MailWasher (AntiSpam Utility)

Topic

New Reply

I have been a registered (paid) user of SpamKiller for some time. On Usenet, someone mentioned how much they liked a program called MailWasher. I checked it out, downloaded it and…paid for it!

Actually, it’s freeware but, if you pay to register it, an unchanging banner at the top of the program’s window, containing contact info for the program, is eliminated, which gives you more screen room for the message list. You are then also entitled to support for the program. The program’s author is super!

The program checks all of your accounts at intervals which you determine, then lists all messages which are on the server. You then go through the list, either deleting or bouncing the message back to the spammer & deleting each message from the server without having to retrieve them. The program has a ‘blacklisted’ list & a ‘friends’ list, so that messages from friends don’t even appear on the MailWasher list, if you choose for them not to. Then MailWasher has the ability to open your chosen email client to download the messages that you DO want.

This is a great program & I recommend it highly.

You can check it out or download it from:
http://www.mailwasher.net

(Edited by Leif to make link live – see the quick guide)

Reply | Quote

Replies

Definitely looks interesting but the website doesn’t say anything about whether or not it will work under Win XP. Have only had XP for a couple of weeks so am still leery of attempting new software that doesn’t specify compatibility… don’t want to mess up my pristine new system (or just plain gutless) – if anyone has Xperience with this combination I’d appreciate hearing about it.

Reply | Quote

Gladys,

I’m using MailWasher with WinXP Home Edition with no problem whatsoever.

Rich

Reply | Quote

Thanks Rich, that’s all I needed to hear – will give it a try today.

Reply | Quote

sorry to dredge this up…but does anybody know what the command line is to open OutLook an make it search for mail?

I just switched from SpamWeasel to Mailwasher and wanted the software to open OutLook and automatically upload mail….

Reply | Quote

Bill,

The way MailWasher works is that you set it (MailWasher) up to check for new messages on your mail accounts at whatever interval you decide. When new mail is detected, MailWasher notifies you that you have new mail. You then open the MailWasher window & check the messages (which are still on your mail server) to see if there is any spam. If there is, you have MailWasher take care of it (deleting, bouncing…whatever you like). Then, if there are ‘good’ messages in there, you just click the icon on the top of the MailWasher window to open your e-mail client (Outlook, in your case). You then download the wanted messages (and ONLY the wanted messages) into Outlook to read or whatever other action you want to take on them.

Reply | Quote

SgtRich,

Thanks for the reply. I assume that to use MailWasher correctly you’d turn off the OutLook Mail Delivery and let MailWasher query the mail server for you…then after processing out any unwanted mail you could hand the remaining mail over to OutLook.

I wanted to know if there was an OutLook command line switch that could be used to make OutLook begin a Send/Receive…MailWasher makes allowances for you to use command line switches when opening your e-mail software.

Reply | Quote

Does not appear to be one in OL2000; see MSKB q197180.

Reply | Quote

From one Sarge to another, coming from another thread about virus checking where Mailwasher was recommended, I just installed Mailwasher and have a question. His FAQ says it works with any mail client but it really doesn’t say if you have to CLOSE your mail client after a cycle of processing mail. I have turned off automatic mail checking in my mail program as instructed. However, I’ve kept it open on the screen along with Mailwasher, in less than full screen mode so I can see both windows. After a 10 minute cycle (my choice) Mailwasher checks for messages but there must be something my ISP has set up, because the messages show up in my mail program, almost at the same time they show up in Mailwasher. That’s what makes me ask the question – does the mail client have to be completely closed? I wouldn’t think I should tell my mail program to “leave messages on the server” would I?

Reply | Quote

That’s odd. If I leave my mail client open, Mailwasher won’t download the mail until I close it.

Reply | Quote

Well, I take back what I asked in my post, Eileen! Musta been a startup problem or something, because it seems to be working OK now. For the past three ten-minute cycles, Mailwasher has received messages, including the reply you made to my post. When I Alt-Tab over to Mozilla mail, the message ARE NOT there until I hit the Get Msgs button. I’m gonna ride with it for the day (rest of the week?) and just watch and learn what it does. But it looks like I was wrong with my initial question, at least where Mozilla is concerned.

