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can someone help me get even with a 'nigerian' emailer...

Posted: 03 Sep 2006, 17:24
by pipedreams
who has somehow gotten hold of my main email...they use to come in email accounts I don't use much, but now I'm getting them every day in my main email. I found a site that had a 'virus' attachement, a fake attachment to scare them off, but it hasn't. NetScienta is the site, I emailed them asking for help and they haven't responded.
I'd like to send them something they won't soon forget but I don't know what. Reporting them to any agency is a waste of time. If someone has had some experience dealing with these scumbags and can help me I'd really appreciate it.

Posted: 03 Sep 2006, 18:17
by Nerdz
Contact your ISP with their IP.... Maybe they can do something... Enable the header and get his ISP abuse email adress and contact him...

Posted: 04 Sep 2006, 03:39
by bad_brain
well, depends on what kind of email accounts you have. if your emails belong to your own webspace or even server it's very easy to block those mails (it's also some kind of revenge then because for every mail they send you they get 2 emails back: one from their own smtp daemon because the mail couldn't be delivered and one from yours because the mail has been rejected).
but if you have free mail accounts like on hotmail all you can do is to look if you have a possibility to block the source adresses...if not you could contact the host. DO NOT contact the host/ISP of the sender and DO NOT send some mails back (infected or not), because this will only proof your email accounts are alive and so you will only receive more spam.
let us know what kind of accounts you have and we will see how/if we can help.....I have a little experience with this, suck-o.com has been used as sender adress by chinese spammers a while ago...:wink:

Posted: 04 Sep 2006, 04:49
by pipedreams
well, a couple of times Ive have replied, that was with the 'fake virus' which I should have known probably wouldn't work. My email account (main one I use for everyday emails) is Yahoo, but I did subscribe to 'email plus' which I pay a small yearly fee. But blocking thier address is probably a waste of time, as they will use another and another (I think). I'll wait to hear back from you, if you need to know anything else please let me know, and thanks very much for any help.

consider this

Posted: 04 Sep 2006, 09:16
by DNR
Several things to consider;

1. Email address is likely spoofed, the nice trick with email, is the sender does not expect to retrieve replies to the email address for his scam to work - in the bogus/spoofed email is a http link or malware that the scammer uses to get your 'replies'. The email addy/server could be stolen, and the victim has nothing to do with the spam.

We had a discussion about this, search for the thread titled "This may be a scam.." it discusses attacks on spammers.

2. The best defense is not to reply to the spam, replying to the 'opt-out link' even, is just a way of spammers to verify they have a valid email address. Try Gmail.com, you can make it text only email and they will block emails from addresses you move to a spam box.

Posted: 04 Sep 2006, 13:33
by bad_brain
oh well, a yahoo account is pretty the worst case scenario, I have some experience with yahoo already, and mate: they give a shit about their users.... :roll: I don't know what improved possibilities an email plus account provides compared to a free one, but as long as you can't block IPs (or better IP ranges) you can't do much about it.... :?

and I agree with DNR, best get a gmail account, 2.5 GB storage at the moment and it's for free.
edit: I checked the yahoo email plus offer in the meantime....man, cancel the contract, for this money you can almost get a webspace/domain bundle... 8O you really should switch to gmail and save the money (or even get a domain+webspace).... :wink:

Posted: 04 Sep 2006, 17:52
by pipedreams
Thanks for the tips, info. I use to have a gmail account and canceled it, maybe I'll get another. I cancelled it because I heard they were doing some spying or sending personal information. I don't know how true that was but it seems lately they've been more 'pro' privacy than anything.
The charge for the yahoo is $19.95 a year, but I don't think I'll renew. I think you're right, they are lacking in customre service, although I'm not sure Google is that much better. In any case thanks again.

don't pay for the internet

Posted: 06 Sep 2006, 08:40
by DNR
You never trust software, but you try to control how its used. Gmail can still be a risk, but you set it up so it is minimal compared to say, MS Outlook. You want to have Text Only email, this will make the email server filter out all the webbugs and other active scripts that can run under HTML based email.

The issue of privacy and Google was over them sharing their Search engine database. The government and corporations have decided that reading data on what people search for will help them 'design' the internet based on what people search for. They will use the search database to profile society in general, the worry is that the nfo can be drilled down to individuals.

Don't pay for the internet, you just need a connection, the rest can be had for free, email, search engines, and chat.

DNR

Re: don't pay for the internet

Posted: 07 Sep 2006, 16:15
by pipedreams
DNR wrote:You never trust software, but you try to control how its used. Gmail can still be a risk, but you set it up so it is minimal compared to say, MS Outlook. You want to have Text Only email, this will make the email server filter out all the webbugs and other active scripts that can run under HTML based email.

The issue of privacy and Google was over them sharing their Search engine database. The government and corporations have decided that reading data on what people search for will help them 'design' the internet based on what people search for. They will use the search database to profile society in general, the worry is that the nfo can be drilled down to individuals.

Don't pay for the internet, you just need a connection, the rest can be had for free, email, search engines, and chat.

DNR


Thanks for that info DNR, thats stuff I didn't know about. I'm going to watch out for it, sounds like web enhancements.