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Re: [LUG] Email security

 

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 1:01 PM, NW wrote:
> On my emails I get hardly any spam. (I don't have any filters set up for
> myself.) My wife gets lots. We have a web site and I use the email set
> up on there (IMAP). Recently I have persuaded the wife to move across to
> using emails on our web site to try to avoid her getting so much rubbish.
>
> Don't ask me why, but she has started getting rubbish emails already. I
> have set up some filters, which are already having to block over forty
> addresses!

There are many ways how an email address can end up in a spammers'
database (and once it's there, it'll stay there forever):
1. the email address has been published on a web site;
2. the local-part (bit before the @) of the email address is very
"easy": spammers commonly try to send email to john@, tom@, mike@
addresses regardless of whether these exists;
3. the owner has dealt with a dodgy company/organization which has
sold on the address;
4. the owner has dealt with a legitimate company/organization whose
database has been hacked;
5. there is some malware on a computer that scans mailboxes for databases.

You should be able to decide whether 1 or 2 could be the case, but
let's assume neither is. 3 and 4 aren't very likely either, especially
since the problems re-occurred after she changed addresses. With
regards to 5, note that I say "a computer": while it's definitely
worth checking she doesn't have any kind of malware running, it may
well be one of her regular contacts who has malware installed on the
computer that regularly scrapes their mailbox for addresses.

But that only gives a possible explanation about why she does get so
much spam. As others have pointed out, much as it is very frustrating,
spam is part of (online) life and is going to be for a while. The best
solution is to use some kind of spam filter; there are many decent
solutions available, both for Linux and Windows, many of them free.

It's also worth checking with your provider and see if they offer spam
filtering. Most providers do this for free and it is usually more
effective than doing it at on your computer. (But a combination of
both is probably most effective.)

I wouldn't recommend only accepting mail from your contacts. People
change email addresses, she might register on a website/order
something online etc. and miss essential emails this way.

Martijn.

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