I was thinking it may be something at my ISP because they have a free mailblock system which I subscribe to. They use the databases from the usual spam-fighting houses to vaporize known spam and anything else I want to custom-add to the list. My list is pretty long, so I thought …… But nonetheless, it (Mailwasher) seems to have “found itself” and I’m just gonna monitor and see what happens. An interesting, if not somewhat humorous side note is that Mailwasher marked the note from LoungeAdmin as possible spam. Can you imagine that?

Reply | Quote

You can avoid that happening again by right-clicking it and adding it to your Friend’s List.

Reply | Quote

Yeah, right, I did that. I just thought it was funny – of all places that AREN’T sending spam, The Lounge.

Most of you know or can tell from my pix, that I’m a really old, retired guy and my computer is in the Great Room where I can hear the mail sound, whatever I’m doing. It’s not as if I sit here at the keyboard all day! (that’s also intended to be humorous, for the following reason…..)

…..Mailwasher has been working perfectly all day long, every ten minutes, so once again I say THNX to Bruce and Merc for the recommendation. I feel so good about it, that I’ve sent Nick Bolton his well earned “donation” and hope that others are doing the same!

Reply | Quote

You’re quite welcome, Al. Was it easy to set up initially?

Reply | Quote

You bet. Here’s a shot of the options screen. I didn’t use the “don’t check during…” feature yet, but I might. The friends and blacklist lists can be built, as Eileen mentiond, as you go along. I’m waiting awhile to use the DNS blacklist checking, since I already have that service from my ISP. Go ahead and give ‘er a try, Bruce!

Reply | Quote

Another day, another pound of spam! I just wanted to come back and say that Mailwasher is sure earning its keep! Haven’t seen any potential viruses (luckily) but it’s flagging all kinds of other stuff. I don’t need any ** Spam post – please alert a Moderator ** or money making schemes. Nick done good on this one!

Reply | Quote

Hi Al

This post is in reference to your request from the other thread.
I don’t have any specific description of my problems with MailWasher, other than every time I used it my compurter would subsequently run sloooooowwww and I’d end up rebooting.
Probably a memory problem but AvirMail doesn’t seem to duplicate it so I’ve just opted for AvirMail and not bothered with MailWasher.
Just to be fair, my wife uses MailWasher on her computer and has no problems with it.
I guess the thing to do is to take a look at the various programs available and use the one that suits each individual……assuming that they do the job as expected.
For those who haven’t seen the other post, you can check out AvirMail at http://www.avirmail.com[/url%5D. It’s a free download.

Ken

Reply | Quote

AvirMail contacted me after some queries and they informed me that unfortunately their software does not have the bouncing capabilities and other features of mailwasher.

Reply | Quote

So MailWasher is STILL the king!

Reply | Quote

Hi All
Mailwasher is also amongst my Top Ten Useful Utilities. There’s one tiny caveat though, when using the bounce facility. If the bounce fails, you get a message in your Inbox saying so, thus increasing the number of more-or-less useless messages and increasing clutter. I’m not sure that bouncing, when successful, really causes the sender the inconvenience one would wish on them.

Reply | Quote

Is there a way to get the POP3 & SMTP addresses from my e-mail service? They are telling me it is not ‘available’ as I am assuming they desire one to use the proprietary GUI. Is there a way to look it up in a onewhois or samspade way? Or perhaps find it by snooping through the resource files??

Reply | Quote

Before you start snooping, why don’t you try contacting your web hosting service that provides Krymow.com? Surely they would rather provide you with the needed information than have you “snooping” through their “resource files.”

Reply | Quote

Mark ~

I provide the web hosting service for krymow.com and I have all that information. That is not a problem and that is set up and working perfectly with Mailwasher.
My other e-mail service is through Juno and I have contacted them and they simply said what I mentioned previously.

Reply | Quote

If you have everything from Juno forwarded to krymow.com then won’t Mailwasher deal with it all there?

Reply | Quote

Yes, that would be ideal, however, Juno will not forward mail. I have attempted to do this with various services as well as dealing with Juno directly. They won’t give them to me so I wish to find them.

