I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my service
provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do get
wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something common
to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.

Thanks for any help!
Janet
XP Prof
OE 6

It is best to not have the email scanning component of AVG installed.
Uninstall AVG and do a custom install leaving out the email scanning module.
--
Ronald Sommer

"Janetb" wrote in message
...
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service
provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do
get
wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something
common
to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.

Thanks for any help!
Janet
XP Prof
OE 6

Message Rules Tips
http://www.insideoe.com/tips/rules.htm

Why doesn't my rule work?
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#rules

Filter /in/ your messages
http://www.mindspring.com/~majik/messagerules.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/



Janetb wrote:
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What
can
have caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At
present I have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get
them. Can't have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I
sometimes do get wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to
find something common to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with
them separately.

"Janetb" wrote in message
...
|I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
| address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
| don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my service
| provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
| caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
| have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
| have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do get
| wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something common
| to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.
|
| Thanks for any help!
| Janet
| XP Prof
| OE 6

AVG will not prevent them from being deleted at the server with a mail rule.
I don't know where you ever got that idea.
They are coming to you, without your name showing, because you are listed in the BCC heading.
Change your mail rule to delete them from the server.
But chances are you will just have to wait until the spammer gives up before they will stop.
And contact your ISP about them increasing the level of their spam filter.

Thanks for your reply.
I am familiar with all three articles and have my rules set up according to
them. They have always worked very well. I have my rules set up to delete all
letters which do not contain my email address and then to stop prossessing
rules. It works fine. That is not my problem....

I wanted to know why this would have suddenly started and how I can get
myself off whatever list or lists cause all these ne wletters to be sent. Or
at least how to prevent getting on even more such lists over time.

Thanks.
J.


"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Message Rules Tips
http://www.insideoe.com/tips/rules.htm

Why doesn't my rule work?
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#rules

Filter /in/ your messages
http://www.mindspring.com/~majik/messagerules.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/



Janetb wrote:
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What
can
have caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At
present I have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get
them. Can't have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I
sometimes do get wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to
find something common to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with
them separately.

If you ever find out, let us know. I get 500 or more of these messages
every 24 hours, Janet. You are not alone.
--
~PA Bear

Janetb wrote:
Thanks for your reply.
I am familiar with all three articles and have my rules set up according
to
them. They have always worked very well. I have my rules set up to delete
all letters which do not contain my email address and then to stop
prossessing rules. It works fine. That is not my problem....

I wanted to know why this would have suddenly started and how I can get
myself off whatever list or lists cause all these ne wletters to be sent.
Or
at least how to prevent getting on even more such lists over time.

Thanks.
J.


"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Message Rules Tips
http://www.insideoe.com/tips/rules.htm

Why doesn't my rule work?
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#rules

Filter /in/ your messages
http://www.mindspring.com/~majik/messagerules.htm
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/



Janetb wrote:
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my
email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses.
I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What
can
have caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At
present I have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get
them. Can't have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I
sometimes do get wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to
find something common to all the new ones that will allow me to deal
with
them separately.

On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 08:44:01 -0700, Janetb wrote:

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

Janetb wrote:

I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What
can have caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At
present I have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get
them. Can't have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I
sometimes do get wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to
find something common to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with
them separately.

Message Rules Tips
http://www.insideoe.com/tips/rules.htm

Why doesn't my rule work?
http://www.insideoe.com/faqs/why.htm#rules

Filter /in/ your messages
http://www.mindspring.com/~majik/messagerules.htm

Thanks for your reply.
I am familiar with all three articles and have my rules set up according to
them. They have always worked very well. I have my rules set up to delete all
letters which do not contain my email address and then to stop prossessing
rules. It works fine. That is not my problem....

I wanted to know why this would have suddenly started and how I can get
myself off whatever list or lists cause all these ne wletters to be sent. Or
at least how to prevent getting on even more such lists over time.

