# SPAM e-mails?



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I really hate to add to the controversy about the change in ownership of MLS...

BUT...

The e-mail address I have used as the contact point for this forum for the last EIGHT years NEVER used to get SPAM e-mails... let me repeat ...*NEVER*...

NOW, I am getting 2 to 8 junk e-mails per day.

Has anyone else noticed a recent increase in junk e-mails associated with the e-mail address you have on record with this website?



Granted, just 2 to 8 junk e-mails per day is not big bother, but I don't want ANY at all.

I also cannot state unequivocally that the new owner of MLS has violated my privacy by releasing that e-mail address to SPAMmers, but I will soon know if that is true because I am going to create a new address and change the contact address here on MLS to the new one and it will be the ONLY place that address will be used. If it starts getting SPAM e-mails I will know for sure.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 15 Dec 2013 03:26 PM 
I really hate to add to the controversy about the change in ownership of MLS...

BUT...

The e-mail address I have used as the contact point for this forum for the last EIGHT years NEVER used to get SPAM e-mails... let me repeat ...*NEVER*...

NOW, I am getting 2 to 8 junk e-mails per day.

Has anyone else noticed a recent increase in junk e-mails associated with the e-mail address you have on record with this website?



Granted, just 2 to 8 junk e-mails per day is not big bother, but I don't want ANY at all.

I also cannot state unequivocally that the new owner of MLS has violated my privacy by releasing that e-mail address to SPAMmers, but I will soon know if that is true because I am going to create a new address and change the contact address here on MLS to the new one and it will be the ONLY place that address will be used. If it starts getting SPAM e-mails I will know for sure.


As a matter of fact............I receive about a dozen spam emails a day now. Started ONLY after MLS changed ownership. I thought it was just me.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

But remember, we were told "Nothing is going to change"


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 15 Dec 2013 03:26 PM I also cannot state unequivocally that the new owner of MLS has violated my privacy by releasing that e-mail address to SPAMmers, but I will soon know if that is true because I am going to create a new address and change the contact address here on MLS to the new one and it will be the ONLY place that address will be used. If it starts getting SPAM e-mails I will know for sure.




That would be fairly good evidence, but not absolute evidence..

several years ago, my wife created a new email address..it was a fairly basic username, something like [email protected].
She created the account, sent off a test email to a friend..logged back on an hour later, and had about 10 spam messages!! huh?
how is that even possible?
we figured it out..
the email address was placed on a spam list *before it even existed*!!
just because it was a "common" username..
and once it was created, the spam started coming through..

The only way to be *really* sure is create an email like: [email protected]
then you can be pretty sure about it..

Scot


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

What kind of spam? 
Railroad or trains related? 

Thanks


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't read them! I just delete everything in my SPAM folder. But the subject lines are for: Prescription drugs, electronics/computers, etc. 

Not at all railroad or train related.

Even if they were, I DON'T WANT THEM! PERIOD!


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 15 Dec 2013 08:34 PM 
I don't read them! I just delete everything in my SPAM folder. But the subject lines are for: Prescription drugs, electronics/computers, etc. 

Not at all railroad or train related.

Even if they were, I DON'T WANT THEM! PERIOD!

In addition to the above, I'm getting refi's and travel deals.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm getting no new spam...just checked all my spam filters.


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

I wouldnt know if im getting new spam or not!  
My yahoo email address gets dozens of spam emails a day.. 
but I havent had any problems with spam in many years..5 to 8 years I would guess. 
spam is a non-issue for me..(yahoo and gmail spam filters are excellent..the spam problem has been solved, if you use those..) 

Scot


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

You say you get dozens of spam emails a day but haven't have any problems with spam for many years. That confuses me. If you get dozens a day, then, to me, that IS THE problem.

What does a spam filter do? As I understand it, they either are to re-direct an incoming e-mail to a special folder, usually named "SPAM" or "JUNK", or... they flush the e-mail down the royal bit bucket long before it gets to the end user and the end user should NEVER, EVER see it at all.

