Retailers data breached, now my email account is inundated with rogue emails! Help!

I give every retailer my E-mail address - BUT - it's one that I only give to individuals I never want to hear from. I go to it maybe once a week and just delete every E-mail; don't even look at them.

In researching some spam messages a while back I found something interesting. I suspect things have become more sophisticated since then.

I found services offering "bullet proof" e-mailing from off-shore servers. One of them offered to send a quarter of a million messages for around $125. The price per message dropped as the quantity increased. There were lists for sale, touted as being validated addresses.

The "Can Spam" act seems to have emboldened the spammers. Rather than cease and desist, they have found creative ways, such as off-shore hosting, to skirt the system. Some of them rub it in your face with a note in their message claiming their mailing complies with the "Can Spam" act.

I don't think there is much we can do about the problem short of re-creating the e-mail system. The one we have was built upon trust and that is sorely lacking on the Internet. Many ISPs require the use of secure sockets to reduce the chance of spam relays but even so I still get hundreds of pieces of junk mail a day.

I have my own domain and my own unique e-mail address. The hosting company offers Spam Titan as a server-based filtering option. It catches a ton of spam but even so, quite a bit leaks through. Norton catches that but some of the spammers are clever and defeat Norton, at least for a while.

Giving a retailer your real e-mail address is a mistake. The address I use for Best Buy receives all sorts of "special offers" from them every day, which is why I rarely shop there. If someone hacks Best Buy I will lose that e-mail account, which is no big deal.

The more the merchant begs and pleads for that e-mail address the more you should resist. I have had them claim that it is just for their records, or it is a requirement, etc. If you offer cash and they refuse to accept it until you provide an e-mail address or a phone number then technically you do not have to pay. As stated on every dollar, it is legal tender for all debts public and private.

So, what do you call junk mail from Hormel advertising their Spam canned meat product?

almost all email providers include an option that you can set to redirect the emails to another account.
This is useful if your email provider does not provide an efficient spam filter that cannot learn who you want to read and who you don't want, and that does not include an option to signal spams so that they won't go into you inbox.

I've redirected my oldest email address (created 20 years ago in 1995) to Gmail and Gmail does the job of filtering all according to my needs, and I can also set rules to sort automatically some mails to specific folders (first create a "label", then instruct Gmail to classify those mails coming fromthe same source to the labeled folder (Gmail checks the MIME headers to assert if this is likely the same sender or if it has been abused with a fake sender address).

Then you can read emails either from the online inbox, or with a local client supporting secure SMTP and secure POP3, without having to constantly download all the junks that are going to the "undesirable" folder (you may just check it sometime when you expect a new email from a new site sending you a confimation and this does not come in the next few minutes. That folder (and the "deleted mails" folder) is automatically managed and old emails stored in that folder are deleted automatically after 30 days (but you can also empty it yourself.

Gmail is fast and troublefree. It also has the advantage of not binding you yo your current ISP (many of them will delete your mail address when you swiich to another ISP). It is the perfect way to be contactable ny family and near friends for many years. It is also the email adress you should use when subscribing social networks.

Additionally it offers a considerable storage space (my own Gmail account has stored all emails I kept since more than 10 years and I'm far from the storage limit (only 1% used for the 115GB private storage offered to me by Google for Gmail or for other Google webspaces !), even if the account receives about 15 000 emails each month on average (most of them are deleted, I don't always signal them as spam because I have subscribed them but I read them occasionnaly and delete many that are repeated too frequently (including emails from Cnet itself !).

Most emails are deleted after just looking at a sender that I don't want to read for now (even if I have subscribed it): the only thing I may read is the subject line. Thanks, Gmail authenticates most senders, and also identifies correctly most spams (because it learns from spams signaled by its very wide users community).

The result is then manageable and I'll just have a dozen of new mails coming when I connect to Gmail.

