Creating False Email Address-Spam

[Rafael Montserrat]

When I started on this discussion group a while back I began receiving
over 100 pieces of spam a day. I learned from Beth that spammers harvest
valid email addresses for sending spam.
I have now created a phoney email address in Outlook Express 5. My
question is: how do I set this up with the discussion group so that the fake
address thwarts spam, and at the same time my valid address is available to
users of the newsgroup.
I noticed when I was using the newsgroup, that there were two options:
do everything directly on outlook express, which is preferable, and/or have
access to a person's personal email address.
With this post, I have to send it using my primary email address. I
don't see how else to do it and I hope I don't get into the same spam
problem as before.

Thanks,
Rafael

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

I believe, that if you go to Tools | Accounts, News tab, then open up the MS
News Server account, there will be a drop-down menu where you can set the
email address you use to post, under Account Settings, Personal Information.
Assuming your phoney address is something like yours with an INVALID or
NOSPAM stuck in the middle, we should all be able to figure out the real
address.

Perhaps you should have posted this question through the web (google or the
MS site)? To avoid possibility of spam?

Dayo

 

[Rafael Montserrat]

Dayo

Yes, Dayo. I got nailed and started getting spam right away, so I'm going to
have to change my primary email address, the one I sent to the newsgroup.
Bummer.

When you say in your reply below, "...where you can set the email address
you use to post," you mean my phoney email address, right?

Will <microsoft.public.mac.office.word> be able to receive it.

When I sent myself emails with the phoney address, it either doesn't come
through at all, or I get an error message.

Cheers

Rafael

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

I do mean your phoney--the dropdown I referred to tells Outlook to send all
messages to the NGs from the chosen address. You can pick any address that
you have set up in Outlook.

The newsgroup shouldn't care if an address exists or not, so just try
posting with it. It's better, by the way, to have the fake bit after the @,
so that spam doesn't even make it to your server to get bounced there.

The spam will decline over time, so your address might not be a complete
lost cause. My old hotmail one is just about usable again.

Dayo

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Paul Berkowitz suggests this method (for Entourage, but OE should be the
same):

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To avoid spam directed at contributors of newsgroups, set up a send-only
dummy (spoof) email account.

You do that in Tools/Accounts/Mail/New. Make it a POP account (even if you
use an IMAP account normally) and click to Configure manually. Enter your
real name and a fake email address. Leave all the settings for "Receiving
server" blank. Enter a real SMTP server from one of your real mail accounts
(POP or IMAP or even Hotmail) in "". If your SMTP server requires
authentication, click Advanced sending options and fill in your password.
Click OK, and don't mind the warning that says you won't be able to receive
mail.

Then go into News accounts/Microsoft News Server, and set the email account
to the spoof account you just created.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for allowing legit newsgroup posters to email you directly, I would
recommend putting your real email address (masked with NO SPAM or, better,
something less obvious to a machine) in your signature.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Yes, that method will work in OE as well as in Entourage.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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