The problem with the latter method (it never getting to the end user at all) is that the filters are not perfect and sometimes declare legitimate e-mails as SPAM and thus I would never know someone set me an e-mail and that could cause lots of problems, both socially (I don't get Aunt Sally's invite to her centennial birthday party) and commercially (I don't get the notice of payment due on a loan).

The problem with the former method, (redirecting the e-mail to a special folder) is that I still have to open that folder to look in it to see if some e-mail that I DO want was redirected there in error... thus when I check my e-mails I have to specifically perform an extra step of opening that folder.

Some SPAMmers put things in e-mails that cause the e-mail program to fetch info from the SPAMmer's computer and thus the SPAMmer knows that the e-mail address is valid... if it were not a valid e-mail address then there would be no "feedback" and they would know to discard that address in favor of an address that did provide that feedback. So, if you cannot tell from the Subject line what is SPAM and what is not, then you reveal yourself to be a valid address by opening the e-mail to see what it is. Years ago, the "Preview" function of the e-mail readers would block such feedback, but in their dumbest wisdom, the programmers of e-mail programs changed that and now the "Preview" function is absolutely no different than the normal open to read function, (from that standpoint... the only difference now is that you cannot Reply or Forward from the "Preview" mode). And I think now, the "Subject" line has some of that "Feedback" action built-in so even just opening the SPAM folder to see the Subject lines causes the same thing to happen and the address is found to be valid by the SPAMmer.

By the way... this morning, I had about a dozen legitimate e-mails in my InBox from MLS referring to new postings I had subscribed to... BUT... about 1/2 of the e-mails in my SPAM folder were also legitimate e-mails from MLS about subscribed threads having new postings. So the "SPAM filters" sure seem to be confused, letting some e-mails through to the InBox and re-routing an equal number to the SPAM folder.

And completely off the subject here... the subscription e-mails seem to arrive in REVERSE chronological order to the time the postings were made! The last e-mail to arrive tells me about the 1st posting made in the last few hours, but the oldest unread e-mail in the list is about the latest posting to the thread... that's backwards!


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 15 Dec 2013 11:13 PM 
You say you get dozens of spam emails a day but haven't have any problems with spam for many years. That confuses me. If you get dozens a day, then, to me, that IS THE problem.





It's not confusing at all..but apparently I didnt explain it well..so I will elaborate.

For many years now, I have only used yahoo mail, and gmail (google) for my email.
I use a yahoo email address for everything on the internet..forum profiles, amazon.com, paypal, ebay, posting it on my webpages, etc..
that email address is plastered all over the internet, (by me) and is on every spam list known to man..

my gmail address I use only for two things, job hunting, and genealogy.
It is also on many spam lists..

But yet I say I have no problems with spam at all? why?
because yahoo and gmail have *excellent* spam filters..

99.9% of spam messages go straight to the spam folder..where I can completely ignore them, forever.
99.9% (perhaps 100% now) of "real" email messages, non-spam, go right into the "inbox", where they belong.

Once in a great while (maybe once or twice a year) a spam email makes it into the inbox..(spammer always try! 
I just click "this is spam" and its gone..So I *do* actually spend perhaps 5 seconds a year dealing with spam.

I used to check the spam folder once in while to check if "real" emails were getting accidentally marked as spam..
but that hasnt happened in years, so I have stopped checking..

So yes, my email accounts get a LOT of spam..I just went and opened the spam folder in my yahoo account.
(I havent checked it in ages) and it has received over 100 spam emails in the past 5 days..
I dont even know how many spam emails are in that folder..perhaps thousands..

but I NEVER have to see them!  that's the key.
they are periodically deleted, automatically..so the spam folder never "fills up completely" and stops working..that doesn't happen.
So my email inbox is spam-free..and has been for many years..

So this is how I can say, with complete honesty "I get tons of spam" and "I have zero issues with spam"..
yahoo and gmail have solved the spam problem completely for me!  It has gone away completely.

Scot


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

either i got very good filters, or nobody sends me more spam, than some weeks ago.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

No more canned meat than usual. 
Nothing new to suspect from MLS, the sad news was enuf. 