Then most unsorted mails (that have not been sorted automativally by Gmail with its spam filter or my own "labeled" filters, or not following as a reply to a mail I snet myself, or from a discussion that I marked as "important" (to avoid it being incorrectly sorted as spams, notably from some interesting mailing lists) will be read once and deleted just after, even if they were interesting. I only keep those related to bought products and specific mailing lists to which I participate and I read regularly (also if I cannot read them immediately, they are archived in their own folder that Gmail sorts automatically with the "label" I defined for them (sometimes I'll look in the archives to find a past related discussion).

I've abandonned local storage by email clients, all emails are archived online and I read them with a webmail. This is easier when switching everyday between the smartphone and one or several PCs. It really took too much work locally, it was a nightmare when switching PCs, I lost several times my archives when I had to reinstall the system.

If you use Thunderbird, configure it to use POP3 (or better IMAP which downloads emails only on demand and allows you to see the folders), so that it won't delete emails on the server as soon as they are downloaded to your local PC (this is the default option for most local email clients). Or use it locally only once you have processed all the incoming emails and you no longer want to access them later from all your devices (including your mobile or from a PC owned by a friend or family member you visit, or from some remote site offering you an internet access, for which you are confident that it is secure enough, check it first!, with a new private session with a temporary user account) but only at home with your local storage (but you'll have to maintain yourself the backup of your archives, and their transfer if you change your PC or have to reinstall it).

Webmails also allow easy clearing of your tracks when you have used a PC owned by someone else: clear the browser cache once you have finished (but before that, make sure that this PC has a running security suite, that its system updates are OK, that the browser is not overcrowded with too many bars and extensions (look into the extensions options of the browser, if you don't know them, prefer not using this PC or ask to the ownser if you can cleanup things first and perform the long waiting system updates, however in most cases, you don't have the time to do that : use your own smartphone that you manage yourself, and if you want a biffer screen, forward the interesting emails to the address of the PC owner to read it in its own local configurationm do that only if the email does not contain personnal information such as autologin parameters to your online account for the website you want to visit)

I no longer see any interest in local mail clients from all brands in all OSes that depend only on their local storage. I want my mails to remain online, stored by the mail provider (it has other benefits such as helping you to better sort them according yo you real usage and desires).

Gmail is also different from many webmails in the fact it does not force you to read ugly ads everywhere in its interface (there are only small announces related to the sender, when it is commercial, for exampel when reading the emails from the Cnet mailing list, you may see sometimes some announces from Cnet, such as the offer to follow its page on Google+ or Facebook, or that you can print on your contact cards, or when contacting an adminsitration or bank, because Gmail will authenticate these organisms and protect you from alsmost all phishing attempts using fake senders)

But for some new retailers you still don't known, as everyone, I suggest you make the first purchase using a new specific email account (you can create one for free on many webmails such as Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Live Mail). Once you get confident, and find interest in the few emails the send you (even if you don't read them always) you may register with a more permanent email account. If the intent is just to receive the confirmation of a single purchase; use only your junk mail address online (you don't need to configure your local client to read these temporary emails)

Some providers allow you to create as many temporary email addresses you want and at any time, while still forwarding them to your account with an indicator identifying the initial email you created. Once this email address is compromized (it will always happen sooner or later), you'll have to drop that adress or just keep it in its own folder not mixed with the rest in your main inbox (if you still want to read later a few of these mails from this sender). It will save you much time.

Note: it's not necessary to signal all spams that have passed your current filters. use the search function in Gmail to locate them more easily, create a selection and push the "signal as spam" button once. They are automatically moved to the same folder storing the undesirable mails that have been filtered autmatically. Keep these mails there, this will help Gmail sort other frequent mails coming again and again from the same source. Gmail will cleanup this folfer automatically for you and during the 30 next days, all spammers will be detected (it's rare that spams are sent only once in a mounth, because they use legions of bots to send you multiple copies hoping that these bots will not all be detected)

For this reason, on Gmail it has become extremely rare that I can see some real spam getting unfiltered to my inbox (not any one for months, or sometimes 1 or 2 from a new source that I will signal, and never hear again, as they will go to the undesirable box automaically; ma,ny other Gmail users wil have signaled also this same source to Gmail). Even for my Gmail address that is now public since several years; or spams sent to my main 20-years old email address which is redirected to Gmail; and that I could keep because my old national ISP allowed me to contjnue using it for infinite time without paying anything).

