Blocking Unwanted Emails

[trout]

I have been with Telstra for quite a few years now with the same emails address without ANY problems with spam.
I either use outlook or Eudora as email clients.
I have never used Optus or any other provider , Maybe Telstra are better setup than the others.

[Australian coin]

the weirdest shit to happen by email was receiving someone else's TOTAL information, a dot is the difference and its all it takes, to receive someone else's email by mistake,
I got the name, phone, address, and credit card details from someone else using the Telstra big pond system. I could have had a spending spree but I am a good girl, and contacted the person and let them know that I had been emailed this, they were happy that I had done this. but yeah scary that someone placing a dot in the wrong place in you email address and anyone can have all you info.

[ausjack]

I am a good girl

You keep tellin ya self that AC..I know better :mocking: sorry sweetie but ya know I wanna be good :give_rose:

It's trout, he's a bad influence on me..well that's my story and I'm stickin to it :blush2:

[Ozcoins]

They're certainly not coming from me. I only run Macs, which are immune to malware, and only access this account with webmail anyway.

Macs are NOT immune to malware.
The simple fact is that "malware" is just a "program".  
Any computer is able to run programs which have been maliciously written.

Here is an example of malware for a mac
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-57410050-248/mac-flashback-malware-what-it-is-and-how-to-get-rid-of-it-faq/

Of note is that it is "designed to grab passwords and other information from users through their Web browser"

Here is A possibility.
1. You have malware on your mac.
2. Your webmail password has been compromised.
3. Spam is being sent via webmail using your account.

Please note. I am NOT saying this is what has happened, but it is something you dont even seem to know is possible and have dismissed without even considering it.

Steps 2 and 3 are also a possibility even without any malware being involved.  Have you heard of "brute force" attacks on passwords?

However, I do occasionally receive spam which has known addresses, including mine, as the originators. Optus apparently have an open relay, and you can easily spoof it into sending email from any @optusnet address. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about this, short of the ISP locking it down, which would disadvantage all their customers, so its not going to happen.

I do not believe that optus has an "open email relay".
They do have email servers that thier customers can use, but they can also police what thier customers do.  I also know that they monitor what thier customers do.  I have helped people who had been cut off from internet access because Optus had determined that thier computers were infected with something. Optus wanted the machines fixed before they were allowed back on the internet.

We can discount malware at my end, because there is nothing here for it to attach itself to.

As already demonstrated, this is simply untrue.

Microsoft Outhouse.. sorry, Outlook

This makes you look biased.  
People demonstrating bias, tend to ignore facts and jump to conclusions that fit with thier views.
You are welcome to behave like this, but it does not lend credibility.

webmail is totally secure

Again rubbish.  Do you have any idea how many hotmail and yahoo accounts have been compromised?  Your chosen "webmail" is NOT impervious.

Your glib "Ive got a mac so everything is ok" is incorrect and misleading.
If you are going to give security advice, you should know what you are talking about and stick to facts so people dont end up either doing the wrong things or with a false sense of security eg "I can type my banking details into a website that arrived in my inbox saying it was from my bank, because I've got a mac and its secure", or "I use webmail so everything is secure"
Mac users also need to know what they are doing....

The correct path to take for Goldy's problem would be to investigate the the emails that he is receiving (ie the mail headers which show the path that the emails took) and investigate his PC and decide what to do based on facts.
Given that he has had problems with his machine, there may have been malware on his machine, but that is not automatically the reason.

[markn]

They're certainly not coming from me. I only run Macs, which are immune to malware, and only access this account with webmail anyway.

Macs are NOT immune to malware.
The simple fact is that "malware" is just a "program".  
Any computer is able to run programs which have been maliciously written.

That's absolutely correct.  The main reason Mac's are perceived to be more secure is that because (relatively speaking) there are hardly any of them compared with PC's and they are not targeted much by authors of nefarious software.  The other reason is that a lot of Mac users border on being religious zealots and push the idea that they are the solution to all the world's ills, which obviously, they are not.

[trout]

Great answer OC :good:

[Fulvio]

I'm not going to even attempt to wrap up 40 years of computer science experience in one post here. Suffice to say I know a little bit about how things work, my own machines and thousands of others I've worked on over the years. My biases are based on that experience, and credibility doesn't come into it. I know crap when I see it, and I prefer not to own or use it.

Yes, you can write malware for anything, even a calculator. No, I do not consider OSX to be remotely vulnerable with even basic intelligence applied to its use. Install Flash? From some random website??? You've got to be joking. There is a reason why people hate Flash, and why many, including Apple, refuse to support it. There is also a very good reason to not enable Java on any machine, ever, unless specifically required for some particular purpose. Sure, most people have no clue, and are therefore the weakest link. These same people probably park the car with the windows open and the keys in it... does that make the car vulnerable?

Here's the header from an email I just pulled out of my spam folder. I typically receive dozens of these a day, all faked to look like I sent them. Yes, microplex.com.au, like optushome.com.au and many others, resolves to optusnet.com.au.

Again, Goldy's spam did NOT originate with me, deliberately or otherwise.

Return-path  
Received
from 190-174-199-170.speedy.com.ar (190-174-199-170.speedy.com.ar [190.174.199.170] (may be forged)) by mail30.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id r2DKt9wH027704; Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:55:24 +1100
from [192.8.162.188] (account seasoned@gmail.com HELO mbdeq.ttcwgnlwmom.org) by 190-174-199-170.speedy.com.ar (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.2.3) with ESMTPA id 015745353 for fulvio@microplex.com.au; Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:56:42 -0300

Date  Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:56:42 -0300
From  , , ,
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To  , , ,
Subject  Get Ahead with a Degree
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[trout]

My first computer was a 286 with a thumping big 40 meg hdd and 1 meg ram running Dos 5, it even had an ega video card in it :yahoo:.
I have had a few different ones since then, But I have Never had a drama with malware etc.
I have also never had a major drama with the op, on the odd occasion I have blown hdd's, video cards,power supplies and cpus but my OP software has never let me down.
I have heard that Mac's are more reliable but not user friendly when it comes to upgrading the hardware.
Give me a standard PC any day, these can be rebuilt and upgraded in no time flat for peanuts.

[ausjack]

Not knowing FA about these things I'm still don't trust them so I only fluff around with these..no banking or anything else and I have got virus from looking at sites like my card sites as they have a lot of traffic so the baddies hit them more..well that's what the puter dude said. He said they go after the ones that are popular like music etc, so that's why I only go to about 6 sites, I have here and pp, ebay and a few others for coins oz trader for cards and that's about it..being a puta retard also helps :good:

[markn]

I'm not going to even attempt to wrap up 40 years of computer science

*SNIP*

Your 40 years of computer science should have taught you that almost no system is invulnerable and certainly not a mass market device like a Mac.  

In the interests of forum harmony I am cutting this conversation off here.  Goldy rather than listen to myself, Fulvio, or Ozcoins I suggest you see impartial advice elsewhere.  If there's any further debate on the relative merits of one type of system over another then I'll zap the thread.

End of debate.

[trout]

I agree with Mark :good:
Enough said about computers, who care what type you use as long as you use it here :dance:

I hope you got all the wrinkles out of your system Goldie :good:

[markn]

I hope you got all the wrinkles out of your system Goldie :good:

Me too.  I don't think spam is a big problem, I get hundreds spam emails a day and my spam filter does a great job of hardly showing me any of them.  Every now and again I troll through my junk mail and pick out the occasional false positive that gets sent there by mistake.  It's no biggie.

[ausjack]

this is all way over my head, so as long as it plays the game and not cost me a fortune all is good