The totally off-topic thread

[MissBurrill]

Avoid them like the plague is my only advice, hated them when I was an ATC, especially 3AM for some reason, might have been something to do with the thought we were about to get very busy at 4AM with the international arrivals mixing it with the redeyes just when we were at out most fatigued! I worked on Syd-Mel Radar and we always had a little freight plane that popped up every hour or so as it toured the country so we could not take a break, the damn think was like a mosquito when you are trying to sleep!

The world will be safe because I will be doing paperwork on my nights. I keep getting tasked to fix other peoples mistakes. Quite a few make me then :shock: then :evil:.

My boss seems to think I'm a computer expert and keeps getting me to help people. But she wouldn't listen when I politely suggested she that she could search in outlook instead of opening every single email looking for a specific one :shock:.

That may happen when they finally make the move into the 21st Century!

I am up at ~4:00-5:00am every day and then try to get some sleep for the next 2-3 hours as I keep waking up. God forsaken place....

I was woken at 7 by the dishwasher repairman knocking quite loudly. His lucky day cos I was wearing just a towel. I quickly dashed off to put clothes on. I was sleeping so well. Am hoping I'll get some sleep this afternoon.

 

[NM]

Wow you get interesting spam. I mainly get viagara. But did recently get offered quality tungsten radiation shielding from china.

My work spam filter seems to be pretty good. But I did receive two emails this week purporting to be from Adobe inviting me to upgrade to the latest version. One implied it was version 10 and the other suggested it was Adobe 2011. Both included URLs to click to download the latest version. Yeah, right ....

one of my gmail accounts gets bombarded by spam. That address is never used for anything important and used for anything that needs an email address that looks suspicious. I have not even viewed that account for the last few months.

Note that (as pointed out by a fellow forum member via email) there are various other methods used to confirm receipt of emails. One way is to include a URL in the message that includes a unique code that identifies the email message. When the message is opened the email client tries to download the URL and that tells the server that the email has been opened. These can be circumvented by either telling your email client not to open attached URLs, to view the message in text format only (not in HTTP format) or to block sending traffic to the common sites using this method (such as img.msgtag.com).

 

[JohnK]

one of my gmail accounts gets bombarded by spam. That address is never used for anything important and used for anything that needs an email address that looks suspicious. I have not even viewed that account for the last few months.

My primary email address is the one that gets the spam. I didn't think that something like SEEK could be compromised.

 

[samh004]

I see we’re talking about spam. Yesterday I was bombarded by at least 10 spammy emails when I usually just have 1 a day. I understand though that it goes along like that as places get shut down and re-start up.

Checking on my computer now it appears half were sent to what was meant to be a secure alias, so I might be deleting that shortly… someone I have provided my alias to has betrayed me! :evil:

 

[Nigelinoz]

I use this program

http://www.firetrust.com/en/products/mailwasher-pro
it previews emails on your incoming server and allows you to see any spam before it's actually downloaded to your email client,you can then create a blacklist of spam addresses and the program will then automatically delete anything from that address in the future.
I've used it for a few years and found it to be a great program,I use the paid version which is about $30.00 but there is a free version with slightly reduced functionality available as well.
http://www.mailwasher.net/
Cheers
N'oz

 

[drewbles]

The world will be safe because I will be doing paperwork on my nights. I keep getting tasked to fix other peoples mistakes. Quite a few make me then :shock: then :evil:.

I didn't know you had my job

 

[Nigelinoz]

Just found this on Youtube after a tip off from a friend-great ad I reckon :!:
YouTube - Official Virgin Atlantic Advert 2011 - HD 'Your airline's either got it or it hasn't'
Cheers
N'oz

 

[NM]

My primary email address is the one that gets the spam. I didn't think that something like SEEK could be compromised.

It is indeed interesting to see which sites/services will provide your email address. That site and other similar "professional" sites (I refuse to be "linked in") have always been places I avoid due to my concerns about privacy.