I have everything from krymow.com forwarded to juno.com so I deal w/ only one interface and it is one that I really like.

Reply | Quote

Reply | Quote

Bruce…doing a winipcfg should give you the IP address. Are you using OE? Tools>Internet Options>Connections>LAN or whatever…this is in IE, of course….I use OExpress, and have cable and I get my POP3 & SMTP from that data listed there.

Reply | Quote

No, Lons, I am using Juno. If I was using OE/OL then I would already have those addresses, yes? My ISP is separate from my e-mail provider.

Reply | Quote

ok..was just wondering. But you should be able to get that info without problems…email provider – maybe somewhere in the header…send yourself a message ?

Reply | Quote

Doesn’t NetZero have a similar deal? I’m sure, back when they were free, I was able to get my mail from them via OE…

Reply | Quote

Using IPCONFIG will not reveal POP and SMTP information; it will only show IP configuration relevant to the network adapters/cards installed in the system it is being run on. Mail configurations are not part of the data it provides.

Bruce’s answer is right here on Juno’s website in black and white. Thus, if snooping is the course of action you choose to take, it means that you are circumventing their stated, offered service. I saw nothing specific regarding the proposed “snopping” in the Juno Guidelines for Acceptable Use, but a little common sense would tell you it’s not a swell idea to go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. If Juno wanted to you use POP3 and SMTP access, they would provide the information. The local ISP is simply the conduit through which the mail travels, and their POP3 information is of no use without the same information from Juno.

Bruce, if you like that interface, you’re stuck using that and that alone unless you change email services or Juno provides the information at some point in the future.

Reply | Quote

This is in the same world as AOL and MSN, they are going away from POP and SMTP type of email to the internet style. The MSN email by default on new accounts are the internet style, where all of the email is stored on their servers and just downloaded for reading. On the older accounts they are POP and SMTP until one starts using MSN Explorer (the Butterfly) at which time the account gets converted. MS will convert your account back to POP and SMTP, but you MUST call them for them to do it and then you make changes to your system to use IE and OE again.

Bottom line, Juno is dropping POP and SMTP.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Mark – I realize that IP had nothing to do with it…I was just letting some data out of my brain…(as in IP addy>IE settings connections>OE pop3/smtp,etc)…didn’t mean to throw a spanner in the works…

Reply | Quote

Mark ~

I am aware of the link you posted but that is not the answer to my query. I don’t completely agree where noses belong. Despite the obvious reasons & preferences they wish not to share this information, POP/SMTP access is indeed possible and not in violation of any guidelines or ordinances.

Juno allows one to plug in external mail accounts but not the converse. It is a safe and productive interface, but wish to implement the spam reducing features of Mailwasher or the like. The block feature w/ Juno only blocks domains which results in blocking desired mail. I have had this account for years so I’d like to keep it, but I suppose I could wean from the juno.com address and use the interface to access krymow.com mail or go to Eudora or hunt down another client, I don’t know…

Dave ~

How do you draw the conclusion Juno is going the way of web-based mail exclusively?

Reply | Quote

---

“Welcome to Juno WebMail!”
With Juno WebMail, you can read and write your Juno e-mail from any Internet-connected computer in the world.
Quick and Easy
Just log in to Juno WebMail with the same user name and password you use to sign on to the Juno software. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll find your new e-mail messages in your Inbox, a place to compose and send new messages, and an online address book.
Help

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Dave ~

This feature has been around for awhile to be utilized to pu/check e-mail outside of the interface on home unit if you are elsewhere. In fact, I have used this very feature to check my e-mail when I was lounging in the tiny town of Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol in the south of Spain. I was just curious how you figured Juno is dropping POP and SMTP.

Reply | Quote

Just received the following form NetZero who is now owned by Juno. and I have had other mails from NetZero that this was coming.
[indent]

---

Dear NetZero member:

We are pleased to announce the Preview version of NetZero WebMail.

With WebMail, you can:

+ Check your e-mail from home, from work or from
any computer that is convenient for you
+ Store information in your WebMail address book
+ Set your own WebMail preferences

Try NetZero WebMail right now by clicking on http://webmail.netzero.net/ and logging in with your NetZero member ID and password. Please note that NetZero WebMail is in the testing phase and we would appreciate your feedback on your experience using NetZero WebMail. Please send your comments and suggestions to webmail@support.netzero.com.

