Is anyone else suddenly getting slammed with hundreds of spam/virus emails?

[WilliamPitt]

"International corporation is looking for talented people. No investment reqired"

"Serious business in a sphere of financial services. No investment reqired."

"International corporation is looking for talented people. No investment reqired."

I've been getting buried with these goddam things for the last hour. It seems preposterous to imagine this is some kind of attack directed at me alone.

Anyone else enjoying this phenomenon?

Oh, and is anyone interested in checking out serious business in a sphere of internationally cooperative financial business-type stuff? I hear they have talented people, and there's no investment required...

:banghead:

I get boatloads of spam crap every day, but these are a new kind, and are coming in a huge avalanche, and are all worded basically the same way.

DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE...

:grr:

[enigmatic]

1. I get them all the time

Because of the station; my station email server looks like a Spam Bomb was dropped on it most days..

[RebelOne]

2. No, fortunately AOL has an excellent spam filter

and I can delete them all with just one click.

[DemReadingDU]

40. I also have AOL

Lots of people badmouth AOL all the time, but heck, they have an excellent spam filter. It is rare when spam ends up in the inbox, and only occasionally, a couple may end up in a spam folder.

[blogslut]

3. Try Mozilla Thunderbrid

Most excellent spam filter

I get hundreds a day for one account but then, I'm special. ;)

[hashibabba]

4. No, nobody is asking for talented people at my house.

Hmmmmmmmm...

[zulchzulu]

5. It's been bad for a few months...

I set up several new email accounts that no one knows and they aren't posted on any web sites and they still get hammered with the usual insurance/viagra/pills/leads/scams/shills/wackos...

Methinks the spam spigot is turned on full blast without much filtering. I've done filtering and have it turned on via my web servers and still...

:crazy:

[sandnsea]

6. 21670

That's the current number of emails in my junk box. I empty it at least once a month. It's crazy.

[Terran]

7. Getting more than normal

despite the filters, at work and at home. But not an avalanche...only 3-4 are getting through. But I have to wonder why they're getting through. :shrug:

[flakey_foont]

8. Not that one

but I apparently have a 'secret admirer' who has a crush on me and is desperately trying to get in touch with me..............guess ol' "Secret' never heard of the phone book.......(getting about 5 or 6 of these annoying emails an hour for the past week or so). A crush? a crush? sorry, but I'm not in the 7th grade.....I can just imagine some young gal writing "Mrs. Flakey Foont" a bazillion times on her notebook, or walking her dog in front of my house several times a day...Wait! someone just passed me a note.................it says,, DO YOU LIKE XXXXX....check YES or NO

[tridim]

9. Get SpamBayes!

And no, I'm not spamming this thread. :)

It's just a good, free product. As it learns, spam quickly becomes a non-issue.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Nope. Sounds like some asshole got a hold of ur email and let loose.

[Parche]

11. I Am Getting Viagra, and 'Enlargement' emails

:grr: :grr: :grr: :hi:

I dont need any of those..................:grr: :grr:

[Beaverhausen]

I would welcome spam like that. All I get is penis enlargement spam

[The Wizard]

33. They always get

forwarded to Republicans.

[flyingfysh]

12. I get up to a couple hundred spams a day

This is not new behavior. The spammers are much more active now, and most spams are coming from hijacked machines whose owners don't know they have been taken over. A lot of my spams look very similar to the ones above. Over 85% of email traffic is spam. There is probably no reason to believe they are targeting you in particular. In my case, I have 2 levels of spam filters: one through the service that maintains my "public" email address, and another filter on my home computer. The combination works very well.

[madamesilverspurs]

13. Hmmmmm.....

International corporation looking for talented people, huh? Halliburton? KBR? Blackwater?

Methinks we're getting bushwhacked. . .

[lateo]

14. Yep but different message.

There was a worm that came out around the first of the year that has been havoc on the Intertubes.

[SeattleVet]

15. Even worse - I run a web site and domain for a non-profit, and some spammer

has decided to spew their crap using my domain as a "From:" address. I woke up to several hundred bounces from all over the world, and now they are trickling in at the rate of 20-30 per hour.