 

[anat0l]

Just found this on Youtube after a tip off from a friend-great ad I reckon :!:
YouTube - Official Virgin Atlantic Advert 2011 - HD 'Your airline's either got it or it hasn't'

I think I remember this video being released last year. It was on Virgin Atlantic's Facebook page.

There's an odd twist-take on the Nude-o-scopes in the video.

As to be expected with a video like this, or from a Virgin company, there was a flurry of press attention.

 

[Nigelinoz]

I think I remember this video being released last year. It was on Virgin Atlantic's Facebook page.

Ah,I must have missed it.
I did notice a few comments on youtube about the body scanners being an invasion of privacy etc,but as an advertisement I still like it.
There is a comment on PPRuNe that the uniforms in the ad are the same as the new Virgin Blue ones but in the absence of any other proof I'm taking
that with a large pinch of salt.

This is the new Virgin Atlantic ad, and my discrete source tells me that this is how the new Virgin Australia Group aircrew uniform will look.

( http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting-points/442798-gotta-luv-poms.html )
Cheers
N'oz

 

[medhead]

My primary email address is the one that gets the spam. I didn't think that something like SEEK could be compromised.

I didn't think it was related to particular websites being compromised. I thought they just send out random stuff to all the list of email addresses. I have a .com email address so I get lots of things from US companies that i've never used. So if you have a .au address I assume they just say what's an au business - seek! Ok make up a seek email to send out our keylogger. Or whatever.

Personally, I do self filtering, dodgy emails are easy to spot and just permanently delete without opening. I know that things are bad when I start sending myself spam. Probably time to redo the PC.

 

[drron]

Karens-read this and get really worried.
Too Little Sleep: The New Performance Killer | BNET

 

[JohnK]

it previews emails on your incoming server and allows you to see any spam before it's actually downloaded to your email client,you can then create a blacklist of spam addresses and the program will then automatically delete anything from that address in the future.

Sounds great in theory if all spammers used valid email addresses.

It is alright though as I am starting to work out most of the spam emails and I simply treat them as phishing scam. The best ones though are the ones that are sent by me! :shock: Yes my name is the person that has sent the email.

Absolutely ridiculous and it is about time they started providing options for people not to receive spam. Full stop. If an email is sent from a non-existent email address then I do not want to see the email at all. Not in my junk folder. Not in my spam folder. Anywhere.

Am I being selfish?

 

[oz_mark]

Absolutely ridiculous and it is about time they started providing options for people not to receive spam. Full stop. If an email is sent from a non-existent email address then I do not want to see the email at all. Not in my junk folder. Not in my spam folder. Anywhere.

Am I being selfish?

Most spam comes from existing email addresses (such as your own!), it's just that the owner of the address often knows nothing about it (aside from when you get 2000 undeliverable messages in your inbox). Then there are issues in how to determine if an email address is valid or not,

 

[anat0l]

Absolutely ridiculous and it is about time they started providing options for people not to receive spam. Full stop. If an email is sent from a non-existent email address then I do not want to see the email at all. Not in my junk folder. Not in my spam folder. Anywhere.

Am I being selfish?

With a little ingenuity and time, one could write a script that could filter for messages that originated from email addresses that are "invalid" (i.e. bounces on reply). You would still "receive" the message but the script would hopefully filter and delete it before you can notice its presence.

It should be noted that companies who use large distribution lists often send their mass emails using a non-return address. For example, all those emails from airlines you subscribe to receive sales information send the sales emails from a non-return address.

Although the definition of "spam" varies from one person to the next, it is true that spam is a problem. Unfortunately it's not easy to just get rid of or opt out of receiving spam altogether. People around the world are trying to find ways to eliminate spam, as well as trying to enact the legal processes that can catch and prosecute people who distribute spam. Both are complicated, and if anyone could invent the former that works effectively, then they'd be up for quite a lot of praise and money coming their way. Catching a spammer, proving and prosecuting a spammer successfully is quite difficult. Yes, there is successful precedent, but there are a lot more spammers out there who are not getting caught.

Of course, the easiest way to avoid getting any spam is to not receive any email at all (close your account). But we know that's not always a viable option.