We hope you enjoy NetZero WebMail and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The NetZero WebMail Team

---

[/indent]

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

It’s obvious that you don’t agree with my stated position on where noses do, and do not, belong. No one is telling you what is right and wrong. Decide that for yourself armed with the knowledge that there may be consequences for your actions. You should consider the following situations, all of which are similar to what you are talking about, before you bullishly forge ahead without considering the advice being given.

• If I owned a restaurant, I’d be exceptionally upset if someone was poking around looking for a back door when I had a public notice on the front door saying “Please use this entrance.” I’d immediately be suspicious of such activity. Would you not, in the same situation?
• If I found someone attempting to perform a port scan on my PC, I would track them down and pursue litigation if possible.
• Would you mind terribly if I looked your address up in the local telephone directory and came to your house and tried all the doors and windows to see if they were unlocked, just so it would be easier to talk to you?
• If you went to the local utility pole and ran another high-voltage line up to your house because you had a lot of high-powered electrical equipment, the utility provider would be upset and probably pursue retribution and possibly a lawsuit to recoup their losses, even though their policy doesn’t say anything directly about such activity.[/list]Bruce, the point you’re missing is that just because Juno may have a POP3 server, it doesn’t give you the right to use it. They’ve publicy noted that. If you have time, read the Bill of No Rights – while it’s meant in a humorous vein, there’s more than a grain of truth to it. Common sense is called for – you will be responsible for your actions, not anyone else, so what you choose to do is all up to you. I’m simply urging you to be sensible about it and respect the company that provides the email client that you are so fond of.

Reply | Quote

Well, Mark, presented with the analogies and the thorough manner in which you did, I must acquiesce.

I suppose I stubbornly believed that since they handle my personal correspondence, I had a right to access or manage such in a way I saw fit. My unabated approach was erroneous and perhaps I was temporarily blinded by the frustration of my current inability to halt the sudden influx of spam. I can’t use Mailwasher, I can’t forward my mail, and I can’t cancel the account. The block feature does not block the download but diverts the tagged mail to a folder for instant deletion. I still have to download the stuff.

The funny part is that I mentioned early in this thread that I never received more than 20 spam/junk/etc. e-mails a day for the last few years and now I mysteriously appeared on several mailing lists that result in 60-100 more a day and growing. They are nasty pics & clips from multiple private yahoo, hotmail, and brazilian/portuguese user groups. They fill my account so regular and quick that legitimate mail is being bounced as ‘exceeding quota’ and takes forever to d/l the 10MB on dial-up (still waiting for decent Bb to be installed on this half of the street). I hope the prankster is tickled w/ the success.

Thank you, Mark, for your adamancy of taking the time to ‘set me straight’

After thinking about it and reviewing what Dave brought to the table, I have come to the conclusion the most reasonable compromise for now is to log in on the web to Juno rather than through the GUI and peruse what is present, delete the offending material from the server and then download my mail. Sort of like Mailwasher but with no bounce feature which is what I really wanted.

Reply | Quote

Since it’s NOT stopping the spam any more why don’t you stop using it and let Mailwasher handle it *all* as it arrives at krympw.com?

Reply | Quote

I have no problems w/ the krymow.com e-mail. Mailwasher connects to my server and I may peruse/bounce/delete/etc. I receive almost no spam there (knock on my head…). The spam and porn/mortgage/travel garbage arrives at my juno.com address. I use the Juno GUI as my ‘OE’ so to speak, and, Juno prefers I not access their POP/SMTP which w/o renders Mailwasher useless on that account.

Reply | Quote

But I thought you were rerouting all your krymow mail to Juno to protect you from sweepers or something…
I got it all wrong!
Why DO you use it, then?