I want to do this. How do you switch hosting to Gmail?

I have had several gmail accounts for years,friends and family separate from retailers and separate from professional and separate from financial and bills.. They are easy to link, easy to use and well filtered. Just go to google and click gmail or in the browser type gmail.com It will then ask you to sign in or create an account.

The gmail is online so can be accessed whenever you are online ,from anywhere. Yahoo is also a free online email.

This will not stop another possible breach, but it will help this time. For no particular reason,I suggest changing your password on the account where you are now having a problem and using completely different passwords on the new one. There are several password managers to help with that and future access. One free that has been recommended on pc mag is lastpass. What you are dealing with is a pain. Aside from the email issue, I would suggest getting a report from one of the three credit reporting companies, then in 4 months and in 8 months get from one of the others. If you have a spouse do theirs in 2, 6, and 10 months or whatever works for you. The goal is to see one as often as possible for free. the retailer may also offer you a service for free, but they are all different as is the service offered.

Yahoo and Outlook is better.
In Gmail you can't block them automatically, you have to set up rules, that would get annoying.
In Outlook you can you can block the from reaching your inbox, even from spam.
I think Yahoo is the same way as outlook.
In Gmail, I can mark something as spam. The next day I can get the same email, coming from the same domain, it would be back in my inbox. No matter how much you mark something as spam in Gmail, it won't get blocked.

Gmail is from Google who's product is "advertising" so blocking advertising probably is not in their best interest. I use my ISP for email, which is also accessible by the web, and I use a re-mailer that also filters spam. Plus, my Norton also provides anti-spam which allows me to flag items as spam or to flag spam items as "not spam". Works pretty well. Of course, as spammers change their phony email addresses, it becomes a bit more work for everyone.

I have my own domains, and get them routed to my online mail client. I found some time ago that Mail.com, now owned by 1+1 the company most interested in producing the slowest to operate email client on the planet. When it was owned by AOL I had hardly any spam, and when you set up a filter those in the filter were blocked. Now the filter is a joke. 1+1 blocks mail you do not want on Monday, and on Friday allows it through to your in box. I do not use facebook any more because of it's affiliation with the NSA and other illegal entities, the same goes for other sites. I have yet to manage to get any of these sites sent to spam, regardless of the filtering and constant labelling.
I have come to the conclusion, that if your email client considers something is okay, then it's okay, regardless to your own wishes, just like mail you want to receive, if it does not know it, it gets spam status, even when the address is in your contacts.
I think if your supplier uses an advertiser, or has other reasons, regardless of your wishes, they will allow spam through.
Yahoo in my opinion is one of the most aggressive companies for getting rid of spam, I think they must have the largest directory of culprits in the business, sadly I only use yahoo for people and companies I do not want to hear from, because they are another company who harvests everything you say and do online, but then so does Google amongst others, and I expect all the while handouts, and other profit making attractions are there from advertisers, and government departments, things will only get worse.

I have many email accounts with various providers online. When I switched my Windows 8 Live.com email account to Outlook, the only thing that changed was I got more spam, not less. I've had by Gmail accounts almost as long as my Yahoo account. Guess where I've seen a recent increase in spam? Whereas the Google account has remained relatively spam free (average 1 maybe 2 emails in spam box a month). Yeah..... Yahoo Mail account has increased spam in both my in box and my spam box (10 to 20 a day). Why?

