Who is Rick Obey And How Can I Make Him Stop?

[CaptTom]

I get at least two e-mails a day, sometimes more, from this clown. Some sort of boat broker I assume. The sender addresses vary, both the account and domain. The e-mails are addressed to a couple of accounts I have forwarded to my "real" e-mail account, but don't use much. I never give them out, but one is posted on a boating-related web site I have a role in.

I've learned a lot about my server-based spam blocking options, and I manage to send most of them to the bit bucket automatically, before they even get to my mail client. But some still make it through. They obviously use ever-changing information to thwart spam blockers.

Would you buy a used boat from someone like that?

OK. I'm done venting. I feel better now. Thanks.

[Capn Jimbo]

I don't know what operating system you are using but Thunderbird Mail has long had a terrific "learning" feature. As you receive the unwanted mails you tag them with a single click before deleting them. After a few mails Thunderbird will "learn" and automatically direct them to spam or junk, and voila!



You won't have to see them again...

[JPA Cate]

Your server probably has a black list. Tick the spam option, then delete, and it learns, as stated above.

Ann

[Capn Jimbo]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Your server probably has a black list. Tick the spam option, then delete, and it learns, as stated above.

Ann

.

While that may be true, working directly with the servers is messy and can be limited. I like Thunderbird because the junking is software driven, on your computer, and uses a software filter which you easily control. You have quick easy control over what is junk, what Tbird will do with it, etc., for example:

1. You can move them to the Tbirds "Junk" folder - or - delete them, your choice, automatically.

2.You can have Tbird mark them - automatically - as read.

3. You can enable Junk filter logging if you desire. All automatic.

4. You can change any of these anytime with a single click.

5. You can easily customize each of your email addresses.

There are many more options, like filtering by subject, etc. I don't have the time to list them all, but the link below is worth a visit.

Best yet, Tbird is free and coordinates with your Fox browser if you desire, and has many other extras. I found it supereasy to install and choose my junk options, which the program - not the server - learns. I moved all my accounts to Tbird years ago, and would never go back to gmail, etc.

Carry on.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...-spam-messages

[Auspicious]

Tom,


I'm with you on server side filtering. There are just too many times and places where Internet access is limited, slow, and flaky. Anything I have to download to deal with is an intrusion. Certainly makes the particular yacht brokerage in Florida suspect in terms of subject matter expertise.



I have a warped sense of humor. If you do also, a cease and desist letter followed by an invoice for your time after each piece of spam that gets through would take some time on your part (which you could invoice for *grin*) but would be entertaining.



You can write their ISP and report them as spammers with a copy to the broker. There are blacklist servers to which you can report them.

[YachtBroker]

Rick Obey is a brokerage in Fl. Every brokerage I know, including us, at the very bottom of the email is going to have a link to Unsubscribe. Sometimes you got to look for it. You hit that and it blacklists your email from them forever. If you are using an old email forwarding to an new email you're going to have to type in what the email is that it's actually coming to or it won't unsubscribe you.

We try to send out limited emails to clients but some of these Florida brokers seem to send them hourly and worse they let every broker in the place send their own so you may get several a day from brokers in the same biz. Annoying I agree.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Capn Jimbo

I don't know what operating system you are using but Thunderbird Mail has long had a terrific "learning" feature...

I use Thunderbird. For probably over a year now, e-mails from this agency have made it through. Whether they change just enough (subject line, account, domain) to fool the learning feature, or if it's something else, I don't know.

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Your server probably has a black list. Tick the spam option, then delete, and it learns, as stated above.

Yup. This is the most promising approach, and seems to be working so far. I had to dig a bit to find some effective options; no learning involved, just hard-coding the offending addresses and/or domains.

But again, new addresses and new domains thwart this.

Originally Posted by Auspicious

...There are just too many times and places where Internet access is limited, slow, and flaky. Anything I have to download to deal with is an intrusion...

Exactly. When I use cell phone tethering, I face limits where I'm either throttled or pay extra for bandwidth. I'd rather not download these e-mails at all. Admittedly, I can screen e-mails using a cell phone app which doesn't download the whole message, or I can use a web-based client where all the data is on the server until I open it, but it's annoying to have to do all that.

