Hotmail and Yahoo spam email

I left aol last year , my e-mail address was being used to spam people. Aol would not offer any explanation or help so I dumped them pronto

Im with bt/yahoo and ill be glad when the years contract is up and glad to see yahoo stick thier bulk mail where the sun dont shine, I can never understand how I get junk mail addressed to email addresses which are not even my correct email address.

I also used to be a victim of lot's Spam but get hardly any these days. With my latest email address, I have configured a filter that deletes all emails sent from addresses that don't match those in my address book and those from companies that aren't on my "safe" list.. So if an email comes from someone who I don't know, they get a reply saying "Message ignored" embedded in a 2MB bmp to clog their inbox. It then gets deleted, removed from trash and email address then blocked. I don't see the problem of sending some unwanted carp in return to give them a bit of payback. If a message is that important, those concerned can phone me. PS. Don't sign up with Tiscali !!!

Captain D,
I never give out my email address to people I don't know and the sites that I am getting spam from I have never visited.

I would refer you to the report on several news sites re. the 92,000,000 AOL usernames sold to spammers by an ex employee and the 600,000 items of search data inadvertantly given to researchers which are now in the public domain by one of AOL's senior technical managers who then had to resign.

Possibly one of the reasons people get spammed.

I think the majority of spam gets around because many are too freely giving out their email address. So many places try to get you to register for this, register for that ... is it any wonder why you're getting spammed? I also realize there are numerous back door ways to spread spam, but to at least cut down or or eliminate as much of it as you can, don't give out your email address unless there's a absolute need for doing so...

With regards the porno spam that I have been struggling to keep off my AOL user account.After having a tussle online with AOL tech help who said they could only handle unsolicited pornographic email from aol sources,lo and behold AOL's main article on their homepage is as follows and I have only copied the start for the sake of modesty

YOU ARE HERE: AOL Home > Lifestyle > After Dark Women: Perfect your oral technique
Not sure where to start when it comes to oral? Don't worry - there are tried and tested techniques that are easy to learn. Read on to perfect your oral sex technique and make him smile.

The rest was on the same lines with pictures and full instructions.

How hypocritical can anyone get.

I have heard rumours that spammers are paying what amounts to a mail tax which enables them to bypass servers spam filters and send spam to the customers.
Nice little earner for someone.

No Spam for two days on AOL.
Mind you I have blocked my master screen name completely and all spam goes to the spam folder to be automatically deleted.Not really the best solution but at least it works.

Home Press office News archive Articles 2005 02
7 February 2005

Man pleads guilty to stealing 92 million AOL email addresses, Sophos reports on spam case

92 million AOL email addresses are said to be in the hands of spammers.
A 24-year-old former AOL employee, has pleaded guilty to stealing a list of 92 million email addresses of the ISP's customers and selling it to spammers for $28,000.

Jason Smathers of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, told Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the US District Court in Manhattan, that he sold the list of email addresses to a man planning to market an offshore gambling website to AOL customers, knowing that the list of screen names might end up in the hands of other spammers.

According to the authorities, Smathers - who was fired by AOL in June 2004 - used another employee's access code to steal the list of AOL customers from its headquarters in Dulles, Virginia.

Smathers is alleged to have sold the list to 21-year-old Sean Dunaway of Las Vegas, to promote an internet gambling website before being sold on to others. One of the other spammers reported the theft to the authorities following his own prosecution, according to court papers. Charges are pending against Dunaway.

"The valuable list of AOL subscribers is still believed to be circulating amongst the spammer community - although the ISP is working hard to defend its users from junk email," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It is encouraging to see the authorities cracking down on those who abuse the internet and make online life a misery for countless millions of web users."

Smathers, who is due to be sentenced in May, could face between 18-24 months in jail.
I would say security begins at home.What can you do when an ex employee of your IP sels your details to a spammer.No chance

Re spam emails.

Funnily enough the last email I got from AOL after reporting this spam for nearly two weeks was if you have a problem with spam please go to keyword notify and report it to us.

This is after reporting 50 odd instances of these emails and hours spent on the net and phone to try and get it sorted.
I feel like finding the nearest brick wall and banging my head against it.
The annoying thing is I am trapped in a twelve month contract till April 2007 with idiots like this.

I think the comment about spammers only trying to make a living is a bit like saying a mugger needed the money or does that poster really need to buy the products pushed?

Mentor, I have been getting large amounts of porno,phishing medical and people trying to get my details in order to launder money through my bank account.I am getting at least 6 a day on my AOL account and my 15 yr old son also gets them. I am just in the process of changing I.S.P. but AOL are being difficult saying that I cannot change because I only took on one of their packages in April.They cannot however stop the large amounts of spam I have been getting.Then I received a mail with about 200 different Email addresses on it mostly AOL ones which means that it is open book on AOL users for spam and any other fraud you care to mention.
So it is not only Yahoo and Hotmail that have this problem and I actually pay £29.00 for the privelage.
If I can be of any assistance helping to stop this let me know.