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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2004 1:10:28 GMT -5
Ok, so I'm gonna start this one off by putting this thingy here>>>>>> As some of may or may not know, I have a website that covers Air Traffic Control in Canada...as a form of communication with the visitors who may have questions, I had a yahoo.com email address. About a month ago or so, I found I was getting email sent back to me that I hadn't sent out...it was for a bigger (you know), viagara, sex sites, smaller this, blah blah...and they were all showing my yahoo.com email account address....boy was I pi$$ed right off....so I wrote yahoo and they said there wasn't much they could do cuz all these scumbag spammers do is take your email address and put it in the "sent from" part and if there is no one at that email address, it gets sent back to you (thus you find out your email address is getting spoofed by these A-holes). I was dismayed at yahoo.com's answer so I closed that account and opened another with yahoo.ca...sure enough, today, I find 4 pieces of crap in my inbox...I didn't send them but they came back to me (cuz the emails they were sent to were either full or don't exist anymore)....I also got one from those idiots from Africa telling me if I give them my bank account number, I can share in a 8 million dollar estate....yeah right (sad to say but some people have fallen for this line of hooey...major losers on both sides of that equation ). So now I have to take all the yahoo.ca email addys off my website and figure something else to do...I also am a member of 3 groups at Yahoo groups (which is where these jugheads probably got my email address to start since there is no real thing to stop them looking and stealing....stupid cow dung rejects). Now, the purpose of my rant here is to just advise all of you to be aware that this is happening....for now, I'd hide your email addresses here and any other public email site you visit or belong to...becuase these scummy spammers have been kicked off most ISP's, they've resorted to this tactic now. By the way, there is no way to get back at these A-holes cuz they move around and aren't in one place long enough to get caught...hopefully one day, they may get thier own WWW to go hawk thier viagara, shrinkage stoppers, last longer pills, lose weight pills, sex sex sex sites blah blah blah.....I personally hope every spammer rots in hell....then again, they've already probably spammed there too..... ahhhh, now I feel better, thank you. -Richard
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Post by sibemom on Jan 28, 2004 8:14:56 GMT -5
I know how you feel Richard. A couple of months ago everytime I would turn on my pc I was attacked by porno popups I dont blush easy but this stuff was rank I got a good popup blocker and a new spyware killer and it did finally stop. Most times when I check my mail there is more in my junk mail than in my inbox You know with captions like Naughty susan, Make her scream I wont go on it makes me sick. Even with the parental controls that I have it still does not stop these. I wish there was something that can be done because I remember the day Matt and I were going to play Dora The Explorer " And before I could get it loaded this female and a farm animal popped up. Thank god I have quick reflexes to shut it down. All Matt said was "Mamma Horsey" yeh ok.
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Post by Dobemom on Jan 28, 2004 8:45:50 GMT -5
I occasionally get an "instant message" pop in that offers to enlarge body parts that I don't even have!! :oHonestly! And if I DID have, um, one, AND I wanted it larger, do you think I'd have someone on an instant message do it!! For cryin' out loud! My work email blocks most of our spam, though. (and sometimes stuff from friends )
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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2004 9:29:17 GMT -5
The popups are usually from when you visit a site and they stick cookies on your system....just to remind them who you are (and what you like to look at in some cases). The majority of the time, these cookies ect. are put into your registry without your knowledge...sneaky S.O.B.s that they are..... An excellent program (and no Nicki, this won't sink your system....) is Lavasoft Ad-aware 6....it is free and is fully functioning for what you need it to do. After you install it, update its database, you can check to see how many of these spyware types of cookies and such are on your system. What it does is to basically rid of any path back to your computer by identifying the cookies and deleting them (you choose that..I usually choose them all). With a ad-popup blocker, they make a dynamic assault on spam and internet ads. Here is the link: lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/Just download Ad-aware and load it in. Make sure you get the updated data as well (it gets updated on a regular basis- just remember to update it). Best of all, it only runs when you want it to (meaning it doesn't stay on all the time and hog system resources). After a session of surfing...make sure you run ad-aware..you'll be surprised how many of these cookies you'll have on your system..... One other tip, when you visit sites that ask for an email address, use one that you have at hotmail, netscape, yahoo...don't give your personal email to any of those websites...sometimes there is this little teeny tiny checkbox you don't really see that says you ok them to release your email to other people and that you want them to send you information about thier product...that is like a dam busting..once its opened...your only option is to change email addresses....let the spam and crap goto the big email companies (yes, I know, opposite what I said but better them than me!). A few tricks here and there will keep that crap off your system...you have to be as vigilant (as sibemom noted) with this as you do with your virus protection (which we all keep up to date rrrriiiight ). -Richard
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Post by Nicole on Jan 28, 2004 9:31:56 GMT -5
Richard that just happened to me on Sunday on my regular email that only a handful of people have. I got a return mail from someone I had never sent the em to and it was a virus. Thankfully, the virus was instantly caught and deleted. It hasn't happened again yet but is definitely something to be watch out for. I had another em address that I was getting the porno mail, again on my regular server. I discontinued the em. About a year later when I was setting up a second user name I accidently activated the old em address. I guess it is still there with the server. I was flooded with over 900 porno ems. I resolved that but once they find you they just don't stop. There was a story about a man arrested for threatening to dismember and torture company members who were sending him part enlargement ems. Secretly he was my hero. ;D ;D
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Post by sibemom on Jan 28, 2004 9:34:48 GMT -5
Yup that is what I use Adaware it's great and we have no more problems. ;D
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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2004 9:57:29 GMT -5
Good to hear sibemom....