Originally Posted by Auspicious

I have a warped sense of humor. If you do also, a cease and desist letter followed by an invoice for your time after each piece of spam that gets through would take some time on your part (which you could invoice for *grin*) but would be entertaining.

You can write their ISP and report them as spammers with a copy to the broker. There are blacklist servers to which you can report them.

Yes, I have a warped sense of humor. But given what they've done with my e-mail addresses, I'd rather they don't get my real address.

Reporting to a blacklist server does make sense though. Thanks for the reminder!

Originally Posted by YachtBroker

...at the very bottom of the email is going to have a link to Unsubscribe....

Right. And clicking that tells the spammer that yours is a "live" e-mail address that someone is reading. Those "verified" addresses are worth more, and are sold to other spammers.

Originally Posted by YachtBroker

...some of these Florida brokers seem to send them hourly and worse they let every broker in the place send their own so you may get several a day from brokers in the same biz. Annoying I agree.

Exactly.

Anyway, thank you for all the support. I think I've got it licked now, and I was mostly just venting, anyway.

[Apollo366]

Welcome to Modern Obnoxious Marketing!

Nice to hear about T'Bird, I may switch.

[Mithril Bham]

Tell him you are really interested in doing business with him. Get his cell phone number. Call him every night, around dinner time, and try to sell him life insurance or convert him to some religion. Get his personal email and send it out to every scam artist in the world. LOL
All you can do is mark it as junk and block but it never ends.
Get a new email with a private domain and slowly move everything important to that one. Use the other ones when you have to enter an email when you have to but don't check them.
The only real option is to disconnect. I'm seriously think about doing that.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Email Marketers. Arghhh.

Tell him you're set on importing a particular boat, need a broker, commission will be in the millions. Can he inspect it where its lying, in Port Alula, Puntland? Broker's job is to take possession and collect his commission.

If he can't do that, then remove you from his mailing lists.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN16L0EW

Forget to mention that it's Somalia.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Right. And clicking that tells the spammer that yours is a "live" e-mail address that someone is reading. Those "verified" addresses are worth more, and are sold to other spammers.

I think it is a little more nuanced than that.

I agree, that is a technique that is used to build spam lists, however I do, very rarely, get unsolicited emails (my domain is gmail hosted and they seem to have very good filtering), and almost always they are non-dodgey and from companies I do trust. In those cases, I do use the unsubscribe link, and it always works, but I agree that care is needed.

I just think it is worth considering on a case by case basis, as unsubscribing can be a better option.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by GILow

I think it is a little more nuanced than that.

I agree, that is a technique that is used to build spam lists, however I do, very rarely, get unsolicited emails (my domain is gmail hosted and they seem to have very good filtering), and almost always they are non-dodgey and from companies I do trust. In those cases, I do use the unsubscribe link, and it always works, but I agree that care is needed.

I just think it is worth considering on a case by case basis, as unsubscribing can be a better option.

Right, thank you for the more nuanced answer. Still, I'm talking about a company that harvested two e-mail addresses from somewhere, without my permission, and spams the crap out of them. I don't think I'll be alerting them to the fact that those addresses are active.

A reputable company, sure. Unsubscribe might work.

[fatherchronica]

I want to know who is the Social Security Administration. They call me several times a week and leave messages from different cities around the country to tell me my Social Security number is compromised. But when I call back the numbers are no longer in service and they keep sending me a check every month even with my compromised SSN. If they would email me I could respond like I do to the Nigerian Prince who wants to give me several millions of Lagos fun bucks an unknown relative left me in his will over there, I give them my ersatz SSN and imaginary banking information and they write to me everyday for weeks afterward to explain I must have made an error in the routing number or something. I feel terrible for them.

[CaptTom]

Oh, good. Let's get some serious thread drift going here, now that I've put my original issue to rest.

I'm starting to worry that the people at "MasterCard/Visa" who call me all the time may be catching on to my deal with the Nigerian prince. Their message is so urgent that they don't even have time to mention which card issuing company is trying to reach me. Do you think they're on to me? Geez, if so, the IRS might start issuing warrants for my arrest. I hope a helpful agent calls me to tell me how to get out of that, first!