Mountains of Spam & Abandoning Email Addresses - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 04:30:10 am
content: on my third email address.because of spam. which is accumulating at the rate of 2 or 3 a day.most emails are from download requirement dialog boxes from expired trial software agreements going back 3 or 5 years.the software trial ends I then delete the software, but the their website still has my email address.I delete and dump their email address off the list, but the unwanted emails keep showing up in My in-box.to add to this my email service provider adds its own spam. at the rate of 1 or 2 a week.the end result is 98% of all email is unread messages going back 5 or more years.as I can't be bothered wading thru the mass of unread messages individuality requiring attention.anyone get spam phone numbers? or unwanted phone app's that refuse to die?

author: Kim Christensen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 05:03:18 am
content: I have a junk email account for this purpose. I never check it unless I'm expecting a confirmation email from the latest dodgy site that required a sign up.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 05:25:46 am
content: Yep always have a separate junk mail account set up.If you just need to register to download something then you give out the secondary junk one. Check it only to click the confirmation link then never look at it again until you need to register somewhere else.You only give out the real day to day use email to things where you might want to get notified of things, like Paypal or similar.Another trick you can use is slightly changing the email address for some things. For example you can add a +something to the email address recipient and it still gets delivered, so "user@mail.com" will get email sent to "user+foo@mail.com". If you use Gmail you can also get less conspicuous variations of your address by adding or removing dots. So for example the user "john.doe@gmail.com" does actually receive any emails sent to "johndoe@gmail.com" or "j.o.hn.doe@gmail.com". You can then potentially use this to filter emails.

author: Faranight
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 05:35:00 am
content: Yep, definitely use multiple email addresses. I have one for banking, another for personal email, a third one for random online services I signed up for, fourth for gaming, fifth for online purchases and a sixth for official things, seventh for mailing lists. All emails then get delivered to respective folders in my inbox. Luckily, my provider allows me to use so many aliases, so I use them.

author: newbrain
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 06:44:57 am
content: For one offs and test registrations I often use a temporary throw away address, such ashttps://10minutemail.com/most sites accepts them.Of course, not having any persistence, they are not suitable for everything.My main address is on google, and I get very little spam (a bit on the raise these last years) always marked as such and not shown in the main inbox.I am quite careful on where I share it, and often use the freedom of "dots don't count" and "base.address+anything@gmail.com" to ease a possible later filtering.

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 07:55:42 am
content: One should also consider that when registering a 'disposable email address' using some company of unknown reputability, there is no guarantee that said company won't read all the registration mails that it has collected and perhaps (ab)use them.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 08:11:09 am
content: The techniques below are so effective that Iturn off hosts' spamfilters andforce them to deliver the spamto me. That's because it been a problem for several decades, which is long enough for defence mechanisms to have evolved.To read email, use an email client (not a browser)! Train it as to what you think is junk mail; the bayesian filters become very effective with very few false positives and false negatives. That avoids the "have you checked your spam folder?" question beloved of slow-acting companies :0Use mailinator.com.Realise that foo@gmail.com, foo+wantedcompany@gmail.com, foo+oneoffinteraction@gmail.com all end up in the same inbox (as does f.o.o@gmail.com!). That enables you to nail companies (think GPDR) who sell your email address to other companies.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 11:27:30 am
content: I use a combination of my own domain and Google Workspace for a "few bucks" a month.For a single user, you can have your primary email (which you almost never give away) then have up to 30 aliases at any one time that you can add/delete at a whim. You could create orders_shopname@domain.com then just delete it when you're done.

author: newbrain
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 11:45:42 am
content: Quote from: bitwelder on May 24, 2023, 07:55:42 amThese address are used when I don't trust the site I'm registering to for whatever reason, or I don't want to share my personal info for a one off download or forum attachments visibility and similar things.In any case, what could be the mechanism of abuse?The temp mail provider still does not have a password.Even if they social engineered their way to hijack my account, what would they gain?It's not for accounts I intend to actively use, and my personal data is not there for sure, well...unless my name is Justin Case, Ben Dover or the like...

author: wilfred
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 11:51:46 am
content: Quote from: newbrain on May 24, 2023, 11:45:42 amOr Graham Rover (Grover) which is what I use.I bought a $1 CD at Dick Smith years ago to set up a dial-up account. It has taken a while but is quite useful these days.For an account I didn't use for about ten years it accumulated a lot of spam. I am amazed they kept it active.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2023, 09:58:20 pm
content: Quote from: jonovid on May 24, 2023, 04:30:10 am99% of legit spam will have a functioning "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email. Or you just block the email address.Its not too difficult.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 12:01:48 am
content: Yeah, of all places, you'd think edit: PAYPAL would be free of...NOPE, I used edit: PAYPAL to perform 1 transaction.Now, they pester me to 'sign up to have account'...which led me to mention edit: PAYPAL, to a relative. THAT conversation that followed was not flattering to Edit: PAYPAL, as some other unauthorized 'debits' needed correction.No, yeah, the 'STOP promotion' buttons get covered up, that's a joke.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 12:10:56 am
content: 'bitwelder':So are you saying an unreputable WEB site is maybe gonna read your personal stuff, maybe sell it, maybe provide your government with access. Meanwhile, next what ? Are you going to suggest, maybe Google will be the 'mainstream' choice, you can trust,...according to their privacy standards ?(haha, that's naive)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 12:50:51 am
content: OOOPS, SORRY!I had meant to say 'PAYPAL', was sending spam,...not ebay.

author: EPAIII
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 07:31:14 am
content: E-mail programs, like Thunderbird, have filters that you can customize. I just let the spam come in and direct it to a trash can.

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 07:11:55 pm
content: With PayPal's recent behaviour* it's not surprising to see them getting in to the email spamming game too. That's a company which is trying to drive itself out of business, the sooner it is gone the better.*they cut off the accounts of several free-speech and civil-liberties organisations in the UK, also attacked the personal accounts of the individuals who ran those organisations, and then sought, on a worldwide scale, to start stealing up to $2500 from any account even tnagentially associated with what PayPal decided to define as misinformation

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2023, 08:33:21 pm
content: Quote from: EPAIII on May 25, 2023, 07:31:14 amExactly.I get maybe one misclassification every three months.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2023, 10:05:31 pm
content: QuoteQuick way to let spammers know there's a live person seeing their spam. I will hit the unsubscribe for known pukka companies but for any other it's a sure way to get more. As is allowing icons, buttons, images, etc to be displayed if they aren't already in the email data.I run a mail server which has pretty decent (but not foolproof) spam handling. Coupled with ad-hoc addresses which can be not just blocked but rejected when necessary, it's reasonably painless. In fact, some spam popping up shows that the entire communications path is still working, so it saves me having to fart around with periodic test emails. And since clever spammers tend to go directly for the secondary MX record (on the basis that the full spam protection lives on the primary MX and probably not the remote secondary forwarder) it tests that link for me tooQuoteIf you're paying for the service that's definitely not on.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2023, 10:58:03 pm
content: Quote from: PlainName on May 26, 2023, 10:05:31 pmYes.I set my email client to not fetch remote content unless I tell it to, thus avoiding the one-pixel image "web bugs" informing a spammer that their message has hit my eyeballs.I set my email client to not run javascript unless I tell it to. Legitimate email won't contain executables, and is untroubled by that.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2023, 11:26:52 pm
content: Quote from: PlainName on May 26, 2023, 10:05:31 pmYeah thats what I said, "legit spam", which is what the OP was referring to (software companies, ISPs, etc. things they signed up for originally). These companies usually won't risk a fine under our various laws:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406840113563

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2023, 12:12:32 am
content: OK