[cwolfe98]

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

Interspersed among the junk mail and spam that fills our Internet e-mail boxes are dire warnings about devastating new viruses, Trojans that eat the heart out of your system, and malicious software that can steal the computer right off your desk. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most all of these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. While hoaxes do not automatically infect systems like a virus or Trojan, they are still time consuming and costly to remove from all the systems where they exist. At CIAC, we find that we spend much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus and Trojan incidents. These pages describe some of the warnings, offers, and pleas for help that are filling our mailboxes, clogging our mailservers, and that generally do not have any basis in fact.

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

[rhettman5]

Many members here use Mail Washer to fight back !

It's a Freeware program that lets you view and delete mail
before it gets to your E-mail server

The best part is you can "Bounce", or return unwanted messages...clogging up THEIR in-box, not yours.

You can blacklist messages so the sender will always be blocked and returned.

Check it out : HERE

It works ! ....Rhett

[Dark Star]

"Tired of email hoaxes and chain letters?...."

Yep I sure as hell am.... how did you guess?

O goodie lets start a flame war here and now... I'll go first and here is the first salvo...

Ok people you who choose to use AOL have fun with it have a blast with it... e-mail each other the AOL chain letter crap that seems to permeate the halls of AOL.... just leave me out of that list just pretend that if I win one of your silly arse little contests you can take all my winnings and donate them to whatever charitable cause the next stupid arse chain letter you send me wants to make all better.

I dont have the time to forward the stupid little messages you send me to everyone on my address book either and I wont and it pisses me off that you have thought nothing of taking my e-mail address and just flung it out there into the world for all to see in your silly arse attempt to save some damned "endangered species" that you wouldn't know even exsisted if it bit you in the arse, while you try to save the world by adding more and more people to your address book, while you are choosing to believe that if you forward "the latest" thing to land on your PC within 20 seconds for good luck... and have the gall to tell me if you dont get included in my reply the stupid chain will be broken... I was hoping that you might get a clue I dont return junk mail even if you ask for it back sheeeesh

rhett thanks.... I know about Mailwasher and I'm about to download the thing as another "thing" that I must have. Truth is that no one I have met in this place is been "uncool" everyone here seems to know better... It's the "other" people I know that I wished I never gave my e-mail adress to.

I'm off the soapbox now.

[hewee]

Originally posted by rhettman5:


It's a Freeware program that lets you view and delete mail
before it gets to your E-mail server


It works ! ....Rhett

No it delete's the email from you E-mail server so you don't have to download it to your PC.

[rhettman5]

I stand corrected !
but...

It still WORKS !!!

Read the info and the user reviews, a must have if you hate junk mail !..... and the price is right !... Rhett

[hewee]

You bet it works great.
Only email I can't blacklist or bounce is ones that it says there is no sender address.
Because they made it so the true address does not show up. But you can still delete the junk and that is what counts.

[littlemar]

It's amazing how many of my users send me these at work - I then give them the "nasty I.S. memo" telling these people that if there is anything that indicates "send to everyone you know in the whole entire world" to think RED FLAG. I just can't believe how dumb most of them are and gullible.

I think I'll download your link Rhett for home use but I think most of my friends have finally learned to take me off that list. I also love the ones that tell you the worst luck in the world will hit you if you don't send this to the world. I've received some nice poems with this indicated on it. I delete all references to that and keep the poem.

Originally posted by hewee:
...Only email I can't blacklist or bounce is ones that it says there is no sender address...

Not quite true - you can set up a filter through tools>options>filters and use it to trap these guys (go HERE - about 2/3 the way down and read filter FAQ's - you can even use his example by using "from" OR "return path" instead of subject). Action to take is bounce - if the bounce fails at least the delete will work.

This software is free ! Yes, it is - but it is so good - AND SO VALUABLE - I would strongly recommend sending the developer a "donation". I am damned proud to say that I did - and it's almost the only one I ever have done.

[hewee]

Slithy Tove.

Thanks I will check out the site's FAQ.

[obi wan]

Just downloaded the Mail Washer program and it is fantastic!!


No more, "Bill Gates is paying you $0.05 for every person you send this to. My Aunt just received a cheque for $10,215.03".

Yeah right!!

Thanks for the link.


owen.

I'm real glad more folks are finding out about this fine software. It has been written about in several other forums (recently in "Security") - but many of the people who could benefit do not visit all the other forums.

I strongly believe more in preventing viruses and such than in removing them after they've done damage. MailWasher, properly implemented and run, goes a long way towards accomplishing this.