Articles in Category: Spam

Articles relating to the plague that is spam – why it exists, what to do about it, what NOT to do about it, and basically how to live with minimal frustration in a spam-filled world.

“From” Spoofing: How Spammers Send Email that Looks Like It Came from You

“From” spoofing is how spammers send email that looks like it comes from you that you had nothing at all to do with. I’ll look at how it’s done.

Why Is There So Much Spam?

Even though most of us might never fall for it, the reason there’s so much spam is simple: spam works.

Why Am I Getting Spam from Myself?

Getting spam from yourself? We all do. I’ll look at why it happens; what little you can do about it; and something unlikely but important to check.

Am I Wasting My Time Reporting Scam and Spam Emails?

Reporting spam in your email program with the spam button is critical. Reporting it by forwarding it somewhere isn’t going to do any good.

How Do I Get Off of an Unwanted Email Distribution List?

To unsubscribe or not to unsubscribe, that is the question. The answer depends on how you got there.

Why Am I Not Getting the Email Newsletter I Signed Up For? Three Steps to Improve the Situation

Over-aggressive spam filtering can cause email newsletters and other messages to fail to appear in your inbox. I’ll look at why that is, and three steps you can take to improve the situation.

How Do I Unsubscribe from All These Unwanted Emails?

There are emails from which you should certainly unsubscribe when you no longer want them. However, there are emails that you absolutely should never unsubscribe from. I’ll review the differences.

Someone’s Sending from My Email Address! How Do I Stop Them?!

Email spoofing is rampant. Spammers often send email that looks like it came from you, and there’s little that you can do about it.

Why Is My Mail to this Person Not Getting Through?

Spam prevention measures have made getting email delivered more difficult. We’ll look at ways to maximize the chances your email will make it through.

How Do I Get Rid of All this Spam?!?!

If you’re not getting spam now, you will soon — and probably lots of it. What can you do? There’s no magic answer, but there are various things you can do to help.

Why I (Still) Don’t Like Challenge/Response Spam Blockers

An error caused my newsletter to come “From” the wrong address. Flooded with challenge/response mails, I wonder: what other messages are you missing?

Why Does My IP Address Have a Bad Reputation? And What Do I Do?

Email reputation for your home IP address probably doesn’t matter, and having it characterized as “poor” might even be a good thing.

Why Doesn’t Blocking Email Senders Work?

Most email programs can block email from a specific address. Unfortunately, blocking email from a sender is ineffective when it comes to spam.

How Can I Automatically Reply to Spammers To Tell Them to Stop?

It’s tempting to want to reply to spam, telling the sender to stop it (or worse). Not only is that ineffective, it often makes things worse.

Why Does Email with a Lot of BCC’ed Recipients Bounce?

BCC is good for many things. Sending to many people at once isn’t really one of them.

What’s This Confirmation Request I Got When I Emailed Someone?

Challenge/Response is a spam-fighting technique that forces you to prove you’re human before your message will be delivered. It’s controversial, to say the least.

What’s the Difference Between Spam and Junk Mail?

“Spam” and “junk” mean the same thing when it comes to email. There’s a lot of confusion about how they, your email service, and your email program all interact.

Why am I getting email from someone with the wrong email address?

Many people receive spam that looks like it comes from someone they know, but is not from that person’s email address. I’ll take a look at what’s going on and what you need to pay attention to.

Should I Worry If Email I Send Is Marked as Spam?

If someone threatens to mark your email as spam, don’t worry about it. Here’s why.

What Do Spam Filters Look At?

Spam filters can be incredibly sophisticated or very simple. I’ll look at some of the characteristics of email that spam filters can check.

Why Is My Email Marked as Spam?

You can end up with email marked as spam for many different reasons, usually involving reputation – and not only yours.

Am I Sending Spam?

Sending emails with attachments to many BCC’d recipients directly from your Hotmail account looks like you’re sending spam. I’ll talk about why, and suggest alternatives.

How Do I Stop Outlook.com from Putting Legitimate Messages in the Junk Mail Folder?

Outlook.com, like most email services, tries hard to keep spam out of your inbox by placing it in a junk mail folder. Sometimes it gets a little too aggressive. I’ll look at how to tame it.

Why Was My Email Bounced for Sending Too Much Spam?

You are exactly right: you are being punished for the actions of others. To understand who those “others” are, we need to look at how email makes it off of your computer to its destination.

Why Does My Account Keep Sending Out Spam?

Unfortunately most of this is out of your hands now. There are a few things you can check for, and then you’ll have to just get on with your life.

I got two identical spam messages from two friends. Which of us has been hacked?

It’s unlikely that you’ve been hacked. It’s possible that your friends have both been hacked, but this kind of thing can happen without anyone being hacked at all!

Someone Is Signing Me Up for Newsletters I Don’t Want — What Can I Do?

If someone, even someone you may know, is targeting you with spam – it’s still spam. We’ll treat it as such.

Can’t We Just Spam the Spammers to Death?

Unfortunately, that then turns you into, yes… a spammer! There are many, many problems with this idea. I’ll explain a few.

Why am I suddenly getting spam in my inbox?

It can be very frustrating if it suddenly seems like spammers have found you. There is one thing may help your email provider catch up and slow the deluge.

I’m Drowning in Spam. What Can I Do?

Sometimes, it seems like spam is a tidal wave of junk that threatens to make email completely unusable. While you can’t stop spam, you can manage it very well with a good spam filter.

Why can’t we catch scammers?

Scammers are an international problem and that makes it extremely difficult to stop. In the end, it’s all about the money.

Why Isn’t Outlook’s Junk Mail Filter Stopping More Spam?

Outlook is doing the best that it can with spam, but your expectations that it can block spam based on the From addresses is a tad off the mark.

Why Am I Being Labeled a Spammer?

Possibly being labeled a spammer is another reason not to forward jokes and urban legends. Do it enough and your normal email may not get delivered.

Why Am I Getting (or Sending) Emails that Contain only a Link or Spam from My Contacts?

Email account hacking is on the rise. One of the signs is the amount of spam being sent to contacts from those hacked accounts.

Why do I get spam that’s not addressed to me?

Spammers use many techniques to try and slide their garbage into your inbox. BCCing you on messages is one such way.

Why shouldn’t I post my email address in a public forum?

Spammers and internet trolls harvest email addresses via a variety of means. One of the most common is to simply surf the web and look for anything that might look like one.