new spam law

Seems like a lot of effort to go to, when you can skip half of that if you use Mozilla or Thunderbird for email. The adaptive junk mail filter will learn to recognize spam and automatically filter it out for you.

Using bogus addresses or having spam addresses where you don't care how much spam they get is always a good idea, but even keeping an email address highly private won't eliminate spam. Especially if you're using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express where there's a new security risk almost weekly. You also have to keep track of half a dozen add-on programs, which are all built into Mozilla. Besides, using the default settings with Outlook Express it's possible for spammers to validate an address just by you opening or previewing the message, and it's a bit difficult to stop this without crippling Internet Explorer in the process. It's quite easy to stop this cold in Mozilla Email or Thunderbird by comparison.

The way I see it... A little bit of effort spent migrating to a new browser and email client which will be a fixed amount of time, versus a never ending effort to try and keep from getting too burried by security patches, email worms, spam, and who knows what else. I don't see it as being much of a choice.

I now use firebird 90% of the time at home and started experimenting with Thunderbird.

come up with "Besides, using the default settings with Outlook Express it's possible for spammers to validate an address just by you opening or previewing the message, and it's a bit difficult to stop this without crippling Internet Explorer in the process." When the default setting is in the read options is " Notify me for each read receipt request", for Outlook Express. The e-mail is downloaded onto your machine just like thunderbird and noone knows if you open it or not, the only possible thing anyone can tell is that you downloaded it. I am under MSN contract and the only reason I haven't tried thunderbird is that msn will only let you use Outlook and such. Don't get me wrong I love Firebird and plan on trying Thunderbird in the future but one does not have to lie to sell there products, they sell themselves with their quality and security.

The most common technique is embedding a code into a remote image URL that includes the email address, or some other identification code that can later be attached to an email address, of the person loading that image. In order to disable this in Outlook Express, you have to disable image loading in Internet Explorer.

Thankfully, you can disable this in Mozilla/Thunderbird, so it's just one less way you'll be targeted by spammers.

Turn off the preview pane and immediately delete any mail that I don't know. That way images do not get uploaded from sites at that time. If I understand you completely that would disable the problem in O.E. also. I know it might happen all the time but I never have had an email that said it was from my mom or sister or anyone I know that when opened was really from someone else.
Everone always talks about don't respond to a spam e-mail even to unsubscribe because it tells the spammers that there is a valid e-mail address there. I have a question for you. When I try to send to an e-mail address that's not valid(this would happen when I first got a computer and I typed the address wrong or something) I usually get a letter back from the webmaster saying that the e-mail was undeliverable. Now if someone is spamming and sends to an invalid address would not he get an e-mail back saying that the message was not deliverable? If he did not get that message, would he not figure that there was an actual e-mail address there and keep sending what he wants knowing that I have to delete it every time? By the way I never thought of the thing you detailed, I open msn or staples or circuit city email because I like to see the specials. (Most of the time I give them my junk webmail to send to though.) Anyway that does download stuff from there site when opening the e-mail, sorry about calling you a lier. I learn something new everday, thanks. signed Hummbled

Virtually every spammer is automating the entire process via software. They pay some flunky to type in the messages, then use some software attached to a database of email addresses, to send a copy to every address in that database. Sometimes they'll even use random address generation to try common variations on addresses in that database. It gets even better when even a closely guarded email address can be targeted since companies like CNet do the same thing as magazine publishers do with junk mail. Anyone who offers them the right amount of money can have a copy of something like, say their forum membership database, or at least the email addresses people use to sign up for this forum. Ever wonder why they require a valid email address?

Either way, the spammer doesn't really care so much if a message bounces. The way they make money is by having virtually no expenses beyond a computer and an Internet connection. Someone with your entry level DSL would be capable of sending probably millions of messages a day. Even if fewer than 1% of people ever respond to the sales pitch, they make a pretty good chunk of change.

Not to mention spammers are a disconnected bunch. Spammer A doesn't really know or care what Spammer B is doing. So even if Spammer A removes your address from their list, Spammer B, C and D might not. The entire prospect is no-win for the average person unless you want to go to the hassle of setting up a challenge response system for email.

many states have passed anti-spam laws but most aren't enforced