I'm not real sure, but from a little test I ran, I've found out it must be Yahoo's doing. Who is selling or distributing my email for spam content to get into my yahoo in and spam box? Because I changed my account profile to female from male and now I'm getting feminine hygiene products, etc. That account profile is marked private. I have not been linking any online sign-ins to it with links to any other sites either. Dating for females and clothing etc are now filling up that account's spam box and in box at a greater rate than legitimate email. I have gradually moved all legitimate email to my Gmail accounts, with no new influx of spam there. Why is it working there? Now that Yahoo account is only getting spam and an occasional email from senders I had blocked. I've used up the limit of Blocked Emails with no hope in sight of ever being able to keep that Spam box from getting so much unwanted spam and I will close it soon!

I have no idea why you would be getting spam in Gmail and I do not. Therefore I'm thinking you're either not telling the truth here or you work for Microsoft or Yahoo. Maybe you are a Google Hater. They lie to cover up Reality and the Truth. Google uses Postini (paid for spam filtering service for us) Free for us. Email reported as spam is automatically blocked ever after and you get NO SPAM from blocked addresses again. There is no blocked address limit and Gmail is using the best Spam Filters available. Plus their own smart community filtering too. I get a few occasional messages in Spam box in Gmail and but still inundated with spam in my yahoo box. My Windows 8 login Hotmail has been increasing spam in it's spam box to my outrage too. What's that all about and why is even more spam related to my profile? I suspect both Yahoo and Microsoft are busy selling your information as their income instead of just ads like Google. I love that Google only sells ads instead of your personal information, like the rest!!! .....I'll take the few targeted ads over getting spammed by junk mailers who bought my profile information instead. Then stuffing my Spam box and then never getting blocked. Google's use of Postini for Free (paid for spam tool) is makes it the #1 ranked best at Spam Prevention available at this link. For me I don't want to see any spam in my spam box and that's closer to what I get with Gmail!
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-4-freeware-spam-blockers-work/

btw... There is also Blur extension available in Chrome Browser and with it you can mask your email address and credit cards for both privacy and transaction protection!

Microsoft changed Hotmail to Outlook. With Hotmail, when I would received pictures they were placed into a photo gallery at the top of the page rather than displaying in context in the message. Half the time Silverlight would try to open them, only to crash.

Outlook has improved things, well, sort of. The Silverlight photo galleries are gone but half the time the pictures do not display. I have one person who sends pictures and links to both my Hotmail and Google accounts and the Google mail always gets through.

As for spam, I get very little from either service. Yahoo is so full of ads and "content" that I use Yahoo accounts as junk mail buckets for places like Best Buy, that think your every waking moment is spent worrying about how best to leverage your reward points. The amount of junk they send is amazing. The Best Buy mailbox does receive some spam as well.

My personal mail comes to my own domain. That domain is listed under contact information for several Websites I manage and I get a moderate amount of spam asking me to use a search enhancement service or to renew my domain listing with them (even though it is not with them). Someone latched onto the domain name and most of the accounts there are bombarded with 50 to 100 pieces of spam a day, sometimes multiple copies of the same message from different address and sometimes dozens of different messages from the same address.

I would love to find a filtering service that can inspect the mail without accepting or bouncing it but that is not possible. It is tempting to mail bomb some of those domains from a junk account but most of them are bogus so nothing would be accomplished. My hosting company uses Spam Titan, which catches most of the junk. Norton gets most of what slips through Spam Titan and even then I still get spam.

Occasionally both services have caught messages from regular senders who have never been caught before. That is distressing. The only cure is to scan the message subjects for possible real mail.

As for the free mail services, Yahoo's ads and content are downright annoying. Microsoft has been including ads whereas before I did not have them. I was paying a few dollars a month for ad-free service but when they revamped the service they stopped sending an annual bill, hence the ads. Google has been the cleanest of the lot.

The shysters are not just sending e-mail. When I opened three Twitter accounts, within seconds I was receiving offers for dates and for multi-level marketing programs on each of them. Twitter was not totally innocent, either. As part of their setup process for each account they offered to give me several dozen contacts, none of whom I knew and none of whom had anything in common with me. It would have been very easy to press the wrong button and accept their wonderful offer, given how it was presented.

