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More on Spam

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Nick Thompson

More on Spam

To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,

So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering if there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do is click on the link that says, “Please don’t send me any more messages like this.” But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link in a message I suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization up on the web, thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink’s WebAdvisor doesn’t hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link, but that takes a time, and, of course, the web message could always be a spoof. So, then I am back to doing nothing.

Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

glen ep ropella

Re: More on Spam

I don't know how much cash you have. But if you do have some, then I
suggest hiring someone to come to your house(s), take a look at your
setup and make some suggestions, perhaps even coming back, say, weekly
to tweak/observe. Nothing can replace that sort of focused attention.

But, of course, make sure you trust the person you hire. In Santa Fe,
there _must_ be people who can help you that you already know. The
trick is: do NOT ask them to do it for free. Even if they offer to do
it for free, tell them NO and find someone else. You get what you pay
for. You don't want community theatre actors. If you can't find anyone
where you live, then fly to New York, Austin, ... Russia, whatever.
Find people to do the work.

My only other suggestion is to ... uh ... learn the technologies at
work. That might even imply becoming a spammer yourself. Invent some
penis pills, a new cure for cancer, or knit some hats ... or better yet,
start selling Amway or Avon products or somesuch, then try to sell
them/it online. If/when successful, you will understand spam. Of
course, if you want to understand phishing, then it's a different tool
set to some extent. You could become a white hat hacker and turn
everything you learn over to the FBI.

On 03/06/2014 09:13 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:

> To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,
>
> So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
> assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering
> if there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do
> is click on the link that says, “Please don’t send me any more messages
> like this.” But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link
> in a message I suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization
> up on the web, thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink’s
> WebAdvisor doesn’t hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link, but
> that takes a time, and, of course, the web message could always be a
> spoof. So, then I am back to doing nothing.
>
> Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?
>
> Nick
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

--
glen ep ropella -- 971-255-2847

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Barry MacKichan

Re: More on Spam

In reply to this post by Nick Thompson

Are you using a Bayesian spam detector? I use one on the Mac called
SpamSieve, and I used to use one on Windows called SpamBayes -- there
was an Outlook plugin for it.

You need to train it by correcting its mistakes. Most of them will train
themselves (mostly) by having you point them to a folder of good
messages and a folder of spam. It looks like you will be able to do
that.

The accuracy of my SpamSieve setup is very good; mine is at about 99%.

—Barry

On 6 Mar 2014, at 10:13, Nick Thompson wrote:

> To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,
>
>
>
> So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
> assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering
> if
> there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do is
> click
> on the link that says, "Please don't send me any more messages like
> this."
> But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link in a
> message I
> suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization up on the
> web,
> thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink's WebAdvisor
> doesn't
> hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link, but that takes a
> time, and,
> of course, the web message could always be a spoof. So, then I am
> back to
> doing nothing.
>
>
>
> Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Sarbajit Roy (testing)

Re: More on Spam

In reply to this post by Nick Thompson

Nick

At the cost of privacy.

If you can use either POP or IMAP to access your emails on earthlink, try
accessing them through a Gmail account and allow Gmail's spam filters
to do their magic

Just make sure though to setup Gmail to "leave all messages" on
earthlink. In fact if you let Gmail loose for an 1 hour or so, you'll
soon have a complete backup of your earthlink email inbox as a bonus.

Sarbajit

On 3/6/14, Nick Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

> To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,
>
> So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
> assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering if
> there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do is
> click
> on the link that says, "Please don't send me any more messages like this."
> But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link in a message I
> suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization up on the web,
> thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink's WebAdvisor doesn't
> hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link, but that takes a time,
> and,
> of course, the web message could always be a spoof. So, then I am back to
> doing nothing.
>
>
>
> Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
>
>
>

Roger Critchlow-2

Re: More on Spam

In reply to this post by glen ep ropella

The fact that you're collecting the messages and pondering what to do with them may be signaling your vulnerability. Emails can contain image links which signal that you've opened the message. If you open the message more than once, then your email address is now known to be dithering over the message. So the fact that you have received junk mail and have not decisively ignored it may be inviting more scams to your email address. That's all that most spammers/scammers are looking for, people who aren't quite sure what to do. Once they find someone who isn't sure, they can vary the message to find the area of greatest uncertainty and exploit it.

-- rec --

On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 10:58 AM, glen e. p. ropella <[hidden email]> wrote:

I don't know how much cash you have. But if you do have some, then I suggest hiring someone to come to your house(s), take a look at your setup and make some suggestions, perhaps even coming back, say, weekly to tweak/observe. Nothing can replace that sort of focused attention.

But, of course, make sure you trust the person you hire. In Santa Fe, there _must_ be people who can help you that you already know. The trick is: do NOT ask them to do it for free. Even if they offer to do it for free, tell them NO and find someone else. You get what you pay for. You don't want community theatre actors. If you can't find anyone where you live, then fly to New York, Austin, ... Russia, whatever. Find people to do the work.