John


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Humm, I haven't enjoyed any Spam in years.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By rlvette on 16 Dec 2013 02:00 PM 
Humm, I haven't enjoyed any Spam in years. 

If you really like Spam ®, the canned meat product of the Hormel Foods Company of Austin, Minnesota, then I bet you would like to visit their SPAM ® Museum there.

It is a bit odd to think that there would be a museum for SPAM, but it is quite well done.

There are displays about the history of the company and some interactive displays where you get to practice a simulation of packing and shipping products. There is also a large chronological display of SPAM during the war years and what the soldiers thought of it.

The corporation has embraced the idea that junk e-mail is called by their product name and make light of it (I personally would be fighting with people using one of my product's name in such a disparaging manner)... they also have a display near the end which is a vignette of the Monty Python troupe portrayal of the people trying to order breakfast without Spam, and the wonderful (?) singing of the "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM" song. I guess the idea is that if you can't fight 'en, join 'em.

But the best part is at the end of the museum tour where there is a Spam store where you can get all sort of objects with the Spam logo on it... from golf balls and tees to tee shirts and ball caps, coffee mugs, shot glasses, fridge (and car) magnets, baby items, mouse pads, key fobs, pencil sharpening, pens, oven mitts.. you name it, they probably have it! 

AND, they always have a large supply of any kind of Spam you'd like... Original Spam, Spam Lite, Spam and Cheese, Turkey Spam, Pepper Spam (I hear tell that is quite popular in Hawaii and the Philippines), Bacon Spam... etc.

My son lives in the Twin Cities area and on the way back from when I go visit him, I always stop at the company store in Austin and stock up on some of the types of Spam that can be hard to find at some grocery stores... as well as get a few more Spam magnets to stick on my car (people can't seem to keep from stealing them!... No, they don't blow off the car while in motion, they only disappear when I am parked in a large parking lot... I can verify it is there when I go in a store and it will be gone when I come out! I have lost 2 at the grocery store, 3 at Wally*Whorled, 1 at Targut and 1 when parked outside the county courthouse [I really suspect the Meter Maid absconded with that one!]).


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Since you mentioned the auto hyperlinks on another thread, I'll comment on those here.

I've started seeing the links showing up too. When viewing the post-posted post, certain words are blue and a link has been added. I'll do a little test:

Ebay, Amazon, Sears, Yahoo.

[edit]

The Ebay link got added, but not the others. 
Funny, the link metadata isn't visible in HTML view. 
When I hover over, it says the link was added by Viglink. So I'll guess Viglink isn't adding code, but has instead inserted an interpreter, site-wide.... 

[edit 2]
BTW, when I typed "viglink," it added its own link. 
Here's the Viglink link:
http://www.viglink.com/how-it-works

To quote:

Now, you might find it a bit random that we've just started talking about the Nikon D7000 which is a really great camera, but stick with us here, we're just trying to demonstrate link insertion technology. See, this second link was not actually added by our webmaster. That link was added by VigLink Insert automatically, and yes, it too will earn revenue. 


On the one hand, yeah, it's no big deal; all one has to do is avoid the blue words. On the other hand, it makes MLS seem more sterile and robotic; and I don't like having my text messed with, without my permission.

[edit 3] 
I didn't put in the HTML in the above. As I'm editing right now, it's normal, but as posted it goes HTML. 

Cliff


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Cliff: had you not typed in EBAY etc I wouldn't have known about the hyperlinks. On my screen they were black. Only when I tapped it did I realize that it was live. SCARRY! Chuck


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I believe that VigLink does not work IN your computer while you are composing the posting, thus you don't see it in preview mode. It works, either in the server when the posting is retransmitted to each user when they open that thread, or in the user's computer after they receive the text. It is possible that one person will see a word changed to a link and another person will not see the same thing, as they could be tailored to specific areas of the country. 
Edit: The way the link is presented is up to the individual user's computer and the browser's settings. Some will always show links in a different color with an underline and others only show the link while the mouse arrow is over it... in most browsers the user can alter how links are presented.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Posted By chuck n on 16 Dec 2013 05:04 PM 
Cliff: had you not typed in EBAY etc I wouldn't have known about the hyperlinks. On my screen they were black. Only when I tapped it did I realize that it was live. SCARRY! Chuck Yeah, weird!

