What to do about spammers?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Since the last millennium I've used a combination of unique e-mail addresses and a catchall account on my domains to catch spam. Each site that I provide an e-mail address to gets one that identifies the site. So let's say I receive mail from Company X, but it's addressed to the unique address I gave Company Y, I know that Company Y sold/shared/gave away my info, or Company Y got hacked/cracked/whatever you want to call it...breached.

For the OVERWHELMING majority of sites I've given addresses to, I've never received one iota of spam as described above. But for the few sites that *DO* share my info...it PISSES ME OFF royally.

You know that cute cat toy, the yellow circular thing with a 'mouse' that runs around under it so your cats chase it? Well, I bought one last year. And within HOURS I was deluged with spam at the unique address I gave them. Everything from Viagra to unrelated cat/pet products, just an avalanche of spam.

Again, to be absolutely clear, I'm talking about receiving spam at a unique address I gave ONE company, but the spam is NOT from that company, it's from someone(s) else. In violation of the privacy policy on the company's web site.

There have been several companies I've contacted to complain, but almost without fail they use the "oh, you're a moron windows-using idiot who will believe anything I tell you!" strategy. For example, "Well, YOUR computer must be infected with a virus that made that happen" or the similar, "YOUR address book must have a virus!" Attempting to explain to them that, A) I don't use windows, B) I don't have any viruses, C) the e-mail address I gave them doesn't exist in my address book, or anywhere else except their site, and, D) I don't BUY their garbage explanation typically goes nowhere.

A couple of places did indeed find out that there was a hole in their security, and actually updated me on what they were doing, what they had found, and when it was plugged. I was impressed.

Anyway, I have thousands of spams--from a handful of sites--that I'm doing nothing about...but I keep meaning to. I'm in California--aren't there laws here regarding UCE? What about federal laws--are there any? Should I bother doing anything? Or just keep junking them. (My SeaMonkey junk filter is very good.)

[SteveRiley]

The Federal CAN-SPAM Act is toothless. Originally a very strong bill, it was weakened and watered down by the fsking commerical email lobbyists. At its core, the law prohibits the intentional use of fraudlent behavior -- forging addresses, using relays, failing to provide opt-out, that sort of thing. It doesn't do much else, notably prevent AliceInc from selling your email address to BobCorp. One other horrible aspect of this Act is that it pre-empts stronger state level legislation. So the good one that we had here in Washington is now mostly a duplicate of CAN-SPAM, except that our penalties are stronger. CAN-SPAM also gutted the very powerful California law.

tl;dr: spam is here to stay. It is ruined the utility of email and is a nasty scourge upon the land.

[whatthefunk]

The nation wide CAN Spam act was passed in 2003. That law requires all unsolicited emails to have an unregister method and requires senders to comply. You can file a complaint to the FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/spam-unwan...ages-and-email

My guess is that youll be wasting your time. I keep one clean email address and a few old ones for when I have to submit an email address to a dodgy website. I never even check the old ones anymore...

[NickStone]

Well I keep mine in my toolbox.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks, guys. It frustrates me that 2+ decades into common use of the Internet there's still a huge problem with spam.

I've experimented in the past with 'unsubscribe' methods from spammers, and--what a surprise!--ended up receiving MORE spam at the address I'd provided, even when the one I provided at the unsubscribe link was NOT the one I had given them in the first place. So the old theory that unsubscribing actually gives these jerks confirmation that your address is good is spot on.

As mentioned earlier, the vast majority of spam I receive is generated from only a handful of sites. It almost seems like selling a product, such as that cat toy, is nothing more than a front for their REAL business, selling e-mail addresses to spammers...

[SteveRiley]

On my Postfix server at home, I receive about 2500 emails a week. 80% are spam. The vast majority are rejected by a single Postfix rule that checks whether the sender domain exists. Nearly every mail server on the planet looks for this now. Why do spammers keep creating such obviously bogus email?

[GreyGeek]

I created an email account (one) on GMail and use it as my universal email address. I use their email forwarding to forward all email to my ISP email address. I set KMail to access my ISP email address only. The spam and virus filters on GMail are, IMO, second to none. I rarely get spam, the "I'm Rich!" email being the first to leak through in months. When one does leak through GMail I seet up a KMail filter to dump it into the trash bin. Basically, the only email I get in my inbox are the ones I expect.

[jlittle]

Why do spammers keep creating such obviously bogus email?

I imagine a similar reason to why Nigerian scams are still popular: they're interested in the vulnerable.

[SteveRiley]

I imagine a similar reason to why Nigerian scams are still popular: they're interested in the vulnerable.

But the likelihood of this particular spam actually arriving to its destination is practically zero. Every receiving SMTP server performs this basic check on the sender domain. Even out of the box, Ubuntu's mail-stack-delivery enables it.

[NickStone]

Why do spammers keep creating such obviously bogus email?

Well I suspect it's to reduce the likelihood of being identified.

[GreyGeek]

One thing for certain, there is certainly not a shortage of people willing to be deceived by the promise of instant wealth. To find them the flood of spam is necessary. Just like that email I received, which passed through GMail's spam filters and my rules, spammers will find ways to find the gullible.

[DoYouKubuntu]

The whole 'catfish' phenomenon is proof that people are ready, willing, and able to be fooled online. I almost never watch Dr Phil, but when its description showed stories of people who've fallen for online scams, I made it a point to record and watch it. It's absolutely ASTONISHING how people send their life savings to strangers...strangers who don't even exist, at least in the context of who the gullible fool THINKS they are. And plan weddings. And moves to other states. And entire lives...with nonexistent "fiances"!