Personally I think phishing and identity fraud is a bigger problem than the more annoying spam.

 

[samh004]

Of course, the easiest way to avoid getting any spam is to not receive any email at all (close your account). But we know that's not always a viable option.

I think redesigning the internet might be the one to go for, no doubt everyone would want other bits changed at the same time, but if we can find a polly in the US that doesn’t care about anything but spam, and fix that, then we’re sorted!

 

[MissBurrill]

I didn't know you had my job

Ha ha ha. We have alot of stray temps working at the moment who are stuffing up their data entry. One girl tried correcting her mistake about 5 times then handed it to me. She created a lengthy papertrail..... When she wandered off I put it back on her desk and told her I would help her fix it but would not do it alone.

I also walked 4 metres to the printer and another stray sat down and started using my computer! A few well said words had her scared of me all afternoon . I didn't realise a 4 metre walk meant I needed to lock my work station but I guess it does.

If my boss upgraded my access to the system I would be able to do a quick cancel instead of spending time working out what needs correcting.

 

[JohnK]

Most spam comes from existing email addresses (such as your own!), it's just that the owner of the address often knows nothing about it (aside from when you get 2000 undeliverable messages in your inbox). Then there are issues in how to determine if an email address is valid or not,

Some of the email addresses I have seen could not be possibly be real email addresses, e.g [email protected] could not be possibly be a valid email address. Is it? Wouldn't a simple send email (ping or whatever) right back to the email address listed and if it bounces then delete email be easy enough to implement? So if someone sent spam from a valid email address then I can bar that email address from my spam fliter settings.

With a little ingenuity and time, one could write a script that could filter for messages that originated from email addresses that are "invalid" (i.e. bounces on reply). You would still "receive" the message but the script would hopefully filter and delete it before you can notice its presence.

I understand there are some companies that send email from no-reply email addresses although most of the time they have asked me to include the address in my contacts.

Just having a bad time and I am fed up of seeing the same spam over and over. Just as well I don't get the cough spam, or the growth hormones etc. You get the picture....

 

[medhead]

Some of the email addresses I have seen could not be possibly be real email addresses, e.g [email protected] could not be possibly be a valid email address. Is it? Wouldn't a simple send email (ping or whatever) right back to the email address listed and if it bounces then delete email be easy enough to implement? So if someone sent spam from a valid email address then I can bar that email address from my spam fliter settings.

That sounds reasonable until it gets to those spam that you send to yourself. That is where they borrow your email address (not account).

Just on the spam yourself thing I've had a few recently but not 2000 bounce backs. I hope that means they haven't hijacked my email account but only the address. This started right after I joined a forum concerned with a medical condition that I have, within 12 hours I went from 1 a month to 30 a day.

Anyway I've remunerate myself of a story. I had an interstate colleague ring a few years ago and ask me to stop sending spam to him.

 

[rwatts]

A couple of years ago, before several notorious spam haven ISPs were closed down, my organisation (~2400 people) was blocking an average of just over 200,000 spam emails a day at the gateway just by using a real-time black list (RBL). Many were still making it through and then getting quarantined by the filters, and plenty made it through to the desktops.

Currently RBL blocking for the last year or so is usually around 15-20,000 emails a day with around 22,000 coming in the gateway and that's not because the blocking is less effective. It might not seem like it but our experience is that spam really has fallen that much.

Since sending email does one way or another cost ISPs (through bandwidth capacity etc), they seem to be more responsible generally and instead the spam is more often relayed through networks of infected machines (spambots). The way the stats also fall right off on weekends for example suggests many are infected business systems which get turned off on those days. (Christmas-New Year was particularly quiet).

We don't allow receipt or bounce notifications to exit the organisation for several reasons but in any case email addresses are likely to be verified through the use of beaconing images. The pretty graphics in those HTML emails (and the 1x1 pixel images you don't see) can, and very often are, encoded to uniquely identify the recipient of the email and the success of delivery. Many of our users unfortunately tell their mail client to automatically load all images in their emails.

Richard.