Is there a website that tells you which companies have your email address to send you junk mail?

Question

I want to be removed from these lists, i don't know where they get my information from in the first place but they are a nuisence filling up my inbox.

Answer 1

The answer is no you can not stop it as such. Legitimate companies should include an unsubscribe link (or equivalent) on their email so that you can unsubscribe from their lists. If they carry on sending you unwanted email, then after a reasonable amount of time you can report them for spamming.

The real problem is the illegal spammers, typically they will highjack someone else's mail server and use it to send out spam. Thus, replying to spam can affect their victim and not affect the spammers at all. Also, by replying to spammers and even reading their emails can tell them that you are a 'real' email with a person reading them. If they know this then your email becomes more valuable, and can be sell to other spammers and causing you to receive more emails.

If your ISP has spam protection on your email account you can activate that, if you are using Outlook2003 then you can add spam by adding it to Junk email (right click the email in your Inbox and Junk Email option). You can purchase anti-spam software.

One of the problem is that anti-spam softeware can restrict valid emails..so be cautious how you use them.

Finally, the other option is to look at the email headers. Every email contains information embedded in the email that list where it come from and what ip address etc. You can then use your anti-spamming software (ISPs or you own) to block those addresses or domains. These are typically in the far east or eastern bloc (where they can not be sued), and therefore, it is unlikely you will ever need to receive a valid email from that domain.

The email will probably go through a number of mail servers before finally being delivered to you, so you need to look for the first mailer it went through at the bottom of the code (normally as 'Received: from blah blah blah). To examine the header in Outlook, click Tools > Options and the Internet Header section is at the bottom of the window.

The final option is one of the better options, though a bit more technical. This is because a lot of anti-spamming software tends to block only the email address of the spammer but very often this is a fraudulent email address, where as blocking the orginal domain means that you should not receive anything from that domain again.

Answer 2

*Meep* DON'T contact them...

Some may be legitimate, but most take this as confirmation that your email is live and that you are inexperienced enough to answer Spam - then you'll really be in the muck as your Spam will increase exponentially.

Install a Spam filter or too and, if necessary, change your email address. I'm sure I answered a similar question the other day, so here's the same advice...


For a start it depends how bad it is now and whether you have the option of discarding your current email address.

If just have a free address (Yahoo / Hotmail / Etc) it's just as easy to get rid and open another, telling your friends and relative (only) the new address.

Assuming you have an address you want or need to keep, such as [e-mail] then you have several filtering options...

For a start many 'Internet suites' (ie McAfees, Norton Symantec) include spam filters in the package, which helps.

You can also filters such as 'SpamEaterPro' which look at the email on the actual server - before Outlook etc even see it.

You can additionally use services such as SpamAssassin to reduce the level of (known) Spam.

Safe bet you aren't at this level yet, but if you have procmail installed on your web/email server then you can write custom filters to decide just what can and can't get through...

On an easier level you can customise Outlook Express (etc) to take actions based on your rules...
i.e.
If is has an attachment, delete it.
If it is from 'the office', move it to 'this' folder

Avoiding getting it in the first place is a good idea mind. The less you give it out, the less hassle you are likely to get.

As an aside, last time I checked, I was getting 2-3 Spam a SECOND on one of my accounts - over 200,000 a day *Mind boggling, eh*

Answer 3

Most of the junk email you receive is spoofed. That means it's not coming from a verifiable source.

If you respond to any of them, falling for the "unsubscribe" link, it lets the sender know that your address is active. Junk email only gets worse after that.

There really isn't much you can do, since the email address of the sender changes with each email. You can't just block a specific address, unfortunately. If it's really bad (over a 100 per day), then it's time to change your permanent email address. In the future, be sure to keep it confidential. Don't register at any online websites with it, unless you're 100% sure the site's not going to give away your email address to spammers. Create a another account that you can use for that purpose - one that you don't ever check and can collect all the spam it wants...

Answer 4

It's just a spambot from a webcam site. DO NOT respond - they just want you to give your credit card number to sign up for the webcam site or to "verify your age" and will just max out your card You shouldn't open any emails from people you don't know - many of them are infected with viruses and malware

Answer 5

I made a tutorial for you at
http://coldpctips.blogspot.com/

try to call and ask them to remove you from the email list.