Stalking via email? (oe6)

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Hi to everyone
I have a feeling that someone is sending me emails to disrupt my schedule. I am receiving dozens of them each day, they take forever to scan and download with free AVG email scanner and when they finally arrive in my inbox it is just a yellow envelope with no ‘from’ text and there is nothing in the message just a blank page. On normal emails the AVG scanner scans the mail and you can see it reach 100%, with these mysterious ones it can be scanning up to 800,000%. I am completely stupid with computers and the person sending these (I think) knows this and would think that I could never find out who is the sender.
Please! Please! tell me there is a way to find out where these emails are coming from. I might be stupid with computers but I can follow instructions precisely if they are very very step by step.
Thank you for your time, any help very much appreciated.
Regards
aussie

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It’s very likely that you are just receiving the “bulk junk mail” (SPAM) that plagues so many users. As to why AVG is taking so long to scan it, I can’t be sure. If you want detailed information on where these come from, select one in the Inbox (top right) pane of OE, right-click its Subject and then click Properties. Then click the Details tab. There you’ll see all the header information; in particular you’ll see a “From:” field, telling you the sender info.

If it looks unfamiliar, or different on each of the offending posts, then it’s probably either “generated spam” (not targetting you personally) or it might be the result of a virus on somebody else’s computer, that’s sending out such e-mails to everyone in his/ her address book. If you’re confused about the header info, you could post a copy, removing any personal info you want first. The Message Source button will open the message in Notepad for you.

Alan

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I followed your instructions and the Internet header information went as follows:
X-EMS: wait 20s through to X-EMS: wait 270s in increments of ten
then X-EMS: wait 271s through to X-EMS:wait 311s in increments of one
There were no details on the general tab.
I am really keen to find out what I can as late last year someone was sending me anonymous emails with 100’s of colour
photos in them at the rate of 15-20 per day and each email took about 20 minutes to download. We only found out who sent them by accident as they told someone who told me.
I may be paranoid as I think they learnt their lesson but still, I would like to know.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

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(Edited by AlanMiller on 15-Jun-05 11:49. )

I’m not sure where this information came from. If you look at an e-mail in Outlook Express, as described, you should get to something like this. There should always be a “From:” field in the headers somewhere.

Sorry, didn’t read your reply properly! Looks like you are looking in the right place but the absence of information suggests that the message did not get through to you properly. This is all consistent with the huge wait times you were experiencing. It does actually sound like it’s your virus scanner “choking” on them. There are numerous possibilities to circumvent such behaviour, but generally (for normal mail download, without the hiccups) the method shown will reveal the sender info… if it’s genuine of course.

Alan

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Try highlighting the blank area of the email where the text “should” be and then change the text color to see if there is any white text that will show up when the color is changed.

You could try blocking all messages from that sender. To do this, highlight the message in your Inbox, or wherever it is, and from the top of the window choose Message>Block Sender).

You can also forward the message to your ISP’s abuse department with a message explaining your suspicions and ask if they can/will identify the sender for you or at the very least, contact the sender and place them on notice of possible legal action. HTH

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Another solution is to use a spam blocker that does its business on the server side, such as Mailwasher Pro http://www.firetrust.com/firetrustpro.html%5B/url%5D. It allows you to tag and delete those emails (or any other email you choose) from the server before they come down to your system – AVG will never see them. The Mailwasher Pro has a 30 day free trial period – after 30 days, it reverts to Mailwasher Free.

Bill (AFE7Ret)
Freedom isn't free!

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Doc,
—————————————-
You can also forward the message to your ISP’s abuse department
—————————————-

Unless it’s Verizon, then you may a well send a message to a null location. ( just can’t resist giving them the black eye )

Speaking of the big V, You know they have been blitz advertising the “double your DSL speed” thing? Well I phoned them the other day and said this was “ME” calling. No other identification needed.
I told them that since I was paying the same rate as was now being advertised, why wasn’t my speed doubled? After a noticeable period of silence, they said OK, we can do this for you at no extra charge.
A service order was issued and I am supposed to get my speed increase by Friday!!
Give it a shot all you Verizon customers. It can’t hurt!!

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Bob,

Isn’t there a disclaimer in the ad that says that this is for new customers only ?? I’d bet that they are so tired of hearing from your that they would give you whatever service you want and throw in a profit sharing program with stock options and the keys to James Earl Jones’ Bentley.

I’ll rattle Verizon’s cage and see what falls out, but I don’t think I have the same clout that you have there.

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Doc,

GO FOR IT!

( Just tell them your friend Bob told you to ask )

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With SBC, you can get the deal they advertise if you are willing to sign up for a year term as a new customer must. Theoretically, at the end of the year the price will increase to the ‘normal’ price for the speed tier you have unless you call them and get them to extend for another year. I’m just the messenger so I don’t know this to be true. I’m on the edge of acceptable DSL service so I’ve stuck with cable for the time being. But that is what more than one SBC customer has told me.

Joe

--Joe

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Careful, Bob. Remember Rule 11, not matter how unhappy you may be with your ISP.

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Charlottte,

I’m trying my best but even Claude agrees with me regarding “that Company”.

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[indent]

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“that Company”.

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[/indent] Much better!!

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Bob,
Today is Friday. Did Verizon come through for you?
Would you let us know what your Upload and Download speeds were before the upgrade and what they are after the improvement.
Regards,
Slim

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Hi Slim,

Yes, they did finally make the upgrade Friday. A day late but that’s OK. I had to call them to give them a boost when it reached 96 hours instead of 72. The tech initially said that it didn’t look like the change was made or completed for some reason. She said they would have to reinstitute the order and wait another 72 hours for the change. As soon as I hung up, I did another speed test and viola, there was the new speed numbers without the wait.

I didn’t write down the exact Before numbers, but they were about 728 download and 93 upload. This on a 768128 line.

The new numbers are running 1493.7 download and 224.5 upload. They were even better when I first took the test but I ‘m sure it still depends on time of day, etc.

It was worth the wait and was a upgrade.

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Bob,
That is a remarkable difference. Glad you were persistent and successful.
Best regards,
Slim

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