Darian ICQs

Apart from Jessica L, does any else have a UIN? Ta.

On Thu, 24 Jun 1999 21:12:31 +0100, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from "Greg Pallis" , and it said:

I do! I do! 37083068.

Does anyone know how the spammers get our UINs?

I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if there were a program designed to scan newsgroups and message boards for any instances of consecutive digits such as...oh, I dunno....37083068....and then unleashes the spam. Either that or there's a jerk with a pad and pen surfing the Web..."Ooh! ooh! There's an ICQ number...let's see....3....7....0....hee hee hee! Someone else I can tell about my 'Cartoon Characters Nude!' website!!!"

Jeg7777 wrote:

I have one, but I'm not posting it here for that very reason. I haven't been spammed via ICQ and I intend to keep it that way. If you're a regular poster to this NG and want it, send me an email and give me yours, and I'll give you mine. (Of course, people NOT on my contact list get ignored anyway, there is an option in Security & Privacy for that, and I have it checked)

Don't even get me started on the subject of spamming..... I could write a rant to rival Dennis Miller about that, if I wanted to.

Marty Skywarn Storm Spotter KCB009

To avoid emailed spam you need to never use your main email address for posting to newsgroups, nor to some insecure mailing lists. Either use a spoiler in your address, or keep a spare address for posting to newsgroups and set your software to reject all mail sent to that address (but put a note in your sig to let genuine people know how to email you). You need to do this from the outset though: spammer's address harvesters are very efficient -- you only have to post to usenet once for the address to start receiving spam, which will then continue indefinitely.

Oddly enough it seems fairly safe to put your real address in the "Reply-to:" field of usenet messages - I use another special address for this field too but I've only ever received one piece of spam to it, whilst the "news" address I post under rejects a couple of spams a day.

I've just added a button-link for SpamCop on my homepage: this is a site where you can report spam. Their software will analyse the spam you got and work out where it came from and who controls the site in question. It then composes a complaint addressed to the ISP in charge of the spammer's account which it will send on your behalf. I haven't tried it myself yet as spam hardly ever gets through to me, but it looks to be quite a good service.

-Shez.

In article ,

write a

but

I already know how to analyze message headers to determine where email comes from, and I have a standard letter I send to ISP's with the forwarded spam.

I don't get much spam, though, because this is the only NG I post to on a regular basis. The only spams that really aggravate me are those that are trying to sell me "adult services"... those I DO turn in to their ISP. I don't know HOW or WHERE they got my email addy, I've certainly never opted-in to their lists. I've managed to shut down a few of them... or at least got their attention to where they don't send me their smut anymore. I heard back from an ISP in California just today... seems that the latest one I've turned in is a REPEAT OFFENDER with them, and they're taking it VERY seriously.

SPAM FACTORIES BEWARE.... you send ME your junk, I WILL TURN YOU IN! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Marty Skywarn Storm Spotter KCB009

In article ,

Yeah, like spammers bother to read the messages from newsgroups they harvest from ;)

William Fowler wrote:

I have a feeling that if someone wanted to spam ICQ people, they would just do it by consecutive number... for every number there's another ICQ account. I doubt they would bother to scan newsgroups for it when nearly any number they care to enter is a UIN.

Er... does that make any sense?

I go now. :-)

--J.

On Fri, 25 Jun 1999 11:24:27 -0400, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from William Fowler , and it said:

The thing is, the only time before this I put my UIN on Usenet was about a week ago when I gave it to the folks in alt.games.daggerfall, and the spam started before that. The only thing that could be it, short of Mirablis selling their lists, is CivLeague. You don't think they would be jerk enough to sell it, would they?

What makes you think the ICQ people themselves don't sell your details on? You should check the small print of your agreement with them, a lot of internet services such as guestbook hosting make some of their money from selling your email address and personal details on to spammers et al.

-Shez.

Since I don't care about spam and I'm too lazy to actually get you guy's UIN's, anyone who wishes to talk to me via ICQ can do so at 12773280.

On Thu, 24 Jun 1999 21:12:31 +0100, "Greg Pallis" wrote:

The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago-cubs

Of course, you KNOW that ICQ is now owned by AOL...don't you? Maybe they DO sell #'s and addys...

Jess "Morgendorfer"

Daria: Do you believe everything adults tell you? Gupty Kids: Yes Daria: What if 2 adults tell you totally opposite things?

JMStargazr wrote in message ...

DO

It wouldn't surprise me a bit. Lately I've been having a really problem with people sending me URLs they want me to visit. The same people who apparently are using multiple UINs since banishing them to my ignore list seems to slow them only slightly.

In article , "NVRaptor" wrote:

they

problem

who

list

Here's a couple of tips that might help you with this... you do all of this from "Security & Privacy" (I do all of these things and haven't received any spam via ICQ) (Assumes you're using the latest ICQ99a client):

1) Security tab - set Contact List authorization to "My authorization is required" (if you're not already doing that)

The rest of these will be done on the Ignore List tab.

2) Check the box that reads "Accept messages only from users on my contact list" (this requires confirmation at save time)

3) Check the box next to "Do not accept Multi-Recipient messages from" and in the pull-down box select "Users not on my contact list" (I do sometimes get multi-recipient messages from the people on my list, but they're almost always worth reading/visiting the site; in any case none of them qualify as spam)

4) Check the boxes for "Do not accept WWPager messages" and "Do not accept EmailExpress messages"

• Click "Save"; click OK at the confirmation dialog

That should stop the spam...

Hope this helps you out... feel free to email me if you don't understand anything I've spelled out here.

Marty Skywarn Storm Spotter KCB009

Sorry didn't mean to post that last msg twice my deja.com session timed out while I was writing and when I hit send I had to log in again, backed up to see if the message sent, my browser gave the good ol' "data missing" page so had to refresh the page that's why it sent twice.

Sorry about that....

(Computers - gotta love 'em...)

Marty Skywarn Storm Spotter KCB009

In article , "NVRaptor" wrote:

they

problem

who

list

Here's a couple of tips that might help you with this... you do all of this from "Security & Privacy" (I do all of these things and haven't received any spam via ICQ) (Assumes you're using the latest ICQ99a client):

1) Security tab - set Contact List authorization to "My authorization is required" (if you're not already doing that)

The rest of these will be done on the Ignore List tab.

2) Check the box that reads "Accept messages only from users on my contact list" (this requires confirmation at save time)

3) Check the box next to "Do not accept Multi-Recipient messages from" and in the pull-down box select "Users not on my contact list" (I do sometimes get multi-recipient messages from the people on my list, but they're almost always worth reading/visiting the site; in any case none of them qualify as spam)

4) Check the boxes for "Do not accept WWPager messages" and "Do not accept EmailExpress messages"

• Click "Save"; click OK at the confirmation dialog

That should stop the spam...

Hope this helps you out... feel free to email me if you don't understand anything I've spelled out here.

Marty Skywarn Storm Spotter KCB009