How to stop spammers

[Guest mrclean0325]

I have had enough from spammers. I have made it a habit when checking my Gmail to scan through the spam folder in case Google in all their wisdom has put an email I actually wanted in there. I came across some emails from ME! Yes, the spammers were using my email address to spread their disease.

 

So I have been on the rampage lately with these and drawing no quarter with them. I am cutting them off at the knees by going after, not only the site sending the email itself, but after their MONEY. I am reporting them to not only their hosting and the product they are selling (tried the hosting and product before, but with limited results some products and hosting would rather give you the run around than uphold their own TOS against spam), but their payment processors too.

 

Funny thing is, most of them are using PayPal. My spam folder is getting dusty now from nothing being in it!

 

Spam has been an annoyance, but now it was WAR!

 

Here is what you do:

 

1. Click the little down arrow in the top right corner and click "Show Original".

 

2. You look at who actually send the email. It could be just an IP address. So copy that into your browser and see what the name of the site it came from.

 

3. Go to www.whois.com and look up the site and see if there is an contact email for the domain. If not just use "abuse@ thedomainname.com"

 

4. See what the product it. Who are they an affiliate for. Find a contact email or a way to report spam (don't hold your breath though most are non-existent) or again use the "abuse@productdomain.com"

 

5. Finally, see who there payment processor is. This is as easy as clicking the "buy" button and seeing who is processing the payment. If it is PayPal (which is was has been in my case) copy the name of the seller.

 

6. Take the spam email and click the "forward" and then go to the tab with the original and click "copy to clipboard" and paste it into the forward email above the email. Write something above this like the following (but make it a bit different each time):

 

To whom it may concern:

 

I have been receiving spam emails from this party and they are using your equipment and services in their criminal activities. Please take whatever actions are needed to prevent them from sending me any more spam before I take legal action. The spammer is using PayPal as their money laundering service for their criminal activities and their account is Joe Blow LLC.

 

Thank you,

 

your name

 

Finally, address emails to "abuse@" and all the domains involved. Like abuse@paypal.com, abuse@gmail.com, etc.

 

You need to be creative, but not threatening. If you want to go the whole way, you can add "abuse@ftc.gov", "abuse@sec.gov", and "abuse@fbi.gov". I have had to go this route with a few stubborn ones that I didn't get anything from the hosting, product, or payment processor.

 

Now you may get some replies with, "Oh, but we have no control over what our customers do blah, blah, blah." and most likely will get absolutely no response at all from any of them. You may also get bounced emails that are undeliverable. Though you do this for about a week and you will start to see your spam dwindling little by little.

 

If their is a "spammer blacklist" I am getting on it!

 

If you notice, 'wordology" (maybe not a real term) of the email -  I don't think PayPal will appreciate them being associated with a money laundering service and criminal activity do you? The mention of "criminal activity" and "legal action" though completely vague does have good effect. You also notice it is not specific or threatening. Giving the PayPal account will stop any delays of them trying to look it up themselves and since it is sent to others too, puts the name of the spammer out there too.

 

If they lose their product and payment processor, the rest falls like dominoes.

 

It seems that after sending out a few of these, they drop off like flies. You will find most come from the same domains with different names and email showing in the email. So sending a single email like the one above will get rid of a few in one email.

 

I am taking back my email inbox and you can too!

[aussiegold]

Thanks for the tips on how to deal with this insidious problem MrClean.   It has intrigued me for some time as to how/why I keep sending myself spam!

 

Another one that bugs me somewhat is counter-offer replies to your own genuine advertising. Don't get it often, but have had an example this week. Unfortunately, I am pretty certain it originates with a member of this forum, as the headline I used here was unique to my mailings to MCP members. The reply I received had the subject line  re: "my unique subject line". The email was well presented otherwise, and seemed like a reasonable offer, but when I reviewed the site some anomalies became evident.

One was this little addition: "We respect your email privacy", linked to Awebers privacy statement. The email DID NOT  originate from Aweber!

At the bottom of the page was this: "Please click here for average earnings."  Amusing to find that text linked to Empower Networks earnings disclaimer page!