Reply | Quote

Eileen ~

My krymow.com mail is routed to my juno account as that is the client I use (and I despise OE/OL) and do not wish to use 2 clients since Juno uses their own. I had Juno for years and then set up a private linux system to host my personal web site, a business site, and a few restricted others. I like to have 2 accounts and use the krymow.com mostly for professional use and the juno.com as my personal one. Everyone in the world has it and am reluctant to change as I am unable to find a forwarder that is able to handle Juno and also I will be forced back to Eudora or some other client. I’m pretty comfortable with this one as it does everything I need, is relatively safe from exploits and is not cluttered with all the extra features which I have found to be cumbersome.

Phil ~

The spam is a fluke. Someone got me good by signing me up for the aforementioned groups. Juno has been very accomodating over the last few years. They hope their own advertising will lead you to their Internet Services in addition to the generation of revenues for their advertisers, but these ads, unlike many companies, are very non-intrusive and are easily defeatable.

Mark set me straight on a few points and I will just delete direct from Juno’s web server to avoid the huge bs d/l. But if Mr. Scher’s lead becomes fruitful, then questions will surface that may very well answer my original query.

Reply | Quote

Hi Bruce:
I haven’t used Juno, but I used Hotmail. After they deliberately changed my preferences to ask for SPAM, I cancelled the account. There are other “free” mailboxes out there besides Juno. The question is: is “free” worth the hassle. I figure my time is too valuable to waste deleting 60-100 emails/day; fortunately, my main address only gets a few a day & almost all of them are routed directly to my trash. In reality, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Reply | Quote

There is a program to scrape web mail at the behest of the POP3 client of your choice, called Web2Pop. However, if you do not have an SMTP server available to you, you won’t be able to send, reply or forward. The product is modular and claims to have a module that supports Juno web mail: click here as they say. The software costs 19.67 Euro which for U.S. residents, is regrettably more expensive than it was a few months back.

I have no idea how MailWasher works; I suppose it might insert itself into the chain from the mail client to Web2Pop to the web site, thus not making life any more efficient, even if it is possible.

Reply | Quote

I thought we were on to something here at first, but I looked over all the info, sir, and did not see what Web2Pop can do that going to the webmail direct or using the Juno interface cannot. The module that is to be supported is called “Mail” but it does not exist for download. They had 4 or 5 simliar named ones but nothing clear as to which the corect one might be if not “Mail”. Also, Juno cannot be reconfigured to name server Web2Pop and Juno will not share the POP/SMTP addresses, so I don’t see how this can even be set up in the first place.

The question I have is that if this company can connect to Juno’s servers via OE or OL, how can this be if Juno states per the link Mark published above that it is not possible? And are they privy to POP/SMTP info, yet the account holder, namely me, is not??

Reply | Quote

Using Web2Pop would be useful if, say, you were using an anti-spam plug-in in Outlook or OE, or another POP3 mail client, and wanted to pull your Juno mail through that. Otherwise not useful. With respect to the other issues:

• You’ll have to ask the developer whether Mail is the same as Mail.com; I couldn’t see how to confirm that.
• Web2Pop, as the name implies, fetches mail through the service’s web interface (by impersonating a browser), so it doesn’t use the POP3 protocol at all.[/list]

Reply | Quote

Hey, Jefferson, I dig the new pic!

Okay, what I was thinking here was to plug Web2Pop’s POP address into Mailwasher to get to the Juno e-mail on the server and bounce it, but seeing as you say it doesn’t use POP3 at all, that won’t work as Web2Pop is not connecting to Juno servers, but acting as a browser to view the web-based mail and then send it through a client. So in essence, it reads it on the web and then converts it or whatever it does and shoots it to the OE/OL client, is that it?

Reply | Quote

Re: the pic, I changed it 3 times, so whatever you saw, it’s just between us, okay?

I think your description of Web2Pop is about right. I haven’t loaded it, but I believe that like many antivirus programs these days, it impersonates a POP3 server for your POP3 mail client software. On the other end, it scrapes web mail interfaces for your messages.

Reply | Quote

Mark ~

If you get the chance, please check out post 161780 by Jefferson Scher and tell me what you think. I’m not sure, but it is saying to me that they plug in modules that will allow you to read e-mail from clients such as OE/OL which counters Juno’s claims. If so, is this a private agreement that Juno doesn’t advertise or is this surreptitious activity on behalf of Web2Pop? Or do I have this all wrong?