Given some of the photos presented, if my wife had seen my new contacts I might be living out back in the dog house. That could really be interesting because we do not have a dog or a dog house.

it seems as if there was something before
"Then you could switch . . . " or am I missing your intent?
thanks,
alexis

... ... you can define it to your gmail account and take advantage of gmail's filters.

fj

I use Yahoo e-mail. I've used it for well over ten years. They have a good spam filter. I also have a Gmail account and it works well also. After awhile the spam goes in the spam filter in Yahoo mail and I usually don't even spend much time checking it. It's good enough that I simply delete spam once or twice a day with one click.

The main thing is just be careful about what you open.

would greatly appreciate knowing why you would not use Yahoo and gmail. I use neither (Outlook 2003 and serves my needs), however due to its popularity and especially its accessibility when away from home, i'm considering switching to gmail.
thanks,
alexis

Outlook online is Microsoft's try at duplicating Gmail with it's integrated PoP, etc forwarding services. It like Gmail supposedly runs some kind of spam software, but it doesn't seem to be working or they are selling us out. I only recently over the last year started to get spam on my Windows 8 Live email account, shifted to Outlook now. The Windows 8 App is got to be the slowest joke of an service ever. Now with Windows 8's move to Outlook, all of a sudden an account that got no spam is getting loaded up. From a few spam a month to 100's is outrageous!

And how ironic is it that I moved all important accounts to Windows 8 Outlook online? So did all the spam just get moved with Yahoo to Outlook? I have several Gmail accounts too.... but have never received much of anything in the Spam Inbox. Maybe a few spam make it into my regular Inbox, but Gmail uses Postini (paid anti-spam service) and their wealth of filters to prevent spam is fantastic. In fact used as a filtering services by forwarding other PoP, online etc accounts through eliminates the need for using a pay for spam service.

I ran a test on Yahoo to see where all the spam comes from, since so much junk is non related to me personally and more related to my profile of "male, dating, escorts, shopping profile, etc". So I changed it all up, even though supposedly my profile is private. Guess what? The spam in Yahoo Mail is now all women shopping, dating, escorts, pills to increase beast size, etc!!! ........then they have the nerve to say they don't sell or give away our information. Apparently they do something..... or I wouldn't be getting my spam and inbox stuffed with spam. What do they think..... we just want spam for it's decorative value and to make us feel important when we get so much? I'll stick with Gmail..... if you read up on it, you'll understand the difference in how they work. Google actually anonymizes our information, because they make money off making sure any ads served up to us are actually so much better targeted and don't allow all the bogus email from scam outfits, and junk based only base profile info, like male, female, etc. I'd rather get targeted real ads than the dating and feminine hygiene, scams, etc I now get on both Yahoo and Outlook/Hotmail!!!

So how does Google do it without allowing tons of Spam to inundate us? I don't know, but I do know how nice it is to NOT have my inbox or spam box loaded up with ads, product offers, dating and sex related junk my Yahoo and Microsoft accounts get everyday. In fact I'm about to close my Yahoo accounts, because I've shifted everything good to Gmail accounts and don't ever get any spam there. So now Spam is all I get in those accounts now! Ridiculous that they seem to think it's OK to not only allow spam in, but make it difficult..... no impossible to not get this unrelated to my needs and wants SPAM in those accounts, with Gmail remaining clean and well targeted for stuff I'm actually looking for. GMAIL it is for me!!!

....and it's gotten no spam so far. Using a scrambled a username during set up foils brute force dictionary attacks used to guess the username. Something like tW4x?ag@yahoo.com should work. Then, if you use the account for merchants, sweepstakes, etc., set up Yahoo's alias addresses and delete them if they get spam. The alias addresses on my Yahoo are free; they didn't used to be.

If they're not free, get 10 aliases for free at gmx.com or mail.com. Personal contacts won't like scrambled usernames like the example, so instead, use something like yournametheirnamet9dG2x%7@gmx.com. For example, johnmarys4$xH7wE@gmx.com should foil the dictionary attacker. Your hypothetical friend Mary will recognize you and copy/paste your address into her Contacts. Your address should appear in her drop down menu when she types "j" during composition of a message. She never has to type it.

