spam emails

[Jillius]

Me and my friend are both with btopenworld but I get at least 450 spam emails a day and she maybe gets about 5 a week ! We both have the same filter settings. It's driving me mad because I still have to check them to make sure they are all rubbish cos occasionally some others get into the spam box that shouldn't be there.
Any ideas ?

[SpamBammer]

thats because you put your details into loads of porn sites
and she doesnt

[ChuckFickens]

not sure who this spambammer is, but although it doesn't have to be porn sites he is essentially correct, you have probably given your email address out to a lot more sites when you've signed up for things and downloaded things.

Create a free email address using something like Gmail and use this to register with website ETC and then when the spam level on that address gets too much you can ditch it and create another one. Only use your proper email address for personal friends ETC that you know 100% won't be giving it away to spammers.

of course now your address is on all the spam lists not much you can do about it other than change it.

[Jillius]

lol spambammer !
I certainly use my computer a lot more than she does, though I don't download porn ! More likely just shopping etc in general !

[Jillius]

Good advice ChuckFickens. Thanks

[Ethel]

If your email address contains a proper name it is more likely to attract spam than if it is random letters and numbers - a lot of spamming computers send out millions of emails to random names in the hope it will get it right. After all, email is free.

So it would send to [email protected]; [email protected]; PetClarke@bt and so on.

[Jillius]

I think you have got that spot on ethel. My email address does indeed contain my first name and surname, whereas my friend's just has her initials and surname !
Do you know how I can change it ?

[ChuckFickens]

if your email contains your surname it depends on how common your name is as to how much spam it attracts that way, I have had emails that include my name that don't attract any spam as my surname isn't very common, if you have the name Smith then yes you will get a lot.

How to change it depends on who the email is with as they are all different, a lot of ISP's let you create a set number (5 is quite common) of addresses on your account and you can just create a new one on your ISP's website, if your current email is the master email on the account you may not be able to change that easily, but you can just create a new one and just stop using the old one for email (the old one will still be your connection user name though if it's the master address)

[Postdog]

You are on BTopenworld, so create a sub account using the rules given, advise those who should know of the new address, and use that as your main one from now on. It won't be your main as chunk says, but it will do the job.

You will still have to check for a while on the old one, but in time you should just be able to block delete the lot, maybe even get it deleted at source.

You will have to alter outlook too if you use that.

[Jillius]

Thanks very much. I'll do that.

[bathtub]

You can also get spammed like it's going out of fashion if your email address is visible on the internet. Type it into Google and see what comes up. I had this problem a year or two back when an old address of mine was listed, without my permission, in an American directory of people in the UK publishing industry.