SPAM Blocker - Help!?

[Bullshop]

We get anywhere from 50-70 emails a day ....that are just JUNK literally junk, and filthy trash! i can't seem to get off their lists, it is anything from i win 10 million dollars, to things you can never imagine. HELP! how can i stop them??? we do get a LOT of auction arms emails, so we can't block everything, but there must be a way to stop most of the junk, it takes so long to get through them, and we can't keep switching emails, that would be too difficult for the business..

Thanks! - Bull Shop Mom

[felix]

Tina, the only way to make a real spam blocker is to write the software yourself, or have someone do it for you. The ideal software would have a list of words in a table that you can edit. The software, after activation, will read this table into memory, and then scan all the messages in your email input file, and deleting them one by one those having any one of the words in the table. The word in the table should be quotable upon input to the table to include more than one actual word. Start looking around for user groups and asking who out there would like the challenge in writing this code for you. Let me know, and I will help you supply needed funds. I would think we can make this a group buy, because we all know we can use it.

I wrote a program that does this very thing for the emails stored on a mainframe system. I expanded the table of words to include word meant for a taking situation as well. Another way of saying this is to create the table with words that are meant for taking the email message as well with words meant for deleting the email message. The words in the table will be placed in order of interrogation. If an email had a "take" word, that email will be taken and no further table compare will be done on that particular email. In other words. This means the table will have entries such that the first word in the table would have more importance than the last one.

Here is an example of my program's input:
.................................................. ..................
TAKE;ID=1;BODYWORDS=boolit;boolits;rifle;rifles;pi stol;pistols;'hand gun";"hand guns"
which means take the email message if within the body of the message it has any one of
those entries.
-------------------------------------------------------------
TAKE;ID=2;LEVEL=1;BODYWORDS=bullet;boolit
TAKE;ID=2;LEVEL=2;BODYWORDS=revolter;revolver
which means take the email message if within the body of the message it has any one of
the entries in LEVEL 1, AND, and any one of the entries in LEVEL 2
-------------------------------------------------------------
DROP;ID=3;LEVEL=1;BODYWORDS=sex,cream,erection
which means drop the email message if within the body of the message it has any one of
the entries.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Keep in mind that the order of the commands is important here. After a message is taken
using the above example, it won't be interrogated further. So, if an email has both "boolit"
and "sex" it will be taken. If this is not desired, ID=3 should be ID=1, and vice versa.


... felix

[wills]

Hotmail has a good spam filter. Suspected spam goes in the spam folder. You check the spam folder occasionally to see if something legitimate got misdirected. I use 3 hotmail accounts.
1. Business. For those with whom I have a business relationship. Have not received any spam at this address.
2. Social. For friends, online orders. This account gets some spam
3. Spamcatcher. Used for some newspapers which will not allow you to read online if you don’t “register”, or if required by a website to give an e mail address for some other questionable reason. This account accumulates spam, and Hotmail deletes it automatically after 5 days, unless I identify it as not spam.

Hotmail is free, you can set up an account and start using it almost immediately.

[StarMetal]

Wills is right, Hotmail is pretty good. There are alot of blocker options with Hotmail. One is if the email address isn't exact it will block it...I know that's hard to explain. Also there is a list you can make, if emailers aren't on your list, their email gets junked.

Yahoo is pretty similar and it's free too.

If you decide to sign up to hotmail, it is free, but the free sign up is a little elusive to find. Just be persistant and keep looking...it's there. I've had Hotmail for almost 15 yrs.

Joe

[wills]

Try here

http://join.msn.com/?page=hotmail/gbb&pgmarket=en-us&ST=1&xAPID=1983&DI=1402

[KYCaster]

I quit using "Internet Explorer" and "Outlook Express" and went to Mozilla "Firefox" and "Thunderbird" really like the difference. Spam went from 30-40 a day to 5-6 a week and spyware and cookies went from hundreds a day to about a dozen a week. Also pop-up ads are almost nonexistent.
I recommend it highly. Look for them at Mozilla.com

Jerry

[Duckiller]

Agree with KYCaster. Mozilla Foxfire has completely stopped pop-ups and mail from people We don't know goes to a junk mail folder that you can review or it all goes away in 5-7 days. You get to control who gets to your e-mail.

[versifier]

Earthlink's works pretty good, too. I have no complaints with it at all. You can review everything in the "suspect" catagory, look at it if you want, or just delete it with one click.

[StarMetal]

Netscape's browser even works better then Firefox's

Joe

[nelson133]

Mailwasher is a free program that will do what you want.

[imashooter2]

Although it is a commercial solution, I've been getting good results from the Norton Anti Spam utility attached to their Internet Security package. I've had the same email address since Comcast bought out @Home, so I get dozens of these messages a day. A few other tips... turn off the preview pane in your mail program and get a free web mail account (like mail.com) to use when you sign up for things on the web.

[KYCaster]

Oh! I forgot the best part.....Firefox and Thunderbird are FREE!
I also use AVG antivirus program, FREE edition from Grisoft.com, also AdAware, SE and Spybot, both FREE. I've had almost zero problems with adware, spyware, pop-ups, spam or viruses since I started useing this FREE software and disabled MS Internet Explorer and Outlook Express so they don't start when I boot up.

Did I mention all this is FREE?

Did I mention I'm CHEAP?


Jerry

[deadpan]

BullShop........it also depends on which email account you are talking about. I live in Delta and have the wildak.net and the alaska.net accounts. If you are getting an extreme amount of spam there is an option on the Outlook Express page to categorize and block spam / addresses. The biggest thing is DON'T open any spam or junk mail because then you have just verified what was most likely a random or mass emailing........if you open it then you are kinda screwed.
The other option is to contact the ISP and let them know of the problem......they can also adjust security levels on your email account and assist you in blocking unwanted emails. Good luck!

[RayinNH]

KYCaster, It sounds like you're using my computer. I use all of the programs that you listed. All work very well indeed. As for E-mail, Thunderbird has eliminated a lot of junk. I use to get 30-40 E-mails per day for cut rate software, little blue pills, member enhancement and porn. Now I get 4-6 per day and even know the people sending them. As long as were talking freeware, Open Office is very similar to Microsoft Word and just as good. As for image software ( think Photoshop ) GIMP ( Gnu Image Manipulation Program ) is also quite capable...Ray

[KYCaster]

Ray: GIMP sounds interesting, where might I find it?

Jerry

[RayinNH]

KYCaster, just Google it, GIMP...Ray

[454PB]

I'm on the Firefox, Thunderbird, Spybot, AVG. and Open Office bandwagon and love them all. Another free program I've been using lately is great....it's "Clean My Registry". I know, I know, registry changes can be catastophic when they go wrong, but this one has performed perfectly and really keeps things humming along quickly and smoothly. I've run it on other people's computers that were bogging down to the point where they barely functioned. On my daughter's old computer, it found nearly 500 invalid entries in the registry. She was ready to throw it in the garbage, I brought it home and it now works great as a spare.