I did a stupid thing...

[LunarSolaris]

I did a stupid thing...

Ok, so I'm pretty internet saavy. I know to NEVER open up any attachments from people I don't know and trust, and that I should never give out my good e-mail address if I'm surfing around online and a site wants an e-mail for registration. I give out a Yahoo e-mail account for those to avoid getting spam on my good e-mail account (through Charter communications).

In addition, I use an active virus software (Nortons) and a good firewall (Zone Alarm Pro). I try very hard to protect my computer from all of the bad guys and girls out on the web.

That being said... one is still not immune. As such, I had normally been receiving maybe 2 or 3 spam e-mails per week on my internet account (not too shabby I suppose).

Now, the smart person would simply delete these e-mails (note I said smart person... something I apparently am not). However, about 2 weeks ago, I got sick and tired of getting porn spam and wanted to get off of the stupid list. (and you can probably see where I'm going with this). Sooooo.... I entered my e-mail address into the "put your e-mail in this box to get your name removed from our list" box. Stupidly, I clicked send.

Now, I'm getting as much as 15 to 17 spam e-mails a day. They are very weird and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I'm getting attachments sent to me regularly that my virus software is deleting the attachments on them. I'm getting a lot of spam. I'm also getting e-mails that appear to be coming from weird sources (i.e. "[email protected]", as well as failure to deliver messages - as if perhaps someone might be sending out e-mail from a cloned version of my account). I've gone through and checked my Ebay account and changed the password - all is ok with it. I've also changed my password for my e-mail account at Charter. All of this very long rambling leads me to a few questions...

First, I already know that it was a dumbass thing to enter my e-mail address there. I figured that one out on my own... so if it makes you feel better, camm me a dork for being stupid enough to enter my e-mail address there.

1. Is my e-mail account screwed now? Is there anything that I can do to stop the spam from coming in? I can check my e-mail from both the web as well as from MS Outlook at home. Is it possible to configure my firewall to block e-mails except for those that I put on a list to allow? I've tried to look at my Zone Alarm, but don't quite know how I would be able to configure it that way.

2. If there is nothing that I can do, then I guess I'll have to get rid of this e-mail addy and create a new one (I'm allowed up to 7 e-mails through Charter). This option would suck because I relly like my current e-mail addy and would like to keep it. However, I'm beginning to think that it's a mute point and that I'm going to need to wave bye bye to it.

3. Are there any other precautions that I need to be taking here? Are there any other red flags that pop up with anyone?

4. Has anything like this happened to any of you before, and what did you do about it if it did? (it would make me feel tremendously better to know that I'm not the only dumbass out there :teeth: )


Thanks guys (and gals). I'll eagerly await your flames... errrrr, I mean responses.

 

[Starseed]

I don't know if you already use this or not, but QURB is a good program for spam blocking, as it automatically puts them all into a seperate folder. It also allows you the usual add/block features for certain addresses. It has a 30-Day free trial and, erm.. I forget how much after that it costs to register it but I use it and love it.

Not a be-all end-all solution but.. one that works.

 

[Ev_]

Only one thing to do Steve...change your identity. I'll call the doctors to schedule the plastic surgery.

 

[oakienko]

A few things to note:

Don't interact with spam. If you click, reply, send an email to the spam, they will know this address is active and put you on a list.

It takes time if the spam is still the majority of your new emails. Perhaps a year or two. The spamming agencies have to declare your address abandoned before you stop getting spam.

Tracking cookies also put you on new mailing lists. Use Ad-Aware or anything of that sort.

I have had the same email address for 6 years now. The past year has been limited to 1-2 spam emails a week. The year before was like 2 a day.

It takes time

 

[dorcusmalorcus]

Lunar, it wasn't the stupid thing to do...it was the trusting thing to do and, unfortunately, it didn't work.

Since you use Outlook, you can set it up to allow only email from your contacts to be accepted with everything else being deleted.

In Outlook, go to Tools>Rules Wizard. Click New and then scroll through the options. There may be a better option, such as having it search for key words in the title, etc. I imagine if you tinker with it a little bit, you'll find the combo you want.

 

[LunarSolaris]

Ev_ I've got the plastic surgery date already set up... :teeth:

Seriously though, Dorcus - thank you. I'll try that option to see if it works. Frankly, I should have known better, and there was something in the back of my head saying "don't do it" as I clicked to send my e-mail to supposedly take myself off of the list.

I suppose I'll have to chalk it up to a lesson learned. However, I am concerned that I'm getting virus attachments in e-mail with much of the spam though. I'm wondering if that's indication of a larger problem?

Either way, I'll see about reconfiguring Outlook tonight when I get home so that I can block the crap coming in.

Oh my e-mail... my precious precious e-mail....

And Starseed - I'll definitely be looking into your solution as well to see if that nets any results.

 

[pedro11]

Norton Antispam is fairly decent and it has a pop up blocker included as well, they have a free trial ( I imagine it's 30 days )
~Pedro

 

[{KOW}Spazed]

I do believe that it is illegal to sign you up for more mail if you wanted to get off their list. I don't really care about spam, as seen by me 450+ a day, I set up a fairly strict e-mail through a modded version of Mail(on Mac :drool: ) I would like to add that if you use Outlook( :lol: ) then there is a myriad of programs out there to block spam, or if you actually look around there is a system in Outlook to help filter.