Reply | Quote

Jefferson’s pointed out an interesting utility. The way it appears to work is to retrieve your mail from the Juno webmail interface, and then allow you to access it using a Web2Pop POP3 server. No harm in that. You have to have an SMTP server (which you do through your local ISP and probably at Krymow.com) to send outgoing mail. In other words, it’s transparent to Juno.

An example of what I consider surreptitious use….I use Trillian to connect to multiple IM clients, and that’s surreptitious in AOL’s eyes – but the other chat clients don’t knock it down actively as AOL does. Microsoft recently helped out with a change that “broke” the Hotmail integration of that app – believe it or nuts. If that were the case with the webmail services I’d probably feel the same way – surreptitious, maybe, a fight worth fighting (interoperability), heck yes.

Reply | Quote

Sorry, Mark, but this was clear as, uh, mud to me. What is this Web2Pop doing for me? Correct me if I am wrong, but here is my tentative understanding:

The progam+module accesses my mail via the web via the Juno webmail interface (not the local Juno GUI I normally use). Then, it “gathers” the information once it retrieves my mail. Then I use the interface of my choice, for argument’s sake, OE/OL, to connect to the Web2Pop server, which in turn emulates my regular Juno GUI, allowing me access outside of the regular Juno GUI (and contrary to Juno’s answer “can I get my mail through another e-mail client”).

Is this right so far?

So, in effect, Web2Pop is doing the “snooping” for me to get the POP3 address to allow the Web2Pop software to connect, yes?

Isn’t this just a ‘middleman’ doing what I was gonna do? I wanna make sure that this is okay as you convinced me otherwise previously, but here you seem to indicate there is no harm in that.

Now, if this is the way it works, then, can I plug Mailwasher in here somewhere to bounce the sh** I am currently flooded with? Plug in the POP3 address of the Web2Pop server in to Mailwasher to view & process mail on the Juno server?? Or is the address not user specific?

TFTH

Reply | Quote

If I understand correctly, Web2Pop is acting as a web browser to retrieve your email. In that sense, it’s not the least bit surreptitious, as it uses the interface for retrieving email just as you or any other upright creature with thumbs would. And, coincidentally,the same way the email provider wants you to access it.

After the Web2Pop module does this (and this is what I did not look into the details on) it places that same mail on a POP3 server, which can be accessed by popular email clients. Web2Pop is not doing any snooping at all – it’s essentially forwarding your email to a different location that can be accessed using the POP3 protocol. This is also why you need an SMTP server to send mail; Web2Pop can’t take email messages that you create and send them by acting as a browser. Who knows why, maybe in the next release or two.

This isn’t what I thought you intended to do. I thought you planned to look for a POP3 server that was not listed as publicly available, and plug straight into it. THAT would be a little suspicious, because Juno doesn’t intend for you to connect to your email account with them in that fashion – they want you to use the web based interface. If you think about it it makes sense for them to do so – it’s easier to support and troubleshoot a server-generated web page than it is to troubleshoot and support (and develop) standalone software to do the same thing, because you have one interface – not thousands.

That said, I think you should be able to use MailWasher with Web2Pop, because it’s designed to connect to your POP3 server and check messages on the server before downloading them into your chosen client. Once Web2Pop retrieves your email from the Juno servers, Juno is no longer part of the equation, their part is done. It’s all between your email client and Web2Pop at that point. If you were to stop using Web2Pop and log in to Juno, no MailWasher, mucho spam. Hope you’re hungry. Once your email address makes it onto the bulk lists, it’s

Best,

Reply | Quote

Sending mail is/will not be a concern.

If Mailwasher is reading my mail retrieved from Juno, then the bounce feature won’t work, will it, since it is pulled from the server? Juno will still get the spam in my name. What if I bounce it from Web2Pop’s server?? Will it go back to Juno? Purgatory? In circles??

So my Juno inbox won’t be ‘over quota’ and thus bouncing legit mail and Web2Pop will be the grunt here stuck holding my spam if I bounce it. Now…. all this is dependant on Web2Pop providing the POP3 address to me, which I assume they would considering that is a requirement to plug into a general client, yes?

