How Do I Get Rid Of Cisco Spam

[Ann]

I am being inundated with emails for everything from funeral plans to Tesco, PPI, private medical insurance, credit cards, thank you messages and all other subjects - these all have the address from @cisco.com. I have run every clean up programme I have, I do have Spamfighter spam filter which gets rid of most, but still they are coming in thick and fast - 300 in the past 3 days! I can't block them as each email address ending in @cisco.com has a different prefix. I'm on windows xp and use internet explorer. Can anyone advise please? This has been happening for 2 months now and I am getting fed up with it! Many thanks.

[pinkyboyid]

Depending on the ISP mail server provider that you are using to receive your emails from, it may be possible to configure a mail filter rule at the ISP mail Server, such that when it receives any email from the address "cisco.com" to automatically delete or move that message elsewhere before it arrives in your mail inbox.

What ISP email provider are you using?

[TheChair]

"I can't block them as each email address ending in @cisco.com has a different prefix"
Are you sure? The Spamfighter web site claims that you can blacklist an entire domain such as cisco.com.

[Ann]

Not sure how to do that TheChair, I usually go to the Message tab then choose Block Sender while cursor is on the offending email.

I use Talktalk!!! (yes I know!!) :(

[Buenchico]

I'm confused!

You say that you're using Spamfighter but you've made no reference to your email client. Spamfighter only works with an email client, such as Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird. It doesn't work with webmail (where you use your browser, such as Internet Explorer, to access your mail). So which is it that you're using? An email client (if so, which one?) or webmail?

[Ann]

Sorry Chris I should have said Outlook Express, I put Internet Explorer instead, what a thicko I am sometimes!

[Buenchico]

Hmmm.

It's ages since I last used Outlook Express (and I've not used Spamfighter) but I'll try to give you a few pointers:

Firstly, I very much doubt that those dodgy emails are emanating from cisco.com. (Cisco is an extremely reputable company). What you're seeing in the 'From' field isn't the actual address that the mail came from; it's simply the 'reply address' that the spammer filled in there. (A spammer could send you an email with '[email protected]' entered into that field, without that email ever having been anywhere near AB's servers).

So blocking mail from cisco.com probably isn't going to work (because that's not where it's coming from anyway). You could try to find out the actual address that the emails are coming from but, again, I suspect that might not work (because they're probably all coming from different addresses). If you want to see where an email is actually coming from, follow the instructions here:
http://www.fraudaid.com/headers/outlookX.htm
(The example shown there appears to be a genuine email because the 'Received', 'From' and 'Return-Path' fields all have 'OdeonUK.com' in them. I doubt that you'd find such similarities in the spam emails that you've been receiving).

So you'll need to look for options, in either Spamfighter or Outlook Express, to block emails (or redirect them to your spam folder) based upon the 'reply address' (a.k.a 'return path') including 'cisco.com'. My problem then is that I'm not sure whether such an option exists!

The instructions for using Outlook Express's message rules are here:
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/07/22/how-to-create-filters-in-outlook-express-6/
However that illustration doesn't show all of the options available (because you need to scroll down to see them), so I'm unsure as to whether it's possible to create a rule based upon the content of the return path. You'll need to take a look for yourself to see what's available to you.

You'll also need to explore Spamfighter's options for yourself, to see if it's possible to block emails by their return paths (rather than where they're really from).

If you really get stuck you might have to bite the bullet and get a new email account here: http://www.gmx.co.uk
and use the 'Mail Collector' facility to get mail addressed to your old TalkTalk account forwarded to it. GMX's own spam filters might remove a lot of it for you anyway but, even if they don't, once you're certain that all of your contacts are using your new address you can completely ignore stuff that's going into the folder for our old address (or even disable mail collecting completely).

Oh well. it's taken me half an hour to compose all of that stuff, and I'm still not sure that it will help, but at least I tried ;-)

[Buenchico]

Just another thought:

TalkTalk's email system should have its own spam filters. You might be able to get them working for you by accessing your mail through TalkTalk's website (rather than using Outlook Express) and using the 'Mark as Spam' option for all relevant mail.

With a bit of luck, TalkTalk's system might then start directing the 'cisco.com' stuff into your 'Spam' folder (which can only be accessed via their website), so that it no longer gets forwarded to Outlook Express.

[Ann]

Thank you SO much Buenchico for all your hard work, I had gone to bed by the time your message came through. Funnily enough, today Spamfighter seems to be getting hold of them and putting them into its own Spamfighter spam emails folder so they are not coming through my In Box, so I will wait and see. Thank you for all this valuable info though Chris, I will keep it to use in the future.

[GlenB]

It is interesting to see that your ISP is Talktalk. I have been suffering the same problem for the past three weeks ( not before then at all) and my ISP is also Talktalk. I have reason to believe that my Email address was hacked from Talktalk themselves and one of the spam messages was supposedly from them.