[Janisum]

I am finally back and my issues still remain but I'm now most concerned with the amt. of spam and phishing emails I'm getting both in my junkmail folder and inbox using hotmail. I can't possibly report all the phishing emails as much as I'd like to, I don't have the time. Just ridding my system of them is a hassle and a big waste of time. Microsoft, of course, is of no help and I am even getting microsoft phishing emails. I would change my email address but this one I'm using will still fill up and I'd like to keep it. I am very careful about never opening a file or attachment unless it's from a friend, trusted.

You that have helped me in the past I want to thank again and I apologize I haven't corrected my system using your help. I'm going to go back through all the posts and try to puzzle them together to get my system running smoother. For now, this phishing and spam issue takes priority. I have seen programs where a person can hide their IP address but again, I'm not downloading or trusting any programs. I do alot of browsing and this is my problem. I'm certain I need to tweek my security settings in I.E.7 but am not wanting to go as far as limiting my inbox to only those on my contact list. What can I do with my settings to enable a safer enviorment and rid all these phishing emails. It just gets old having to delete 50 a day. What am I doing wrong? What can I do right? Any help from you guys is welcome. I hope I've explained my issue well enough. Thanks again and in advance.... Slamina

[SpiritWind]

Hi Slamina :

Just finished reviewing the Thread you started several months ago . What we discussed

then MAY apply to the Situation about your SPAM problem, to the degree you MAY have an

undesirable "Spam Bot" on your computer !? To investigate that possibility, have you

recently run the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware program that you used back then, and IF "Yes",

WHAT was the Result ? In addition, we recommend using another very good and FREE

program called "SUPERAntiSpyware" from www.superantispyware.com/ .

I have and use every day Hotmail and there is rarely more than 4 Junk Mails ; in addition,

I recommend you read what I wrote at [http://forums.pcworld.com/docs/DOC-2144|d-2144] .

[smax013]

SPAM and phishing emails usually have zero to do with malware or spyware. This is not to say that such things cannot also lead to SPAM or phishing, but generally SPAM and phishing are much more "basic" in nature. That "basic" in nature means that someone has gotten your email address somehow and is now sending SPAM (generally considered any unwanted email, but usually some sort of advertising for some product) and/or phishing emails to your email address.

The most common ways your email address will get on SPAM lists are:

1) You enter your email address into some website for what ever reason. Could be you bought something from the website. Could be you signed up to get an account so that you could access certain stuff. Could be you gave them your email address to send you information. Once you give that email address to the site, they then can sell that list of email addresses to people (unless they have a good privacy policy that says they won't unless you specifically give them permission). And some of those people will have less than honorable intentions with that email list. The best way to deal with this method is don't give your email address to websites. Now, since this is kind of unrealistic, the more realistic alternative is to have an email account specifically setup for this type of event. With all the available free email account options, create an email account specifically for this purpose. In fact, feel free to create several...say one for more "respectible sites" and one for ones that you are less sure about. And then treat such accounts as if they are disposeable...because they are. If the spam gets to be too much, just kill the account and create a new one.
2) You put your email address somewhere on the web (i.e. your email address is phyiscally visiable on a website somewhere). For example, some people will add their email address at the bottom of a post to this site. If you do this, then "web crawlers" can find it and add it to a list. Web crawlers are automated applications that search the web for email addresses. The way to prevent this is DO NOT put your email address on a website (whether public or private). And if you do, use a disposible one.
3) A blind guess. Actually, they are usually not completely "blind". Since many people will do something like a first initial and last name for their email ID, it is fairly easy to "guess" an email ID that will work. For example, John Doe might want to use an email ID of jdoe. All you need to do is tack on an Internet domain (such a gmail.com) and you have an email address. Now, that email address may or may not be used. If it is used and the personal somehow responds (i.e. "please don't send me spam anymore"), then it was just verified to be a working email address...and flood begins. This one is a lot harder to prevent. The only real way to do it is to choose an email ID that someone is not likely to guess (such as bunch of random letters and numbers). This, of course, makes it tougher to remember as well.

Once you get on a spam list there is not a whole lot to do other than either live with it, kill the email account and get a new one, or use some sort of anti-spam software. None of those options are good ones. Personally, I dislike anti-spam software...never found one that does not also kill legitimate messages...and I HATE server side spam filters (if I am going to use a spam filter, I want it on MY SIDE so that I can check what is getting blocked easily). In general, I just live with it.