Reply | Quote

Don’t bounce it from web2pop – just delete it.

Reply | Quote

I “second” that! It’s been running well for ME for several days. I realize that’s not a long time and I haven’t had to do that many bounces. But, unlike what MerC said, just above, I haven’t had a bounce fail yet. I hope that feechur continues to work. The free system my ISP has works well, but he doesn’t bounce spam – he just “vaporizes” it. I would prefer the bounce routine, in the hopes that one day, the offending spam’er will stop and take my address off his list. I, like many other people, go to great lengths to use pseudo-email addresses wherever I can, but we all know that only partially works.

Reply | Quote

I coughed up too.
Another funny(not) thing is some crawler has picked up my address so I keep getting spam from ME!

Reply | Quote

That word reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to ask for some time. You know those creepy-crawly things that go around harvesting email addresses? Can any of those idiots see “inside” the Lounge to get email addresses, like from our profiles?

Reply | Quote

Have a look at Why do you ask for two email addresses? in the FAQ.

Reply | Quote

I shoulda know’d. The ONE TIME I don’t check Help or FAQ….! Mea Culpa, ya got me – and THNX!

Reply | Quote

I’ve been using MW for a while now, and I also give it high marks. The ‘bounce’ feature is not compatible with some of my email accounts, but other than that it works exceptionally well.

One aspect that I really like is the “View complete header” – very useful for actively fighting spam. With Outlook the message has to be downloaded and opened in order to read the contents, but MW allows everything to be read remotely. HTML messages can be ‘read’ without pulling all of the linked images, thereby not telling the spammer that the message was read. The message preview can also be copied into a new message to be forwarded, complete with all headers, to the appropriate “abuse@domain” and uce@ftc.gov for action.

Reply | Quote

I tried MW when I read this thread, and I must be missing something – my spam mail was averaging about 10/day. Three days after I started using MW (and it’s bouncing feature) I was up to over 30/day. .
Needless to say I’ve stopped using MW..
Now to get rid of these spams..

Bob

Reply | Quote

I had used the OE block list and various other items to block spam, etc. Was getting so many – 100+ per day! – and this was after I had done a clean re-install of my WinME in Dec/01 !
I downloaded & installed MailWasher on Friday and I think this is so great! – Only spam I see are the ones listed in the email on the board, and since most of them are on the blacklist already – they are automatically checked for deletion!
I had tried all the other Spam programs available and the ease of useage was nothing compared to MailWasher…the others were so confusing to me, whereas MailWasher was a snap to figure out. I recommend this program to my friends and family.
Just my 2 .

Reply | Quote

I routinely sent/forwarded SPAM – with headers – to uce@ftc.gov. I also signed up with Abuse, and did that routine, too.
Lately, the uce@ftc.gov alias has been refusing forwarded email SPAM. So, I stopped using it.
I got tired of forwarding things to Abuse.net, too.
It seems that anything I do these days only gets me more SPAM, not less.
And I learned long ago not to “unsubscribe” since, as we all know, that only confirms that the SPAMMER has a valid email address.
-a.

Reply | Quote

Right now, it doesn’t work with web based mail. Nick, the author, is currently working on the program to make it work with web-based mail accounts, however, so keep checking.

Reply | Quote

Hi:
I’m curious about something regarding MailWasher. If you bounce the spam back to the sender (presumably), does this let the spammer know that the address is valid? I wonder if

I downloaded it some time ago, but like many things I download, haven’t used it yet.

Reply | Quote

Phil, it bounces the e-mail as if the address was invalid, rather than as a reply which would show that the address was valid. I have been using it for a short time and although it adds a step or two to the mail clearing process it sure gets rid of a lot of clutter before it hits the machine.

Reply | Quote

I’ve been using MailWasher since I first found a reference to it here and it works okay except with my e-mail accounts with Yahoo. But it is great to be able to bounce the junk/porn mail from MailWasher so they don’t end up in my ‘real’ account. I also had been using many services such as ABUSE/END SPAM, etc. but am guessing they must be on overload since they have been less effective over the last year.

Reply | Quote

Time to lock this one – it’s beginning to wrap subjects. Start a new thead if you want to continue the discussion.

Reply | Quote