29 November 2006

E-mail + spam = headache

I was dismayed but not very surprised when I read this CNN article which basically says that 9 out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide are spam. For the past month or so the e-mail address I used for my website has been inundated with spam, at least 20 per day. I was finally so fed up with it I dropped that e-mail address and created another, making sure this time not to make it a hyperlink (i.e. comments AT r32argent.ca). I figure most people are savvy enough these days to know what that means.

Unfortunately, that didn't completely solve my problem. One of the e-mail addresses I use solely for personal contacts has recently been receiving spam, too. Since this particular address was never used for mailing lists, online shopping, forum sign-ups et cetera, I'm assuming someone's computer with my e-mail in their address book is now an unwilling participant in a 'zombie network'. Ugh.

Remember to keep your antivirus programs and firewalls up-to-date, please. And if you aren't using either... why the heck not!?

1 comment:

r32argent said...

I use filters, too, except that sometimes I'd get false positives. I'd end up having to go through the spam, anyway, to identify any.