Escaping spam

Devrij

Devrij

Devrij

Soldato
Joined
23 Jul 2009
Posts
14,130
Location
Bath
For years I have lived a spam-free existence, but somewhere, on some site, my details got out. For the last few months I have been bombarded by all sorts of single and lonely, platinum credit card, etc spam, and it's getting worse.

My gmail account is linked to everything I do, so I'm loathe to drop it and move to a new address, and waging a war of new filters and unsubscribing where I can futile. What can I do to stop it?! I miss my spam-free life!
 
You probably posted your email address by mistake on the internet. The only other way you would get spam is if you signed up somewhere and that list of emails was leaked to a spammer, which is very common. If you think about the recent origin hack for example, they make off with millions of legitimate email addresses and sell the list to spammers. Another way spammers get access is say you call an indian call center for a big company and there is a guy there who is collecting email addresses from user accounts and selling them off.
 
Oh yeah, I know my email address is out there now. What I'm asking is if there is a way to shut Pandora's box.
 
In theory, gmail does, but it doesn't really get the idea when I tell it THIS IS SPAM! So essentially there is no magic bullet here? I suppose that means I either continue to fight the good fight, or else start a new address and move aaaaall my accounts over.
 
FoxEye said:
Spam is inevitable. Resistance is futile.
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But I was doing so well! This reminds me of playing resident evil when it first came out, and getting really far, then saving right before a boss fight when I had no ammo left. One small mistake you just can't take back, and trying so hard, yet knowing you can never win.
 
I use my own domain via Google Apps. The only mail I get in either of my 3 email inboxes is what I chose to subscribe to.
 
billysielu said:
I have my own domain.

Then if you give it to ocuk, you can use [email protected], then if you get nigerian princes emailing it you know where the problem is and you can blackhole it.

A few times I've found which companies sell my details.
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This looks like the best method. So do you forward them all to one mailbox for ease of use? Are they easy to manage? And how do I go about getting my own domain?
 
GMail does a superb job of stopping spam for me. That and I never use my actual email address for comparison sites (these are the worst!!!!!) and have a shopping one for online shopping.
 
billysielu said:
I have my own domain.

Then if you give it to ocuk, you can use [email protected], then if you get nigerian princes emailing it you know where the problem is and you can blackhole it.

A few times I've found which companies sell my details.
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This is the best way, only costs a few pounds a year for a domain name and by default any email sent to your domain name regardless of the actual address used will go to your designated inbox so there's no need to create multiple email accounts!
 
Energize said:
This is the best way, only costs a few pounds a year for a domain name and by default any email sent to your domain name regardless of the actual address used will go to your designated inbox so there's no need to create multiple email accounts!
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Oh that's cool, so as above, you would just plonk [email protected] in without having to create [email protected]? But you could see which address each email was sent to?
 
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