I learned of this program called "Mail Washer Pro" a few years ago on CNN.
They said that we could read our e-mails on the providers servers without downloading them.
We could then delete the ones that we did not want right there and download only the ones we choose to download.
The program even gives the option to "Bounce" the ones we choose to, before downloading anything.
Did anyone ear of this program?

Yes, I've used Mailwasher Pro by Firetrust for many years and it has worked very well for me. The "bounce" feature is not that useful anymore, but the ability to delete email from the server, read from the server before downloading to Outlook, and creating white and black lists are nice features. I'm using a version several years old, so I don't know much about the latest versions.

On another note, I never give out my real address to anyone but family & close friends. I use a free service called Mailnull to create a new specific alias address for each new request. Every retailer or website that wants my email address gets an alias. Those aliases are redirected back to one of my real addresses. When spam starts coming in on one of them, I just turn it off for awhile, or delete it entirely. If you still want to stay with a retailer, just create another new alias Mailnull address for them. I've used this service for many years and it has worked well to cut spam.

Between Mailwasher and Mailnull, I can easily deal with the small amount of spam I receive.

I have used this program for a few years now,does an excellent job

I've used Mailwasher Pro by Firetrust for many years and it has worked very well for me. The "bounce" feature is not that useful anymore, but the ability to delete email from the server, read from the server before downloading to Outlook, and creating white and black lists are nice features. I'm using a version several years old, so I don't know much about the latest versions.

On another note, I never give out my real address to anyone but family & close friends. I use a free service called Mailnull to create a new specific alias address for each new request. Every retailer or website that wants my email address gets an alias. Those aliases are redirected back to one of my real addresses. When spam starts coming in on one of them, I just turn it off for awhile, or delete it entirely. If you still want to stay with a retailer, just create another new alias Mailnull address for them. I've used this service for many years and it has worked well to cut spam.

Between Mailwasher and Mailnull, I can easily deal with the small amount of spam I receive.

I have been using Mailwasher Pro for quite a fe years. They are headquartered in Christchurch, New Zealand and they are the most responsive company that I have ever dealt with. I HAVE IT ON 2 LAPTOPS AND BY DESKTOP WITH A LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION. (sorry) Before I open any email, I open Mailwasher first. If I don't like any emails, I delete them or mark them as spam. Then Ihit wash male. They never get to my pc after that. Eventually the spam will be automatically marked as spam and marked for deletion.

Yes,it is an excellent program which I have been using for years now.It does have a few problemsre not always blocking mail that I have blacklisted etc from getting back in to the MW inbox, but the main advantage is that it will list all your incoming mail which you can then check and read before it gets to your inbox.You can then blacklist the mailer or even the domaine,which I am not sure does much, but you can tick it to bounce back to the sender so they will not realize you have opened and read their mail and that your address is live.It will come back to them as if your address is dead.Once you have decided and ticked all the junk mail, it can then be "washed" and will be deleted or bounced as you selected, and the net balance of mail can then be d/loaded to your inbox.There are a lot of other options that can be utilized in MW as well.I have paid for a lifetime membership which is also an option.I can recommend it a lot.It sure saves a hell of a lot of mail in my inbox ,which once in to that ,has to be opened to find out if it is anything I want,and then deleted,taking a lot more time, as well as having the risk of opening mail you think may be important, but may be dangerous.Definately try it free first perhaps then Pro?

Bukti,

Take it from a *very* long time user of Mailwasher Free and Mailwasher Pro...

Most spammers use spoofed email addresses or compromised mail accounts to send their spam. Bouncing back an email doesn't affect the spammer at all. At most, it will irritate the poor, unsuspecting person whose email address got hijacked.

Plus, bouncing adds to the mass of email traveling through cyberspace. Just be content to block and delete the mail, and don't bother with bouncing.