[SEL] Re: <snip> Spam O.T.

[Jerry Evans]

At 07:00 PM 19/01/2007, you wrote:
>Message: 9
>Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:22:48 -0500
>From: "Steve W." <falcon at telenet.net>
>Subject: Re: [SEL] OFF TOPIC:
>To: The SEL email discussion list <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
>
>Take a look at this reply and you will see that I changed the reply to
>address.

Hi Steve,
         I reread your post and saw that you mentioned "full name, address, 
home and cell phone
". I thought you were referring to email address as the discussion was 
about spammers and they only use eMail. My apologies.

         I cannot see the headers of your reply because that is all 
stripped and replaced with the SEL's information by the time it reaches me 
(as it should be).

         Anyway most spammers use spiders to trawl the internet and visit 
websites to strip email addresses  (anything with the "@" in the right 
place) - I'm NOT saying they do not get it from eMail but I think that your 
normal correspondence with friends and business contacts is fairly safe. 
Forums, lists and news groups are very dangerous in this regard - consider 
the SEL archive as an example - a spider would pick up all our addresses 
there very quickly - if it was up to date <grin>.

         I also have positive proof that they can hack your email service 
provider and strip eMail addresses from there. My main email address is 
<jerrye at cyberserv.co.za> (I've been connected there since late 1991 - a 
very early email user) (the addy I use on this list forwards all mail to 
this one). My mailbox is therefore known as "jerrye" My service provider is 
"cyberserv.co.za" but their email server has an identifying name (as all 
networked computers do). The name of this mail server (computer) is 
"Tahiti" (not quite but close) and the internet email address of this 
computer is mail.cyberserv.co.za. (of course it also has an Internet 
protocol number (IP) something like <093:27:6:1>
         About 3 years ago I started getting spam addressed to 
<jerrye at mail.cyberserv.co.za> as well as spam addressed to 
<jerrye at tahiti.cyberserv.co.za>. They all got through to my mailbox.

         These could only have been hacked from my providers site because 
prior to that I had no idea that those addresses could be used - I was 
totally unaware that they even existed so there was no way I could have 
posted them anywhere - yet I suddenly started getting spam to them.

         For those of you who are probably thinking along the lines of " 
this guy is crazy - look at all the information he is posting to this 
list". My Service provider (as many do) allows me to set my own "filtering" 
rules on the mail server and any mail using the information above is 
automatically deleted before I even log on. As regards my real eMail 
address (also mentioned above) - it is already on so many spam lists that 
it would be crazy to think that posting it one more time will make a 
difference - I'm quite proud of the fact that I've had this address for 
about 18 years so there are certain things I've just got to learn to live 
with. How many of you have been on email for 18 years?
         I have nearly 300 of my own filtering rules set up on the server 
(over and above the fact that the service provider also uses pretty 
sophisticated spam filtering software) and any mail that contains words 
such as "penis", "viagra", "cialis", "mortgage" (we do not use that word in 
South Africa - it's called a Bond here) and many more are automatically 
deleted. I update these rules weekly. In spite of this I still receive at 
least 100 spams a day and for some reason about 300 on Saturdays - probably 
because that is when all those poor souls with infected computers are at 
home and logged on. These are the mails blocked by my providers software 
and are only stored on his computer so that I can check them to see if no 
"real" mail has been stopped by mistake. I delete these every evening - 
takes about 3 minutes of my time and telephone costs.

         Apologies for the long rant - it's just that "Spam" is one of my 
"Pet Hates" - second only to our local telephone service provider !!

         Keep well guys.


Keep the revs up (or down)
Jerry Evans
Near Johannesburg in Sunny South Africa.
Tel. (016) 365-5787
Intntl.: +2716 365-5787
Cell: 083 293 7191
Visit our website for old engines in South Africa.
www.oldengine.org/members/evans