Lots Of Daily Spam Emails

Hello there, I have my primary email address that tends to get, on average, maybe 30 Junk emails daily that end up in the Junk folder. Sometimes the Junk emails tend to get through to my Inbox.

So I have learned that if you load the email message "completely", it's possible that the email message sends back a code to the sender stating that it has been read, hence confirming that my email address is a valid one for them to send more crap to. Yet still, for the ones that make it to the Inbox with a stupid picture to unsubscribe, I know it's risky, but I also follow that link to unsubscribe AND send that email to the Junk folder.
There are moments in time where all this crap dims down for a reasonable amount of time, (apparently all the Junk emails are all currently h**** and keeping coming in, hopefully they can eventually take a load off).

Keep in mind though that I don't want to just clear my Junk folder every time I check my email, because I only read all the subject lines of all those Junk emails, yet on the rarest of occasions, some REALLY important emails have ended up in there. So I Always check the subject of each Junk email to make sure that it really is Junk!

But it gets rather annoying sometimes. I am wondering if there's some method to detect the IP addresses of where all this is coming from, and use some online utility to help "Adjust" the computers that send all this?

Thanks.

Hi:

Yep, once the spammers get your email address, you're pretty much guaranteed to get more and more spam (as they sell their addresses to other spammers). It's hard to stop the process, once it is in full gear.
Alas, as you suggested, the fact that you replied to any of the spams and clicked any links to "unsubscribe" likely means that you have, indeed, verified your email address for the spammers.
So that may have only made matters worse.
Obvious spam messages are best deleted without previewing them, without opening them, without clicking on any links and certainly without opening any attachments.

As a general rule, it's dangerous to click ANY link in ANY email (even from a "known", "safe" sender whose emails may be spoofed or hijacked). It's also dangerous even to "preview" emails (in html vs. plain text), as the html message could itself be malicious, even without a malicious attachment.

As @dalchina mentioned, we do not know what email client you're using (Outlook, Thunderbird, another 3rd-party program, etc.). Most have some sort of anti-spam features, as do many internet security suites.
A 3rd-party anti-spam program may be of some benefit, although it may not stop the problem 100%.
In addition to the suggestions already offered, Mailwasher Pro (Free or Paid) allows one to safely preview messages while they are still on the server. Spam can be both reported and deleted before it gets to your local email client. It affords an extra layer of safety/security.
And certain 3rd-party anti-exploit programs, such as Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Premium (MBAE Premium) and HitmanPro Alert (HMPA) can help to shield your email client from exploits delivering malware via email.

And, yes, most major companies and ISPs and webmail providers do offer a means to report fraud/spam. If you're being truly bombarded, that process may be a bit laborious, but it would not hurt.

No software product, however, can protect 100% of computers from 100% of malware 100% of the time.
Ultimately, the user is the first and last line of computer defense by practicing safe computing practices.

Cheers,
MM

Hello and thanks for the replies. I use Hotmail, which by itself is a really good service that blocks off unwanted emails and blocks them from loading malicious code if there is any in there.

I don't want to install 3rd party software just for all this. I want to keep it nice and simple.
But these people that send out these emails are the ones who initiate this non-sense. My way of defending myself from non-sense, that has been initiated without cause, from the opposite party, is to respond in a way that would help "Adjust" the situation. You see, this would be considered as a Win-Win situation; nobody loses:
I Win because I would no longer get these attacks, and other people who receive these same spam emails would also Win, because less stress on them too. There aren't any Losers in this process, because if those spam computers get "Adjusted", then they..in a way.. won't exist. You would think that those spammer computers would be considered as the Losers, yet they would no longer exist. It is impossible to define something that does not exist, hence: no Losers.
So in summary, this is a Win-Win situation, with no Losers in it. That is a Very good outcome.

In a way, I want the smart hackers to attack these spammer computers, because those spammer computers are taking away business from the smart hackers who want to steal your money; not the idiotic third world people. What kinda crap world did they come from? Are these people God's worst rejects? Did God accidentally forget to get rid of these people? Help me understand this.

OK, sounds good.

Take care,

MM

Yes, I do appreciate your feedback and help. You're helping suggest ways on blocking all that, which is Step 1; we gotta take the first step. But the way that I'm looking at it is why stay stuck in Step 1 instead of moving on to Step 2? Step 2 is having a response to all this. So Step 1 is to block the non-sense, then Step 2 is to take down the source, if you see what I mean. I wanna apply Step 2. Let's move forward in the whole process, yah? =)

Cool thanks Momma!

Once you're on the list, the only thing you can do to stop it is change your email address.

I have an old Hotmail email that I use very rarely, and never give out anymore. I've had this account for close to 20 years, and it *STILL* gets a ton of spam. Many years ago I used to sign up for stuff using various fake names so I could try to track where spam was coming from, and I *STILL* get spam with those names 10+ years later.

No, you can't just block the IP addresses. The IP's change regularly, and often these are hijacked servers that are used for a few days or weeks then they move on to the next hijacked server so that people can't block them.

Trust me.. 30 spam messages is not very many, I get over 2500 per day, and that's the stuff that makes it through the front-end filters. There have been particularly bad periods where I've received of 25,000 per day. Only changing your email and never giving it out to any mailing list, service, website, etc.. will protect you from spam, and even then random emails can still be sent if your email address is common enough.

Honestly, I wouldn't be that worried about those "hidden" messages, since 99.9% of spammers just don't care if an email address is good or not.. They don't even bother to remove duplicates.

Yah, the Hotmail address is my primary email address because there is a lot of important emails that go to it: Medical, Financial, Educational, etc.. I cannot switch to a new email address because I don't want to change everything. And this email address has been around for a long time, I'm not gonna ditch it.
In the past I've unsubscribed to many emails, and surprisingly enough, I noticed a lowering in the real advertisements (with pictures), yet the only plain text $2 million donation BS people stuck around. But it did work when I unsubscribed. That's why I still have that hope that unsubscribing will actually work for those.
But it did work in the past, I remember lowering down spam to only a few messages per day. I wanna go back to those days.

But yes you're right, the IP addresses are probably proxies/hijacked or whatnot, so attempting to "adjust" those computers' settings would be difficult.

Hi:

Sorry, @pepanee, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "adjusting" "spam computers".
If you want to bounce spam messages, that's a bad idea -- it could get you into hot water with your ISP.

The Mailwasher Pro program I mentioned has both spam-filtering and spam-reporting technology. But if you don't want to use it or a similar application, that's fine. It was merely a suggestion. And it likely will not completely solve the problem (no software will).

As @Mystere said, the only real solution is to close down the affected email address and start fresh with a new one.
I've had the same primary ISP email address for more than 13 years. I get no more than 1 or 2 spam messages per month that make it past the ISP's filters into Mailwasher. And I delete it off the server from the Mailwasher Pro grid without the message's ever reaching my system. So, maintaining one's email address without being flooded by spam *can* be done, using a bit of "situational awareness" and practicing "safe hex".

Good luck!:)

MM

"Safe hex" HAH good one. I'm surprised no one got my joke from my first post. (hint, check out the words of the underlined letters of that whole sentence. But who knows, you might've noticed it by responding with safe hex).
Yea, I guess I'll figure something out about the spam...

What I meant by "Adjust" is to respond in a way that would help corrupt that computer that sent the email.. so it can never do that again, until it gets reformatted and reinstalled. Because obviously there's some issue that the computer is having. Why not take it out of its misery? Gotta help it out, you know?