There are a number of ways an email address gets on spammer's lists; there
is no known way to get off. One of the hallmarks of spammers is that they
believe they have the right to any, and every, email address in existence.
It is for this reason that they are considered by some to be sociopathic.

Once your email address is known to spammers, it is shared with other
spammers. The volume just grows, and grows, and grows.

One other observation: The "To:" email address in your headers as nothing to
do with where the email goes. It is not even delivered to the server until
after the SMTP handshake is well under way. Where the email is delivered is
determined by the SMTP "RCPT TO:" command, very early in the SMTP handshake,
and well before the "To:" email address is ever sent. In fact, it is
possible to have a completely different "To:" email address from the "RCPT
TO:" email address. Not all email systems will preserve the "RCPT TO:" email
address. Look in the headers for something like an, "X-Delivered-To:
/email_address/" line. Yahoo! Mail preserves it as, "X-Apparently-To:
/email_address/".

--
Norman
~Shine, bright morning light,
~now in the air the spring is coming.
~Sweet, blowing wind,
~singing down the hills and valleys.

Janetb wrote:

I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my service
provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do get
wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something common
to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.

Thanks for any help!
Janet
XP Prof
OE 6

The To, Cc, and Bcc headers are NOT used in specifying the actual
recipient of an e-mail. Those are "headers" contained within your
message. A normal (non-hacked) e-mail client will take the recipients
listed in those *fields* in its UI to compile an aggregate list of
recipients. It then sends a RCPT-TO command for each recipient to the
sending mail host. That is followed by a single DATA command that
contains the data of your message (and that includes those "headers").
The recipient never gets to see the list of RCPT-TO commands that were
issued to the sending mail host. So you may have never been a specified
recipient. Bulk mailing, listserver, and mailer trojans don't care
about what is in the data of a message, and that means they don't care
about the headers *within* that message. They will issue their own
RCPT-TO commands based on whatever list they want. In fact, this is how
listservers work. The owner of an account maintains a mailing list of
recipient. The owner then submits a new message (data) to their account
and each recipient in the separate list gets a copy. So it doesn't
matter what might've been in the To, Cc, and Bcc *fields* when they
composed their message *data* that got sent to the listserver. That
means the list of recipients in the *data* headers within the message
won't match up and are not used by the listserver that gets the list of
recipients from a separate file. The RCPT-TO command says who is the
recipient. It might match up with what the e-mail client found in the
"headers" within the message or from fields in its UI, it might not.

So the spammer can put anything they want in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields.
That has nothing to do with the actual RCPT-TO commands that got sent to
the sending mail host.

So where did you use a host to use the webmail interface to your
account? Public libraries, Kinkos, and similar places are probably safe
but how do you know the place you used their host didn't run a
keylogger? Did you use someone else's host to use a web browser, or did
you tote along your own laptop? When you logged in, did you do so using
HTTPS (or where the form data got submitted to an HTTPS site) to prevent
anyone on their network that you used from sniffing out your clear-text
login credentials?

"Janetb" ÓÏÏÂÝÉÌ/ÓÏÏÂÝÉÌÁ × ÎÏ×ÏÓÔÑÈ
ÓÌÅÄÕÀÝÅÅ: ...
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service
provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do
get
wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something
common
to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.

Thanks for any help!
Janet
XP Prof
OE 6

"Janetb" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
I suddenly started getting a huge amount of spam not addressed to my email
address (I'm not in the TO: line). They are all to different addresses. I
don't know if there is any connection, but it started after I used my
service
provider's website to view my mail when I was on vacation. What can have
caused this and is there a way to stop getting these letters? At present I
have a message rule to delete them, but I would rather not get them. Can't
have them deleted at server because of my AVG. In any case I sometimes do
get
wanted letters not addressed to me, so I would like to find something
common
to all the new ones that will allow me to deal with them separately.

Thanks for any help!
Janet
XP Prof
OE 6