Have Spam Problems Since Joining

[Jim Mc]

Hi gurus, any ways to stop spam ? has only appeared since forumizing!
Regards Jim

[jdoe71]

Get a free Yahoo or GMail account and only use it in forums and other internet places that require an email. When it gets spammed too much, stop using it and open another one. Works like a champ.

[Jim Mc]

Thanks for that,
Regards Jim

[Ex-Calif]

Reports of members getting spammed as a result of registering here are extremely rare. If the database were compromised then the reports would be more widely spread.

There are many ways for spammers to get your address. Registering for things on-line and posting your address "in public" are common ways to get your address picked up.

I use a similar strategy to jodoe71. I have a "dummy" account that I don't use for anything except registering.

When you register, your password or some sort of confirmation link is sent to that account. I open that account, get the password or confirmation, forward the password or confirmation to my "real" account and then delete everything in the dummy account.

Then I go to the site I registered with and change my email address to my real address, depending on whether I really want them to have my email address or not.

My accounts are very spam free with this strategy.

[FrankZ]

I use a different approach. I use one of my two actual real live email addresses for everything. All my email runs through Postini (now Google Email Security). I get about 2-4 spam per month, but always together. I think they tweak it constantly so when something slips through they will catch it pretty fast. I have gone several months without spam at all. Well, at least in my inbox, it does get caught up in the quarantine on their servers.

[drew.ward]

make sure that if you do list your email addy on either your profile or in a post that you spell it out all the way:

jon at yahoo dot com

People can still read it, but it blocks the spambots from picking it up. Also block all the spyware that comes integrated with the google ads and such. CF doesn't use those cookies to spy on you, but other companies can buy the data from the people who run the services and then use that to send you targeted spam.

[hallie]

"Also block all the spyware that comes integrated with the google ads and such."

how do you do this?

[Jim Mc]

dont know . not my department. not driving this machine just steering! I think the boss has all firewalls anti this and thats in place, so we shall see.
regards jim

[drew.ward]

ad.doubleclick.net Causing Slowdowns?

check out that thread. If you're using Firefox it will also GREATLY speed up the load time of the forum.

[hellosailor]

Jim, unless you listed your email address here in your profile or in a message, it is unlikely that you are being spammed because of the forum. Coincidental, perhaps. Causal? Unlikely.

Once an email address has gotten into commercial spam lists, your best bet is to notify your friends and business contacts, then dump it. There's no unringing that bell.

You can try being discreet with the new address, or try a commercial ISP like Bluebottle.com which offers extensive whitelist and anti-spam options from $10/year. Whitelists aren't perfect either, I hate them. But for email addresses that are going to be seen in public (which means spammed) they're the way to go.

By the way, if your email address is anything that can be found in a dictionary (like jim@anything.com) you can expect it will be worthless because commercial spammers DO generate lists by dictionary, and anything that doesn't get "no such address" replies gets added to the list for commercial spam.

[Allan S]

We never get spam, nor pop-ups, after installing (free) Spybot: Search and destroy plus (free) Spywareblaster. Those two items saved our sanity. We used to get innundated with20 - 30 pop ups a minute, now its ZERO!. As for spam, I guess Hotmail takes care of it for me, I don't even give it a thought.

We just use hotmail for everything, and believe me, I join everything nautical...lol.
Our e-mail security is just what hotmail supplies.

Allan

[Hud3]

Jim,

The only thing a member's email address is used for here on CF is to send a confirmation when registering as a member, and to send out notifications according to member-selected preferences on the "User CP/Edit Options page". All of these emails are system-generated. We don't share members' email addresses with anyone for any reason.

[noreault]

I use AT&T as my mail providers. Started using them as a dial-up ISP, shows how long I have been using them. I am now outside their territory but maintained them as my email provider. It costs $7.95/ month, but I haven't had to change my address and I get zero, yes 0, spam message. I am a happy customer.

[Jim Mc]

Thanks Gurus , I appreciate everybodys advice and help. I do think that it must have been some weird coincidence as the spam has slowed right down.
Monty Python has a lot to answer for-- spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam.
regards Jim

[1960cjj]

LOL. and I thought you were referring to the tinned variety. I'm still coming to terms with computer speak.

Craig