I install ad-aware on all new computers I put together for people. It sure cuts down on the crap you see for sure coming up on your screen.
-Richard
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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2004 10:05:37 GMT -5
Richard that just happened to me on Sunday on my regular email that only a handful of people have. I got a return mail from someone I had never sent the em to and it was a virus. Thankfully, the virus was instantly caught and deleted. It hasn't happened again yet but is definitely something to be watch out for. I had another em address that I was getting the porno mail, again on my regular server. I discontinued the em. About a year later when I was setting up a second user name I accidently activated the old em address. I guess it is still there with the server. I was flooded with over 900 porno ems. I resolved that but once they find you they just don't stop. There was a story about a man arrested for threatening to dismember and torture company members who were sending him part enlargement ems. Secretly he was my hero. ;D ;D Oh yeah, I went on a campaign for a while there...I was getting all sorts of virus-filled crap and it was coming via this ISP (interenet service provider) who didn't know what was going on. They said it was out of their hands and there wasn't much they could do. I ended up having to scrap that email address (it was my dialup account) and call my ISP and have them clear the mail server of all emails to me since most were filled with viruses and ads....as you say, once they've go you... But if you take the steps I noted above, and as you do, only give your home email to those you trust (and trust that they update their virus protection software regularly) then you'll always be spam free in your in-box. I have a client who gave his home email address out once to often and ended up with 160 different viruses on his computer!!!!! It took over his computer and I had to recover all his business data....he is now set up on a proper system with up-to-date virus protection, zone alarm and a router for firewall protection and ad-aware for ad/cookies crap. He also has a yahoo account and a hotmail account for his use. Overall, today he's in better shape and can surf the web without too many headaches. It may seem wierd that you need to take so many steps to surf but that is where technology has brought us....once people figured out a way to make money off the interent that was it for a quiet hour or two of surfing....fore-armed is fore-warned...or a good offense is the best defense!!! -Richard
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Post by Willow on Jan 28, 2004 12:56:53 GMT -5
I got a return mail from someone I had never sent the em to and it was a virus. >: Right after that last *big* virus scare, my server sent messages telling us they were blocking all em with *suspicious* attachments. I received several em messages from no one I knew, that said there were messages attached, but of course, there weren't. I also received several em messages from my *server* saying I had sent a virus to someone, and I had never heard of that person! I called my server and they said they hadn't sent the message. They told me to run my virus scan again, which I did, and it once again came up clean. So, perhaps someone was sending virus's by using my em address? I haven't received any for quite awhile now, but the other day I did receive a porno advertisment. (sigh). First one I've ever received.
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Post by Brooke on Jan 28, 2004 15:54:43 GMT -5
Ad Aware is Great! I love it. It's so easy to use.
They just said on the news last night there is some new big worm floating around out there. Be careful...
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Post by Laura on Jan 28, 2004 17:03:13 GMT -5
Funny you started this topic Richard, someone hacked into the labs system and was using our ISP #'s to spam . That isn't so bad, but about half of us are networked into the system from our houses! I just hope my firewalls are sturdy enough , so far, so good. And Ad-aware is the best thing since sliced bread, it works great and it's FREE ;D!
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Post by Richard on Jan 28, 2004 17:32:50 GMT -5
As long as you're running zonealarm or have a router with the firewall enabled, you should be ok.....I run both cuz these guys can also set up on your computer to go out....that is what Kazaa does...serves your computer's info up for the world to see...not just the music....hahahahahaaaaa (plus it plays havoc with your system too...once in there, you can't get it out unless you know where to go....might as well re-format and start again!!). Its amazing the things they (spammers) will do to get into peoples computers or servers as in your case.... Oh yeah, here is a good one too....I was surfing around today and picked up 3 viruses....funny thing then was, my homepage (ca.msn.com) became some stupid web site called info4u....it even added urls to my favorites list....I changed back the home page but next time I started up, wham!! there it was again...info4u . I get really pissed off when someone gets into my computer like this....anyway, I found a program called "hijackthis" and it found the offensive parts in the registry (see how deep in they can get?) and I got rid of them. When I initially ran adaware, it said there were some files that looked like hijacked files on my system...it got rid of some but not the main ones....this is a royal pain in the a$$ to deal with this crap everyday but you can't have your head in the sand and won't think it won't happen to you........there is another web browser out there called Mozillia thunderbird...it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of I.E. but no one tries to hack into it either. But for banking and online buying, you still have to use netscape or I.E. 128 bit encryption.... It's only through passing on imformation that we all can fight back at these S.O.B's and stick to 'em good... -Richard ps Laura, did your IT guys stregthen the firewall at work?
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Post by Laura on Jan 28, 2004 18:23:50 GMT -5
Yeah, they were in and out all day resetting everything and generally cleaning up the mess, it was funny, one one the techs looked around and commented "it's like the battle of the nerds in here."
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