Someone out to keep a tally of what's changing, just for the record. We're sure not getting asked about these alterations to the product we're paying for.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Someday...you guys will add Ghostery to your browser...and all this stuff Vigilink does...and other companies will JUST GO AWAY FOR YOU. This stuff is here to stay. It pays. It's profitable for the web site owners. They own the site...so they'll keep doing it...until it ain't profitable. Then...who knows what happens....and these inserted links ARE NOT spam...which happens to be a lunch meat that fries up good and with a little mustard makes a great sandwich filler.


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

gentlemen, 
maybe you should search your computers for files named "scrap" or "scrap(2)". 
i found those by accident under "my pictures" in "my documents". 
when i could not view them, i wanted to delete them. 
but MS told me, that they were in use by another program. and gave me the council to close programs, to delete the files. 
i closed just the IE window with MLS in it, then i could delete the files.


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## Great Western (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank you Mike for reminding me about Ghostery. I have made it an add-on on Opera, still to do Firefox. I rarely use IE on either pc. 


Interesting I checked Ghosterys repost on five Fora I visit each day. A UK history site = 0, Aristo-Craft = 0, LSC = 2, GSC (UK) - 2 and here MLS = 4.


I was interested in the report by an American politician regarding governmental data collection. I wonder if social web sites will come under the spotlight as well?


I get little SPAM messages on my five mail addresses. The only one I used to have problems with was Yahoo mail. I got rid of it.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 17 Dec 2013 06:06 AM 
gentlemen, 
maybe you should search your computers for files named "scrap" or "scrap(2)". 
i found those by accident under "my pictures" in "my documents". 
when i could not view them, i wanted to delete them. 
but MS told me, that they were in use by another program. and gave me the council to close programs, to delete the files. 
i closed just the IE window with MLS in it, then i could delete the files. 

Was there an extension to the file name ("Scrap._ _ _")? 
Do a Google search for "SCRAP files" and see if any of the hits are related to what you found.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

This stuff is here to stay. It pays. It's profitable for the web site owners. 
And we're not paying to use the site (most of us anyway) so how else do they keep the site going?


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

I was wondering, do the SPAM-branded products available at the museum include model railroad rolling stock, e.g. reefers or boxcars?


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Pete Chimney on 18 Dec 2013 11:20 AM 
I was wondering, do the SPAM-branded products available at the museum include model railroad rolling stock, e.g. reefers or boxcars?

I have never seen any toy (or otherwise) RR type products there, except a wooden "train" whistle with "SPAM" burned into the side. 
I just looked through the on-line store (http://store.spam.com/departments.asp) and didn't even see the whistle for sale... but the number of items was somewhat bewildering!!!


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I just crack up the blocking of junk mail. If persons have your true e-mail address and you also have them listed in your contacts they should not got to junk e-mail when set to high end. At least that is the way mine works. Yep and Gostery also does wonders. Later RJD


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Just an update to the subject of this thread...

After I posted this thread:

I have not received any junk e-mails to the new address I associated with MLS.

The junk e-mails to the original address I associated with MLS ceased completely... for a couple of days. However, now "Adriana" has that address and she/he/it is sending me freebie PORN access codes. I get that junk e-mail on my "junk" e-mail address (the one I use when a web site demands an e-mail address and I don't want to give them a real one) all the time... I know it was harvested from Yahoo newsgroups some time ago.

Remember that movie where a home computer got some champagne poured on it and then became sentient while listening to the girl playing the cello in the apartment above, (spoiler alert!) at the end it "commits suicide" (maybe?) by sending an electrical signal "around the world" back to itself to fry it's own innards? ("Electric Dreams"... ok movie, great music!) I wish I knew how to send signals like that to the SPAMMERS!


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

_Was there an extension to the file name ("Scrap._ _ _")? _ 
no. everything else shows it extensions, like it should. these do not.


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