OK, here’s the latest. I have come to the sad conclusion that I may have to phase out my longtime personal e-mail address, dan {at} dankennedy {dot} net. I’m receiving hundreds of spam e-mails a day, and just under 95 percent of them are associated with that address. It’s been hopelessly compromised after years of being out there on the open Net.
The problem wasn’t with Gmail. The problem was that Gmail’s spam filter was being forced to more than it should.
Perhaps I’ll find a way to revive it. For the time being, though, I suggest that if you want to reach me, you do so through my Northeastern account, listed in the right-hand column of this blog. Most of you are already doing that anyway.
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Dan, it was your Gstring.— Larz
Dan – I would suggest an exercise if you haven’t already conducted it: Google that address (70+ hits), and note the circumstances under which that address appears “in the clear”. It’s clearly futile to write out “dan {at} dankennedy {dot} net”, when if someone responds to you on a bulletin board, it appears in the clear in anyone quoting your message.Also, I would guess that the MassResistance thing pretty much publicized it net-wide. Perhaps someone “signed you up” for some spam sites maliciously – the amount of spam you’re getting is certainly excessive for normal internet use.On the other hand, maybe being in an academic environment has something to do with it. If a student has the dankennedy net address in their address book, a virus on the student’s machine may share it with the world.
As much as you hate to do it, the time has come to blow away that GMail account, completely. When my original email account got into that situation, I went took the filter route to try and deal with it, but I still had to slog through the filtered emails looking for any good ones that got trapped. The only solution was the eliminating the account, and starting from scratch, only this time, I’ve been diligent about watching where my email address goes and staying away from the UseNet. I maintain subordinate email addresses to use for non friend and family communication and forum registration, so my primary can be used exclusively for family and close friends. If any subordinate account starts to attract too much SPAM, I’ll just eliminate it and create a new one. So far, this has worked for nearly 2 years now, a far cry from the 300+ SPAMs I had been getting daily on my old, then 10 year old account.
What are you reading mail with?Thunderbird learns what is spam over time and will largely take care of the problem for you.
DK – a suggestion as you clean house.I do not keep my contacts in Gmail, although I do use Gmail for emailing, as I am convinced it will be hacked into someday and I have no desire to share my friend’s names and private phone numbers (GWB would NEVER forgive me if his cell went viral!). I keep my contacts in Outlook.BUT – my first contact is 0000 – that is, four zeros. When a worm or virus is prospecting your computer to steal addresses, when it encounters this, it thinks your contact files are empty and desists.I really get very little spam, and my friends have not been troubled either.
Again, Choicemail or another filter of its type will solve your problem. Because it’s not a filter; EVERYTHING is considered spam unless you’ve sent that person mail (they’re in your address book, if you like to go that way), or you let them in after they answer a challenge. All else is folly.
PP – that 0000 thing is a hoax. Your mailbox must be spam-free due to other virtuous behavior.