Searching the domain used to email brought up a totally different site to the one being promoted

 

Within the email is a link to report violations of can-spam act. This sends a report to  "globalresponder".

Way down the bottom is (finally!) the unsubscribe link, to "econtactpro". That seemed to work, unsubbing me from a list I never subscribed to! We'll see what I get tomorrow....

Makes you wonder about the integrity of the offer if those promoting it go to such lengths to disguise the truth  

[captkirk]

The way I deal with spam is to just delete it and move on.

 

Why waste time trying to stop something that can't be stopped and use that time to post ads yourself!

[Guest mrclean0325]

One thing you have to watch out for is if the unsubscribe link is from the same domain as the email. If so then they are using their own autoresponder script and may just verify it is a good email to keep spamming you and sell to their friends. I have unsubscribed from many "top marketers" list to continue to get their emails from another service or one from their own domain. I do mean "top famous name marketers" too.

"The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing"

[yats]

I just moved all spam to trash or block their address/IP

[dswival]

Thank you for the information. It sounds like you put quite a bit of time into taking care of it. I just hit the "mark as spam" button, delete and move on.

[sarfraz]

continue to get their emails 

[Bruno Duarte]

I have had enough from spammers. I have made it a habit when checking my Gmail to scan through the spam folder in case Google in all their wisdom has put an email I actually wanted in there. I came across some emails from ME! Yes, the spammers were using my email address to spread their disease.

 

So I have been on the rampage lately with these and drawing no quarter with them. I am cutting them off at the knees by going after, not only the site sending the email itself, but after their MONEY. I am reporting them to not only their hosting and the product they are selling (tried the hosting and product before, but with limited results some products and hosting would rather give you the run around than uphold their own TOS against spam), but their payment processors too.

 

Funny thing is, most of them are using PayPal. My spam folder is getting dusty now from nothing being in it!

 

Spam has been an annoyance, but now it was WAR!

 

Here is what you do:

 

1. Click the little down arrow in the top right corner and click "Show Original".

 

2. You look at who actually send the email. It could be just an IP address. So copy that into your browser and see what the name of the site it came from.

 

3. Go to www.whois.com and look up the site and see if there is an contact email for the domain. If not just use "abuse@ thedomainname.com"

 

4. See what the product it. Who are they an affiliate for. Find a contact email or a way to report spam (don't hold your breath though most are non-existent) or again use the "abuse@productdomain.com"

 

5. Finally, see who there payment processor is. This is as easy as clicking the "buy" button and seeing who is processing the payment. If it is PayPal (which is was has been in my case) copy the name of the seller.

 

6. Take the spam email and click the "forward" and then go to the tab with the original and click "copy to clipboard" and paste it into the forward email above the email. Write something above this like the following (but make it a bit different each time):

 

To whom it may concern:

 

I have been receiving spam emails from this party and they are using your equipment and services in their criminal activities. Please take whatever actions are needed to prevent them from sending me any more spam before I take legal action. The spammer is using PayPal as their money laundering service for their criminal activities and their account is Joe Blow LLC.

 

Thank you,

 

your name

 

Finally, address emails to "abuse@" and all the domains involved. Like abuse@paypal.com, abuse@gmail.com, etc.

 

You need to be creative, but not threatening. If you want to go the whole way, you can add "abuse@ftc.gov", "abuse@sec.gov", and "abuse@fbi.gov". I have had to go this route with a few stubborn ones that I didn't get anything from the hosting, product, or payment processor.

 

Now you may get some replies with, "Oh, but we have no control over what our customers do blah, blah, blah." and most likely will get absolutely no response at all from any of them. You may also get bounced emails that are undeliverable. Though you do this for about a week and you will start to see your spam dwindling little by little.

 

If their is a "spammer blacklist" I am getting on it!

 

If you notice, 'wordology" (maybe not a real term) of the email -  I don't think PayPal will appreciate them being associated with a money laundering service and criminal activity do you? The mention of "criminal activity" and "legal action" though completely vague does have good effect. You also notice it is not specific or threatening. Giving the PayPal account will stop any delays of them trying to look it up themselves and since it is sent to others too, puts the name of the spammer out there too.

