SPAM because I posted here?

J

Joshua Cooper

Ever since I posted to this group yesterday along with the Excel newsgroup,
I have been inundated with SPAM. Specifically, tons of "security patches"
supposedly from Microsoft. I've altered my return email (nospam) to
hopefully ward off further spam. Is this normal? And horror of horrors,
could it actually be Microsoft doing this?

Heck the patches are for PCs anyway.

-J
 
J

J. Keith Putnam

Ever since I posted to this group yesterday along with the Excel newsgroup,
I have been inundated with SPAM. Specifically, tons of "security patches"
supposedly from Microsoft. I've altered my return email (nospam) to
hopefully ward off further spam. Is this normal? And horror of horrors,
could it actually be Microsoft doing this?

Heck the patches are for PCs anyway.

-J
Click to expand...
It seems to me that the newsgroup is undefended. Of course, I have little
experience. Perhaps the wise ones could expound on how our addresses get
harvested. See message from D. Spy on Oct. 22.

I have received 414 such messages since Oct 1. In the seven years I have
used the internet, this has been absolutely the most trouble I have ever
walked into.
 
G

Gnarlodious

Entity J. Keith Putnam spoke thus:
Perhaps the wise ones could expound on how our addresses get
harvested.
Click to expand...
It doesn't take so much wisdom. In Joshua's case he munged his address with
"nospam" yesterday. But his address has already been sold to a jillion
spammers because scripts are scouring the newsgroups for unmunged addresses.

There is some question whether "nospam" does the trick anymore as spammers
attempt to make scripts that automate the demunging of addresses.
In my case, [email protected] does the job. You may
consider the "invalid" before your domain name since mailservers don't
forward any mail that includes the domain name "invalid". Otherwise your ISP
gets all the spam you aren't.

-- Gnarlie
http://www.Gnarlodious.com/Cogent/Cogent.html
 
J

J. Keith Putnam

Entity J. Keith Putnam spoke thus:

It doesn't take so much wisdom. In Joshua's case he munged his address with
"nospam" yesterday. But his address has already been sold to a jillion
spammers because scripts are scouring the newsgroups for unmunged addresses.

There is some question whether "nospam" does the trick anymore as spammers
attempt to make scripts that automate the demunging of addresses.
In my case, [email protected] does the job. You may
consider the "invalid" before your domain name since mailservers don't
forward any mail that includes the domain name "invalid". Otherwise your ISP
gets all the spam you aren't.

-- Gnarlie
http://www.Gnarlodious.com/Cogent/Cogent.html
Click to expand...

As I mentioned before, I have gotten 414 messages. They are of two types:
the so-called update notice from Microsoft and messages from firewalls
telling me the attachment has been removed.

This does not strike me as spamming. I am receiving basically identical
messages with different titles and sources. None of them trying to sell me
anything.
 
M

m

-----Original Message-----
Entity J. Keith Putnam spoke thus:

It doesn't take so much wisdom. In Joshua's case he munged his address with
"nospam" yesterday. But his address has already been sold to a jillion
spammers because scripts are scouring the newsgroups for unmunged addresses.

There is some question whether "nospam" does the trick anymore as spammers
attempt to make scripts that automate the demunging of addresses.
In my case, [email protected] does the job. You may
consider the "invalid" before your domain name since mailservers don't
forward any mail that includes the domain name "invalid". Otherwise your ISP
gets all the spam you aren't.

-- Gnarlie
http://www.Gnarlodious.com/Cogent/Cogent.html

.
I'v experienced the same thing plus they're virus laced.
Click to expand...
How nice. That'll be the last time I use a real address for
a message board.
 
J

Jason

I've been getting the same thing, and I assume they are
from Microsoft. The Newsgroups start page does warn you
about putting in real email addresses, but someone should
let their Support group know that it's really bad form if
someone with Microsoft is using these addresses to send
spam like this.

-Jason
 
G

Gnarlodious

Entity Jason spoke thus:
I've been getting the same thing, and I assume they are
from Microsoft.
Click to expand...
No, no, no, they are NOT from Microsoft! It is carrying a virus that
propagates itself by pretending to be from Microsoft and thereby increase
its chances of being installed (on a Winbox).

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't blame Microsoft.

--Rachel
 
D

Don

I've been getting the same thing, and I assume they are
from Microsoft. The Newsgroups start page does warn you
about putting in real email addresses, but someone should
let their Support group know that it's really bad form if
someone with Microsoft is using these addresses to send
spam like this.

-Jason
Click to expand...


If you have a PC, Microsoft *ONLY* provides patches through a built-in
Windows utility or a special website.

If you install the alleged patch on a Windows system, you'll actually
install a virus. The messages are hoaxes.
 
M

Matt Brandon

Ok, but what to do about this SPAM/virus? I had to trash my old email
address and got this new one. I had been getting over 50 a day! Just this
hoax Microsoft one and all it's variations. I had no idea till now that this
is were all these came from (so to speak). I yesterday I sent a new message
on this list with my new address! Now within 24 hours I got the SPAM AGAIN!
Short of trashing my new address, what can I got. I have a newsletter with
200 names I mail to bi-weekly, I can't keep changing my address. PLEASE I
need ideas?

If the server administrator could delete my last email with my address off
the server? Will that help?


Matt
 
D

Diane Ross

I yesterday I sent a new message
on this list with my new address! Now within 24 hours I got the SPAM AGAIN!
Click to expand...

This was posted to the list as an option:

Due to a recent increase in spam sent to posters in newsgroups, Microsoft
advises that newsgroup participants should consider avoiding posting to
newsgroups using their real email address. Microsoft is also committed to
continuing to address the issue of spam from a technological perspective.

To help avoid receiving unwanted messages (spam) in your regular e-mail
account, you may not want to include your regular e-mail address when you
post a question or reply to a post in a discussion group. Instead you may
want to do one of the following:

* Use a modified e-mail address: Use a different version of your e-mail
address that others will understand, but that spam tools can't automatically
pick up. For example, if your actual e-mail address is
"[email protected]", consider using a modified e-mail address such as:
"emailnameaccount.com.invalid",
emailname@REMOVE_CAPS_AND_INVALIDaccount.com.invalid, or
[email protected]_SPAM. In this case, the spam tools will send mail
to an invalid e-mail address, and others will know to exclude the
"(removethis)" when they send you e-mail. When you post a question or reply
to a discussion group, just enter your modified e-mail address in the
appropriate box.

* Use a secondary e-mail account: Set up or use an e-mail account, such as a
Hotmail account, that is separate from your primary account for posting to
discussion groups. When you post a question or reply to a discussion group,
use your Hotmail account as your e-mail address.

If you have feedback or questions about this, please post a reply in the
newsgroup, or contact us at
http://register.microsoft.com/contactus30/contactus.asp?domain=communities

Thanks!
Microsoft Communities Team
 
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