SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, ******* SPAM

[Mike]

I get between 50 and 100 emails a day telling me that I don't earn enough or that I don't earn it easily enough or that my penis can be magically enlarged or that I can, with one click, access passwords that will give me free access to the world's porn sites or that my computer is collecting information about me that the government is bound to use against me... you know what I'm talking about you have all seen it... every 5 minutes.

The trouble with the mental morons that send this stuff is that if one ever disappears there are ten waiting to take his place. Spam and crap on the internet is a fact of life and if we are to continue to use the internet we have to find a way to live with it. One way to kill it briefly is to change your email address, but some of us cannot do that because our businesses depend on a consistent email presence. Anyway, my email address must be publicly available so any new address would soon attract spam and the respite would be very short.

I stumbled across some software over the weekend that is now giving me the closest thing to a spam free existence that I have experienced since I got my first email address. MailWasher is a program that lets you see the email on your mail server before it is downloaded into your computer. It identifies suspected spam (and viruses) and builds a blacklist which it refines with use until it is almost infallible. it also allows you to bounce the email so that, to those sending you the crap, it appears that your address is not working.

There are two versions of MailWasher. There is a fully functional free version available for download at http://www.mailwasher.net/ and a 'Pro' version which is priced at $US29.95. The free version is limited to a single email address. The Pro version will service an unlimited number of email addresses and will also have access to a 'live' world database of spam. This database will connect all the users of the software so that as soon as one person, anywhere in the world, receives and identifies a new spam email all the users of the database will be protected from it. The days of spam free email are almost upon us. The days of spammers being able to use the internet to spread their drivel and crap may well be numbered.

I am so impressed with this product and the ability that it has given me to fight back that I have signed up for the affiliate program and will be making it available for download and registration here on Nick's.

I apologise for this spam (ironic eh?), but this is one of the few times when the discovery of a product has really excited me. I can almost feel the spammers cringing.

[Mike]

tut tut - toilet humour Tessa.

Incidentally, your post looks remarkably like a lot of the email I've been getting.

What have you been doing with your spare time?

[Culprit]

Mailwasher is great and I know what you mean about Spam.

I also suggest to anyone do not reply to these emails as then they know your receiving them and will still keep sending the garbage.

[The Prototype]

Luckily for me, the spam bots haven't found my new address, so I am pretty much save these days. The only e-mails I get these days are the ones from the AFL, and Bigfooty.com can be considered spam, but you can turn the e-mail function off.

[Lone Ranger]

I suggest you do NOT use any "bounce" facility. Often the return addresses are fake or belong to someone else. When you bounce the email, your bounce can become spam and you could find yourself blacklisted.

[Swanny21]

I stumbled across this myself on the weekend. I'm really tired of the ammount of useless mail that comes my way, so I ran a search on Google regarding spam and this program was one of the first listed. I've been using the trial program for a few days now, but I already sense that the junk is being thinned out. I'm not worried at all about bouncing them back. Many of them have legit addresses and the chance to send it back is just too tantalizing:) Well done Mike, I for one will be purchasing it.

[Joe]

It can drive you nuts.
You cant blame these people for trying to make a living,but sadly it gets frustrating.
Ocassionally something comes through that can be useful,but this is few and far between.

[Proud Pies]

[The Prototype]

What I really hate is them Forwards, instead of reading them these days, I delete them from my hotmail account. Some day it one may be actually interesting, I doubt it.

[MissMagpie_20]

You know what really freaks you out. When ur a chick and u get emails saying 'Now u can enlarge ur penis'. Its quite scary.

[Pied Piper]

Thanks for the tip Mike. I only hope this program isn't the same as many spammers are now themselves selling...

And Miss T - you crack me up.

The Weed

[Culprit]

I have been bouncing emails since I started using it a fair while ago. If I get blacklisted I will just change my email.

[The Prototype]

What is the "bounce" thing anyway? Because I just delete the spam e-mails I get, most of them goto the new "Bulk Mail" folder that Hotmail has added. So when I ignore them they usually get deleted after a month. Or when I empty the folder

[Culprit]

When you bounce an email whoever sent it will get back the mesage undeliverable. That's if it goes through to them as most don't.

[Lone Ranger]

Not quite Culprit ... the bounce will go back to whoever is specified as the sender in the email ... that is NOT necessarily the person who actually sent it. For example, a spammer could send you email with Mick Malthouse as the sender and so your bounce would go to poor unsuspecting Mick Malthouse. Essentially, YOU are now sending spam ... that is why you might end up getting blacklisted.