A possible solution to SPAM

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 12:38 am

I'm sure most of you guys get this crap in your mail box. I've had my same email addy for 4+ years, and in a single day, out of a total of 20 messages, 15 of them are spam. I was ready to change my email addy, but someone on another site that I visit daily recommend this FREE program: mailwasher

http://www.mailwasher.net

What is really cool about this program is it's ability for you to view the emails at the server. From the server, you can delete them without them ever reaching your mail box, but the most important feature is the ability to "bounce" the email right back at them! I've been using this program for only 10 days, and my email spam has been reduced by 90%! Yes, 90%. The author says that continued use over several months, should see a complete reduction in any spam you receive.

Until they can make it illegal for loosers to send spam, this is the best tool I've ever seen with excellent results. The best part of this program is it's FREE. It's also very easy to setup. Once installed, simply click on the import button, and your email settings are entered into the program. Then you use mailwasher to "view" your email at the server. I'm probably going to donate some $$$ to the author, as I'm really impressed with the results so far.

dadx2mj · Post by **dadx2mj** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 1:27 am

Hell of a find. I am getting sick of all the spam in my box and now I think I have a fighting chance at stopping some if not most of it. Thanks Bud

d_b · Post by **d_b** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 7:27 pm

Nice find.

Back at you, ya dirty spammers. There is one problem with the program though. I accidently bounced a few emails back to a friend.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 7:36 pm

That can be fixed. You just have to remove them from the "black list". Go to TOOLS - OPTIONS, and you'll see the list.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Fri Apr 05, 2002 11:45 am

Bouncing won't help much, most email adresses are forged or invalid and bouncing won't hurt the spammers, it'll only add to the waste of bandwidth through spam (sad but true).
The only thing that helps a lil is a good set of filters to keep the spam out of your email program.

succubiss · Post by **succubiss** » Fri Apr 05, 2002 1:13 pm

awesome find!

i think bouncing will help.
spammers buy CDs with hundreds of thousands of email addresses someone harvested.

they send their spam to all the addresses, and remove the ones they get bounced back from their spam list.

succubiss · Post by **succubiss** » Fri Apr 05, 2002 2:29 pm

the site's down, but you can dl this from zdnet:

http://www.zdnetindia.com/downloads/int ... 35539.html

d_b · Post by **d_b** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 6:59 am

My thoughts on the bouncing are, wouldn't the spammer think the spammee doesn't have an address anymore? I have noticed that i don't have as much crap in my mailbox anymore.

Ss for filters, i used to filter all the spam to the trash but that got cumbersome making filters for 20 messages every day. I just set up filters for all my contacts and then deleted everything from my in box.

leerus · Post by **leerus** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 7:57 am

spam, spam, spam, spaam
spam, spam, spam, spaam
lovely spam, beautiful spam

I'll have the spam, spam, spam, eggs and spam please.

Sorry.....MP flashback.

Great little program....thanks.

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 9:36 am

I'll give it whirl but what I've been doing it adding all my spammers to my blocked list (filtered) and that helps alot too.

Schwartz · Post by **Schwartz** » Sat Apr 06, 2002 3:26 pm

Somebody is spamming and using my e-mail address as the return address, bastards. I get all the bounced e-mail. I've reported it to my mail provider and the originating network. Hopefully someone will loose an account if only for a little while.

dadx2mj · Post by **dadx2mj** » Sun Apr 07, 2002 10:49 pm

This thing is great. I have only been using it for about a week and I have gone two whole days without any spam. UMBELEIVABLE!

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 1:15 am

Yep! Just like I said, within a week, my spam count was down 90%! Hopefully within 3 months or so of continued use, I should only see the occational spam (one per week). Horray!

Also, this is for DocSilly and his question, I emailed the author and got his response:

Q:
Bouncing won't help much, most email adresses are forged or invalid and bouncing won't hurt the spammers, it'll only add to the waste of bandwidth through spam (sad but true).
The only thing that helps a lil is a good set of filters to keep the spam out of your email program.

and the response from the author of mailwasher:

Hi Charlie,
I think that is a matter of opinion and the vast majority of users of Mailwasher notice a reduction in spam. I can't guarantee that it is because they are being removed from lists but they do feel better for bouncing the message back. Filters are good if you are able to make them but I still think using Mailwasher with filters is far more successful in reducing spam.

Thanks Mike.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 9:38 pm

I'll try it.

Right now my ISP offers a pretty good filter that I have been using for awhile. You set up you own exclusion and inclusion list. Works pretty good. I can go in and look at the the 'junk mail' folder any time to see if I missed something and then either delete the junk folder when I want or it gets automatically deleted every 14 days by the ISP. I have my home page set to a place on the site that I can see my emails and then decide which ones I want before I open my mail program. The only ones I see are the ones that got through the filters unless I open the junkmail folder.

Now I get very few emails every day and when I do check my junkmail folder everyone once in awhile, there are hundreds of spam emails there that didn't get to my box. Very cool.

The only thing mine doesn't do is the 'bounce back' thing. That would be worth checking out. I have seen, like Doc said, that most spam doesn't have valid addresses to bounce back to but some do. Believe me, I know. I have sent countless emails back with very vivid expletives saying to take me off their list and then get them back saying undeliverable mail.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Thu Apr 25, 2002 1:19 pm

I am trying it now and I am having some big problems with it.

I gets the email OK. I then try to b bounce and delete them. I then get a message about the connection being refused, possibly by a firewall. So it appears some cannot be bounced depending on who's sending them. So what a hassle it is to have to select wihch ones can be bounced and which ones can't.

Now there is another problem to complicate this. After unclicking all the bounces and trying to delete, another message comes up saying something about the messages in account being out of date. It says to reload and try it again. Well then reloading brings all the emails back again along with duplicates, so now there are twice as many there. Now just trying to unclick all the bounces again and just trying to delete, the same dam message comes up again about something being out of date and to reload again.

So far this program is way more hassle than it's worth.