My only other suggestion is to ... uh ... learn the technologies at work. That might even imply becoming a spammer yourself. Invent some penis pills, a new cure for cancer, or knit some hats ... or better yet, start selling Amway or Avon products or somesuch, then try to sell them/it online. If/when successful, you will understand spam. Of course, if you want to understand phishing, then it's a different tool set to some extent. You could become a white hat hacker and turn everything you learn over to the FBI.

On 03/06/2014 09:13 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:

To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,

So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering
if there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do
is click on the link that says, “Please don’t send me any more messages
like this.” But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link
in a message I suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization
up on the web, thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink’s
WebAdvisor doesn’t hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link, but
that takes a time, and, of course, the web message could always be a
spoof. So, then I am back to doing nothing.

Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

--
glen ep ropella -- <a href="tel:971-255-2847" value="+19712552847" target="_blank">971-255-2847

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Nick Thompson

Re: More on Spam

In reply to this post by Barry MacKichan

Barry, and others,

Thanks, everybody, for taking my question seriously. I will investigate Spamseive. I get my email via a gmail account, a clark university account, and an earthlink account. Everything forwards to the earthlink account.
Earthlink has its spam blocker which has served me pretty well up until the last few weeks, although I cannot get it to understand that If I send somebody a message, I would like to be able to receive the response. Clark University has its own spam system, although it may be the case that messages to me bounce right off the server without ever passing through it. Outlook is set to NOT open any images in a messages unless I tell it to. In general, if I suspect that something is spam, I move it directly to my McAFee spam folder without opening it, although I don't know what, if anything, follows from that. I assume that moving the message from one folder to another within Outlook does not provide any information to the spammer.

My very best wishes to you all,

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Barry MacKichan
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 11:25 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] More on Spam

Are you using a Bayesian spam detector? I use one on the Mac called SpamSieve, and I used to use one on Windows called SpamBayes -- there was an Outlook plugin for it.

You need to train it by correcting its mistakes. Most of them will train themselves (mostly) by having you point them to a folder of good messages and a folder of spam. It looks like you will be able to do that.

The accuracy of my SpamSieve setup is very good; mine is at about 99%.

—Barry

On 6 Mar 2014, at 10:13, Nick Thompson wrote:

> To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,
>
>
>
> So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
> assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering
> if there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do
> is click on the link that says, "Please don't send me any more
> messages like this."
> But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link in a
> message I suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization up
> on the web, thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink's
> WebAdvisor doesn't hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link,
> but that takes a time, and, of course, the web message could always be
> a spoof. So, then I am back to doing nothing.
>
>
>
> Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe
> at St. John's College to unsubscribe
> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Robert J. Cordingley

Re: More on Spam

Nick
You could try talking to Earthlink.net (See Support > Get Live Help
now). May be you saw this page:
<a href="http://support.earthlink.net/articles/email/e-mail-abuse.php##1">http://support.earthlink.net/articles/email/e-mail-abuse.php##1
that might be helpful

Robert C

On 3/6/14 12:17 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:

> Barry, and others,
>
> Thanks, everybody, for taking my question seriously. I will investigate Spamseive. I get my email via a gmail account, a clark university account, and an earthlink account. Everything forwards to the earthlink account.
> Earthlink has its spam blocker which has served me pretty well up until the last few weeks, although I cannot get it to understand that If I send somebody a message, I would like to be able to receive the response. Clark University has its own spam system, although it may be the case that messages to me bounce right off the server without ever passing through it. Outlook is set to NOT open any images in a messages unless I tell it to. In general, if I suspect that something is spam, I move it directly to my McAFee spam folder without opening it, although I don't know what, if anything, follows from that. I assume that moving the message from one folder to another within Outlook does not provide any information to the spammer.
>
> My very best wishes to you all,
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
> Clark University
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Barry MacKichan
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 11:25 AM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] More on Spam
>
> Are you using a Bayesian spam detector? I use one on the Mac called SpamSieve, and I used to use one on Windows called SpamBayes -- there was an Outlook plugin for it.
>
> You need to train it by correcting its mistakes. Most of them will train themselves (mostly) by having you point them to a folder of good messages and a folder of spam. It looks like you will be able to do that.
>
> The accuracy of my SpamSieve setup is very good; mine is at about 99%.
>
> —Barry
>
>
>
> On 6 Mar 2014, at 10:13, Nick Thompson wrote:
>
>> To any of you who are in an Advice-Giving Mood,
>>
>>
>>
>> So, as I said, my Spam has tripled in the last few weeks. I have been
>> assiduously accumulating spam messages I a folder and am now wondering
>> if there is anything I can do with them. One obvious thing I might do
>> is click on the link that says, "Please don't send me any more
>> messages like this."
>> But, of course, I have been told to NEVER click on any link in a
>> message I suspect for any reason. So, then I look the organization up
>> on the web, thinking that if the have a website that Earthlink's
>> WebAdvisor doesn't hate, maybe I am safe to click the opt out link,
>> but that takes a time, and, of course, the web message could always be
>> a spoof. So, then I am back to doing nothing.
>>
>>
>>
>> Anybody got better than nothing as a strategy?
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Nicholas S. Thompson
>>
>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>>
>> Clark University
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe
>> at St. John's College to unsubscribe
>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com