Email spam up 50% since May!

Drowning in spam

[zeb]

Yesterday I got 85 email messages in my inbox. 78 of the messages were pure spam! Anybody else experiencing a huge increase of spam that started in May? Many of the messages come to addresses like [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail], i.e. addresses that webmasters would not want to filter.

[ncsuk]

Do you have form mail on your website? I'd check to make sure it was setup correctly.

[keyplyr]

Yes, SPAM has also tripled for me starting at the very same time.

And before all the fix-it-this-way replies start, I do not post any of my email addresses at my sites, nor NewsGroups or Forums, nor anywhere else. Most all of these are exploits of net block mail servers.

[WebJoe]

I experienced the same thing...going from 427 SPAM messages in april to 1014 in may

[pixel_juice]

The volume of spam being sent is getting ridiculous. I have one email account in particular that was getting more than 50 spam emails a day. I had to set up some industrial-strength spam filtering to be able to use it at all.

I once turned off the filters to test how good they were, and I won't be doing it again ;)

[pageoneresults]

Whew, and I thought only my clients were being affected. I've definitely seen at least a 50% increase since May. What gives?

[NeedScripts]

If you are using Outlook (Express or XP) you can use inbuild filter that if set properly, they can do wonders. When I was using only outlook xp's filters I was able to successfully delete almost 95% of spam, and when you are talking about more then couple hundred spams per day, 95% is pretty good.

P.S.. Now I am using OutLook XP Filters & Spam Inspector

NeedScripts

[oilman]

I'm using MailWasher to clean up the crap for me. I keep adding filters etc. Right now it's catching about 90% of the spam and no false positives. I'm fairly happy about it. I'm on the verge of banning all hotmail, yahoomail, etc emails tho.

[pageoneresults]

We just installed email spam filters on our servers. I never realized how bad it was until I started reviewing some of the junk email boxes that were set up. I have one client who is receiving anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 spam emails a day. That of course is for the whole company. Unfortunately someone has to scan those messages and make sure something of importance did not get through.

It is just way too out of control right now. I can see new mail protocol on the horizon. ;)

[NeedScripts]

Oilman, I know what you mean about hotmail and yahoo emails, they cuz lot of spam, but after seeing ourweb site (on profile) you will agree that tons of good emails for our web site come from hotmail and yahoo.

I have never tried mailwasher, I guess, I was in hurry when I got that software - but have no complain about it.

NeedScripts

[zeb]

Found these figures on Messagelabs site.

-- In May, the global ratio of spam in email broke 50% for the first time: 55.1%

[mack]

Generaly what I am doing is building a word filter using the built in features in outlook express. Every time spamm gets through I just block the sender and add the title from the email to the block words list. I am finding my inbox a lot more friendly now. It was getting to the extent where I was dreading the thought of opening it.

As well as adding titles from spamm emails I have also built up a word list so that if the email contains certain words it gets auto deleted.

Mack.

[bill]

Get MailWasher

Get the regullarly updated filters [w5hq.com]

Enable your DNS Blacklist with the following entries:

[ul][li][b]SpamCop Blacklist[/b] bl.spamcop.net 
[li][b]SPEWS level 1[/b] spews.relays.osirusoft.com 
[li][b]Osirusoft open relay inputs[/b] inputs.relays.osirusoft.com 
[li][b]ORDB open relays[/b] relays.ordb.org 
[li][b]Spamhaus Blacklist[/b] spamhaus.relays.osirusoft.com 
[li][b]South Korea[/b] korea.services.net 
[li][b]Osirusoft Open Proxies[/b] socks.relays.osirusoft.com 
[li][b]monkeys.com open proxies[/b] proxies.relays.monkeys.com 
[li][b]China[/b] cn.rbl.cluecentral.net 
[li][b]Nigeria[/b] nigeria.blackholes.us 
[li][b]Argentina[/b] argentina.blackholes.us 
[li][b]Brazil[/b] brazil.blackholes.us[/ul]

That should take care of just about all of them...:)

[StanBo]

Frankly, I fail to notice the increase...I still get about just 50 SPAM messages a week in aggregate for 3 addresses. And most of them arrive in triples, so the actual amount per mailbox is rather miserable. And that's without any third party filters, blockers or whatever. Looks like it's just a matter of where you give your address away.

[Paul in South Africa]

I have "catch-all" email addresses set up on 33 of the domains I administer. While I realize that this is a sure way of getting spam addressed to [e-mail] or any of the other commonly used email addresses, I am also dealing with quite a lot of relatively unsophisticated users and have had clients miss important emails prior to setting up the catch-alls. Spam addressed to the none existant email addresses is now becoming a major problem (172 today and it's only lunch time here). Haven't worked out a solution yet other than deleting the obvious based on content or title.

[Mardi_Gras]

Frankly, I fail to notice the increase...

Consider yourself lucky. I guard my business address pretty closely, and it has escaped the volume increase. But the volume into my hotmail inbox has increased dramatically. Judging by the subject line, most of the increase seems to be coming from one person, who wants to offer me the opportunity to enlarge a certain body part to the point that it causes harm.

I can't imagine that anybody responds, but since it is relatively inexpensive to send out, he just keeps plugging away...This one spammer probably accounts for 25% or more of my spam.

[Robino]

My Yahoo! mail account gets about 75 bulk(spam) e-mails per day. My private e-mail gets about 10. This is a 50% increase on both accounts in the last few months.

It is getting out of control. We have a lot of people that use their business addresses when they sign up for stuff. Some of these people can get 150+ spams per day!

[StanBo]

I do not use any yahoo or hotmail boxes ever...
Oh, well, I DO use them sometimes, if I need to specify a valid e-mail to register for some questionable resource. I just create an account, register, get accepted and forget about the particular address forever :)
So, generally speaking, even my private address is kinda "business" one.

[Macguru]

We better get prepared for a huge increase in volume in a near future.

Try the slideshow of this Forbes' article : Spam's Real Cost [forbes.com]

Sad projections...

[nancyb]

Its been averaging between 150-250 a day for me for several months. MailWasher is fantastic at helping, but I still have to scan it before processing. Some mornings it can take up to 45 minutes to get through it all - even with MailWasher and lots of filters.

I use only encoded email addresses on my site, but that doesn't help because most of this junk is sent to [e-mail]. Some of the names they use to send are worse than the crap they send :( :(

[eggy ricardo]

I can agree partially with what you say but I think banning all hotmail and yahoo addresses is a bit harsh. I have NEVER recieved spam from one of the above addresses as it mostly comes from really stupid/complecated adresses and domains.

The problem is, although the spam very similar, i get it from a different address every time so its difficult to block just using block functions and i have found that the junk mail function on my account (Hotmail :)) is poor as it blocks wanted stuff and lets thru wanted stuff.

Overall, however, i have noticed, as a lot of you have said, a huge increase in spam although i still get less than 30 a week. Half of me is thinking its something ive entered my address into that i shudnt, the other just thinks its an inevitable part of the net.

[StanBo]

You've got me wrong, really.
I don't BAN free mail services, I just only use them when I need one-time valid address, which will never be used again.
Because it turns out that free mail account tend to get several times more junk messages.

[eggy ricardo]

When i said about banning yahoo and hotmail email addresses i was referin to an earlier comment by oilman

[TGecho]

I finally started using a private address, and I keep hotmail around for anything I need to sign up for. I get about ten pieces of junk mail a week at hotmail, and I have yet to recieve a single piece of span at my private address. Guess it's just a matter of where you give out your address.