Since the "From" address is almost NEVER the true origin of the crap, why do admins still insist on bouncing the mail back to what appears to be the originating domain? Every month or so another one decides to spoof this domain, and I have to deal with hundreds (or thousands) of "Your message blocked", "No Such User", and other bounces for email that has absolutely nothing to do with the domain.

I cleaned out the admin mailbox 10 minutes ago - there are now 18 new bounce messages.

[supernova]

16. No, I have a .mac address

that nobody knows. Should be good for a while anyway

[Atman]

18. Actually, .mac addresses are very, very good at filtering this shit

I used to have one, but then decided it wasn't worth the money when there are so many free sites -- plus I own a few domains which all come with e-mail accounts.

But my main domain name got on somebody's list, and I started getting literally hundreds of spam e-mails a day. At least 300-400 every single day. Filtering at the mail reader level does no good, because out of those 300-400, some would be legitimate mail from potential new clients, or from viewers of my site, so I had to actually go through all of them every day.

Finally, I complained to my web host. We switched mail servers, and it totally stopped.

Do you have your own web site? Has your e-mail address been "spoofed?" That's when a scammer disguises his spam with your e-mail as the return addy. In no time, your addy is all over the place, and the problem explodes.

Consult your host, or ISP. It actually can be stopped. Or buy a Mac and sign up for a .mac account. They're almost bullet-proof.

.

[supernova]

21. I do have a .mac domain

And I love it, even if it is expensive. I'm seriously considerding putting up my own Tech Writing consultancy and I want to put my work porfolio on it.

To my knowldege, that addy hasn't been spoofed yet. And I like that I can use different "dummy" emails for that address so that others don't get hold of the read address.

[scarface2004]

17. no..i m using karl rove s super secret server

to download porn and flame freeperville!!

[AuntPatsy]

19. As long as you check the spam box when deleting them you won't get as much as time goes by.

It worked for me and I hardly get any spam mail any longer.

[mainegreen]

20. In the last 24 hours my spam has gone up around 1000%.

Weird.

[Coexist]

22. stop downloading porn...

:P

[Atman]

23. I download plenty of porn, and don't get any spam.

DOH! Did I type that out loud?

.

[supernova]

24. So do I!

:blush:


Hey, I'm single, not dead!

[Coexist]

25. lol!

[immoderate]

Um, from Nigeria?

Apparently I'm well known there, and all over Africa, as a go-to guy :)

--IMM

[Reciprocity]

26. I started forwarding the phishing e-mails to the respected banks abuse link.

I get about one of these a day.

[Atman]

27. Mac Mail has a "bounce back" feature.

It returns the mail to the sender as if it was unread, indicating a bad e-mail addy, thus triggering removal of your name from their list (the spammers actually have to pay per name for many of those mail lists).

If you're really vigilant about it, it will eventually get your name taken off many lists. But once you open a spam (especially one with any image file attached), you're pegged. You go onto another dozen lists.

.

[SeattleVet]

29. Unfortunately, most of the "From:" addresses that the mail will bounce back to

are forged, and are NOT the actual originating address. Most of the time the bounced email will go to the bit-bucket or will have to be handled by whatever the catch-all address for the domain is.

If you are going to use the bounce feature, make sure that it is really from the address that it will be bouncing back to.

(I use it myself, on a few messages, but I do check the addresses and websites that are being advertised to see if I'm bouncing it back to the right person.)

[Reciprocity]

32. Thanks for the heads up.

My junk mail will not open images without your permission.

[Blue_In_AK]

28. I got a bunch of stuff last month

about "greetings from a secret admirer/old friend/family member" etc. etc. etc., but none of what you're talking about unless it's currently holed up in my spam filter.

[Raven]

30. DON"T DELETE YOUR MOTHER!!!!!!!!

I just sent you an email and forgot to do the caps thing! Yet another excuse for you to ignore me!!!!! :-)

[L0oniX]

31. Use Thunderbird .....gall dang Micro Shaft lamers

[_testify_]

34. today I got one that told me my penis would be so big

I'd need to get it a separate passport.


:rofl:

[NashVegas]

35. No, But

I use a small, local, ISP whose owner/CEO meets with other geeks all day, instead of investment bankers, corporate boards, etc., etc.