 

If they lose their product and payment processor, the rest falls like dominoes.

 

It seems that after sending out a few of these, they drop off like flies. You will find most come from the same domains with different names and email showing in the email. So sending a single email like the one above will get rid of a few in one email.

 

I am taking back my email inbox and you can too!

 

I been having the exact same problem with this type of spamming in the last couple months. Very annoying.

[captkirk]

My first advertising forum was created by a forum member that was called a spammer.

 

Now, he didn't consider that we was spamming the forum. I explained to him what they consider spamming.

 

A long story short, we became good friend. He created a forum for me, if it wasn't for him (the spammer), I wouldn't have started a forum

 

Now, those the kind of spammers that I like!

[Guest mrclean0325]

Both of us could be considered "forum spammers" since we post a lot and have our ads in our signatures. To some, this is forum spamming. To me forum spammers are pretty obvious as they provide nothing to the conversation, give no good advice, or just post to have their links show as much as possible. They usually have very short posts like "yeah", "you are right", "I like that", or similar nothing posts.

 

I think "forum spammers" are a totally different class than email spammers since if the forum mods are doing their jobs, they don't last too long in any forum.

[captkirk]

Both of us could be considered "forum spammers" since we post a lot and have our ads in our signatures. To some, this is forum spamming. To me forum spammers are pretty obvious as they provide nothing to the conversation, give no good advice, or just post to have their links show as much as possible. They usually have very short posts like "yeah", "you are right", "I like that", or similar nothing posts.

 

I think "forum spammers" are a totally different class than email spammers since if the forum mods are doing their jobs, they don't last too long in any forum.

 

I'm sure that if we were in the Warrior forum we would both be consider spammers and have our post deleted.

 

At times, I do delete post like yeah, , me too, or similar post if it just don't make any sense to what have been said.

 

I don't won't to be compared to the moderators or like members at the Warrior forum.

[Guest mrclean0325]

No worries, you are doing a fine job of keeping things clean here. If we were on the WF, we would also be trolled, abused, and ridiculed since that bunch over there don't think much of our advertising methods of choice. They are all "Big Time" marketers ya know...

[captkirk]

No worries, you are doing a fine job of keeping things clean here. If we were on the WF, we would also be trolled, abused, and ridiculed since that bunch over there don't think much of our advertising methods of choice. They are all "Big Time" marketers ya know...

 

Yep! I agree with you 100%. They don't like us talking about free advertising methods like Traffic Exchanges, Safelists, Viral Mailers, Adboards, FFAs and etc...

[Guest mrclean0325]

The really funny thing is that many of them DO use mailers and safelists secretly. Unfortunately, I can think of one who does show people how to "hack" them for free credits...

[davepilgrim]

I generally manage to turn a blind eye to most email spam that I receive, considering it par for the course.

 

But one class of spammers that REALLY bothers me are the one's you mentioned who send s**t from MY email address!

 

This has led in the past not only to stains on my professional reputation but also to embarrassment on a personal level when friends and family have received this junk, apparently from me.

 

Thanks for the advise on how to deal with these lowlifes  

[Guest mrclean0325]

The reasons you just mentioned is why those emails in particular got me on my tirade. It is also why I don't use Yahoo mail anymore (among other irritations from just using it after they started changing it when Gmail became popular). I was readings my email one day and I noticed what looked like random numbers changing rapidly in my Draft folder. Someone had actually hacked my email account and was sending spam WHILE I was reading my email! I managed to stop it but not soon enough. I had to send out a LOT of apology emails and to let everyone sent know it wasn't from me. When I tried to report it, it was a case of, "Oh, sorry nothing we can do. You should have used a better password" which ticked me off since I used a very good password and changed it regularly and had just changed it the week before. To me it seemed like an "inside job". So I removed my address book from it and just use it for an email address I sign up for questionable things and only check once a month or so.

[prosumus]

Thanks for the tip.