to sell the addresses of people they don't even know anyway.

[RobertKB]

Thank you for the advice. I found the information I received here more helpful and easier to understand than the computer sites that were suggested. I will in the future keep my posts here strictly automotive related.

John R

No need to keep them strictly automotive. There are lots of threads and questions that are not automotive on this forum. If my memory serves, I believe Don once had a thread on his small tractor engine that I believe ingested something bad from the carburetor. You did mark yours OT so if someone doesn't want to look at it, they can just ignore it.

Edited September 7, 2012 by RobertKB
Spelling

[John Reddie]

Good point RobertKB. Thanks.

John R

[Don Coatney]

I believe Don once had a thread on his small tractor engine that I believe ingested something bad from the carburetor. You did mark yours OT so if someone doesn't want to look at it, they can just ignore it.

Correct, I did start such a thread but I posted my findings from another forum as I felt they were flathead related and might be of benificial here.

Here is a link to the thread. Note the link to the tractor forum in the first posting.

My point is I try and use all related resources to find answers to off topic questions prior to posting them on this forum. I also use all related resources to find answers to on topic questions I have prior to posting them here. But that is just the way I do things.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=21311&highlight=piston+graveley

[eh dubya]

Have a look if your email app has a return to sender, address unknown option. Mine in Mac OS mail app is called bounce and appears in the contextual/popup menu with a right click.

-Andy

[TodFitch]

Have a look if your email app has a return to sender, address unknown option. Mine in Mac OS mail app is called bounce and appears in the contextual/popup menu with a right click.

-Andy

Please don't do that!

The return (reply to) address is one of the three:

1) Non-existent so you'll get a non-deliverable response to your bounce.

2) Some poor bloke who's email has been discovered who will be inundated by bounced mail. Actually this is sometimes done intentionally to overload the poor bloke's mailbox.

3) The return address is actually the spammer. Very small chance of that but I guess it is possible. This is the only case where your reaction might do some good, but it is a very, very, very rare case.

[John Reddie]

My email has a filter offered which I am going to look into. I have limited knowledge of computers so I appreciate all of the help here. Something is up here because yesterday my email messages would suddenly not appear. I had to perform System Restore to get it to work.

John R

[eh dubya]

Please don't do that!

The return (reply to) address is one of the three:

1) Non-existent so you'll get a non-deliverable response to your bounce.

2) Some poor bloke who's email has been discovered who will be inundated by bounced mail. Actually this is sometimes done intentionally to overload the poor bloke's mailbox.

3) The return address is actually the spammer. Very small chance of that but I guess it is possible. This is the only case where your reaction might do some good, but it is a very, very, very rare case.

Tod, I use it because it works to discourage unsolicited mail and posssibly due to my IP's filtering it's years since I received spam without a valid return address. I'm not concerned it may return to a hacked account, the legitimate user should be made aware of it and deleting returned messages is the least of the poor blokes's' problem.

The fact that it works suggests the spammer (or their hacked subordinate) does indeed get the message.

-Andy

[TodFitch]

Tod, I use it because it works to discourage unsolicited mail and posssibly due to my IP's filtering it's years since I received spam without a valid return address. I'm not concerned it may return to a hacked account, the legitimate user should be made aware of it and deleting returned messages is the least of the poor blokes's' problem.

The fact that it works suggests the spammer (or their hacked subordinate) does indeed get the message.

-Andy

It doesn't even need to be a hacked account. If I spent a few minutes digging to get your email address I could send out spam to a million addresses and list your email as the return address. How'd you like to get a million legitimate bounce messages? The bounce messages would be from different senders, probably none of them on spam black lists so there is a very good chance that your ISP would deliver them to you...

[40P10touring sedan]

I saw the "OT" marker in the heading...guess someone missed that.

Where's the search for helping fellow forum people skills......honestly....anyway...

John, I had to learn this once too so I'll try and pay it along. If your using outlook try this...find all and any offending emails you get and right click them, you should get a list of things-

open/marked as read/move to folder...junk email...that's the one! Move the pointer to it and it'll open a new side section of things, and look for "add sender or domain as blocked". You'll need to keep doing this for a while but it should cut the amount of bad incomings down to a dull roar. Problem is they just keep changing the sending/routing domains...but at least your trying to help yourself by doing something constructive to the problem........ last I knew we were all here to help each other since we're brothers in a common bond - and sometimes we don't know what to do about something and look for help here since we usually find it here and trust our fellow brothers with our babies{cars} and sometimes other things. I teach my cubscouts when someone needs help, you don't give them more problems or excuses .. you help them as best you can.

BTW- if your using other than outlook the proceedure should be roughly the same...I hope this actually helps you. As always in life, there are no dumb questions...you know the rest......

[John Reddie]

I have the Yahoo Email and I will try doing what you have stated. Thanks so much for the tips.

John R