:evilgrin::evilgrin:

[Hekate]

36. I get tons of offers for penis enlargement,quite explicit.Are men really THAT insecure?Postini helps

In fact, my Postini spam filter is a godsend. Once a week I visit the site and delete anywhere from 150 to 400 unwanted emails.

I can deal with the many offers to make the penis I don't have into a steel-hard battering ram, but the spam I used to get for incest and child-rape videos used to really upset me. I finally had to ban the entire Yahoo domain to make them stop. Anyone with a Yahoo address who wants to get hold of me just has to be approved one by one.

On the financial side, lately I've gotten a lot of spam telling me a "bank" has "approved my business loan." Like the penis-enlargement spams, I really have to wonder if there are that many gullible people out there.

Hekate

[zulchzulu]

37. Here's a funny spam I just got

Dear friend

I am Mr. Timinskiy Vladimir a personal treasurer to Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, Presently in Russia and worked in the following
companies: Chairman
CEO: YUKOS OIL (Russian Largest Oil Company) Chairman CEO: Menatep SBP
Bank (A well reputable financial institution with its Branches all
over
the world) I have a profiling amount in an excess of US$100.5M, which
I seek your Partnership in accommodating for me. You will be rewarded
with 4% of the total sum for your partnership. Already the funds have
left the shore of Russia to a European private Bank where the final
crediting is expected to be carried out. While I was on the process,
My Boss
got arrested for his Involvement in politics by financing the leading
and opposing political parties (the Union of Right Forces, Led by
Boris
Nemtsov, and Yabloko, a liberal/social democratic party Led by Gregor
Yavlinsky) which poses a treat to President Vladimir Putting Second
Tenure as Russian president. You can catch more of the story on this
website:

YOUR ROLE: All I need from you is to stand as the beneficiary of the
above quoted Sum and I will re-profile the funds with your Name, which
will enable The European bank transfer the sum to you.

NOTE; please reply to my private email ([e-mail])
more details of the logistics and modalities of realizing this
transaction shall be discussed with you upon the receipt of your
detailed
information/Credibility.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Regards
Mr. Timinskiy Vladimir
Yukos Oil & Gas,
Russian Federation.

[RebelOne]

49. Use this to check the header to see the origin of the e-mail.

http://headertool.apelord.com/headers

I'll bet it will have originated in Nigeria.

[MsRedacted]

38. Been that way for years for me. About 500 emails a week of junk.

Lately they are in Russian.

[IcyPeas]

39. It's variations of the Storm worm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Worm

it's been spreading like crazy..... for months now.

[Liberal In Texas]

41. Try MailWasher. Free. Let's you see delete before you download to your mail program.

http://www.mailwasher.net/

Flag friends, blacklist, bounce.
Good simple little program.

[TwilightZone]

42. Second that recommendation.

It has some idiosyncrasies and crashes once in a while, but it's worth it.

I use the Pro version (which isn't free), and it does a nice job of intercepting most of the junk.

[Liberal In Texas]

44. I got pro before they started charging for it. Did donate however.

It's worth the price anyway.

Oh, and I can't remember a time when it ever crashed. Wonder why yours does.

[TwilightZone]

45. Not sure.

I occasionally get a "cryptic error message" (their verbiage, not mine) which causes it to crash. I just close it, reopen it, and it's fine.

[madmom]

43. no, but I got bombarded with over 200 "undelivered" e-mails that I didn't send

I don't know what gives with this, does anyone know anything about these?

[TwilightZone]

46. Spamming companies use faked return addresses to make the e-mails harder to track.

In addition, they don't get inundated with the returned messages; someone else does.

[Peggy Day]

47. I switched to gmail, and don't get as many now. AT&T had hundreds of spams sent to me.

That means my mail is being thinned-mostly that's a good thing, but who makes that decision?

[Generic Other]

48. At work

mine are all penis enlargement ads...in case anyone is interested...

[whistle]

50. Me too and have been for over a month, they all go into a special folder

...which I delete every day. I use AVG Free Edition firewall protection which catches about 98% of the spam and unwanted emails. Those few which penetrate I can just assign over and AVG takes care of them after that. So now after a month I'm still get annoying spams, but they are manageable.