Comments on: DPS and Spam Emails http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails Discover how to use your digital camera with our Digital Photography Tips. We are a community of photographers of all experience levels who come together to learn, share and grow in our understanding of photography. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:58:08 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Dave New http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-6063 Dave New Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:40:25 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-6063 I used to chase down SPAM sources, but since my domain catch-all account receives about 1000 a day (on a good day), it hasn't been practical for some time. I've owned a domain since the early 90s, and for many years it was publically listed with InterNIC (now Domain Solutions, the buggers), so every spammer out there has my domain in their junk email lists, ripe for 'alphabet' attacks. I'm now hosted by a hosting company that cloaks my domain record's contact and billing addresses, but the damage has alredy been done. Instead, I use my domain hosting provider's effective SPAM filtering to sort the suspect incoming email into a junk mail folder. I scan over the email subjects (organizing them by subject tends to group similar/same subjects together, making it much faster to skim), and then purge the folder. Very occasionally, I get false positives (real mail in the bulk folder) and false negatives (SPAM in my inbox), but by marking them appropriately, the SPAM filter 'learns' and gets increasingly smarter. Another thing I do, though, is generate a unique address (at my domain) for every different site I'm requested to give email information for, e.g. amazon@my-domain.com, digital-photography-school@my-domain.com, etc. I have no limit to the number of unique email addresses I can generate for my domain, and the all go to my catch-all email account, and when downloaded, I can easily sort them into dozens of different folders, making it easy for me to check for mail from various sources, and keep them organized. That way, if they ever do sell or disclose my address to 3rd parties, I know exactly where the email address came from. I've only had two entities break my trust in the past, and in both of those cases, I did go to the trouble to let them know what I thought of them. The emails subsequently stopped. I used to chase down SPAM sources, but since my domain catch-all account receives about 1000 a day (on a good day), it hasn’t been practical for some time. I’ve owned a domain since the early 90s, and for many years it was publically listed with InterNIC (now Domain Solutions, the buggers), so every spammer out there has my domain in their junk email lists, ripe for ‘alphabet’ attacks.

I’m now hosted by a hosting company that cloaks my domain record’s contact and billing addresses, but the damage has alredy been done. Instead, I use my domain hosting provider’s effective SPAM filtering to sort the suspect incoming email into a junk mail folder. I scan over the email subjects (organizing them by subject tends to group similar/same subjects together, making it much faster to skim), and then purge the folder. Very occasionally, I get false positives (real mail in the bulk folder) and false negatives (SPAM in my inbox), but by marking them appropriately, the SPAM filter ‘learns’ and gets increasingly smarter.

Another thing I do, though, is generate a unique address (at my domain) for every different site I’m requested to give email information for, e.g. amazon@my-domain.com, digital-photography-school@my-domain.com, etc. I have no limit to the number of unique email addresses I can generate for my domain, and the all go to my catch-all email account, and when downloaded, I can easily sort them into dozens of different folders, making it easy for me to check for mail from various sources, and keep them organized.

That way, if they ever do sell or disclose my address to 3rd parties, I know exactly where the email address came from. I’ve only had two entities break my trust in the past, and in both of those cases, I did go to the trouble to let them know what I thought of them. The emails subsequently stopped.

]]> By: aRi http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5895 aRi Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:09:24 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5895 Junk mails usually make me mad. But for the first time, i am happy i got this email in my junk. I subscribed to your newsletter and hope to learn the neat tips and tricks you have here. Thanks for the good work! and thanks to the spammer that got me here :-) -ari http://shutterhappy.blogspot.com Junk mails usually make me mad. But for the first time, i am happy i got this email in my junk. I subscribed to your newsletter and hope to learn the neat tips and tricks you have here. Thanks for the good work! and thanks to the spammer that got me here :-)

-ari
http://shutterhappy.blogspot.com

]]> By: Jason http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5786 Jason Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:08:50 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5786 I get spam emails every day but I've never actually opened one and abused the person that sent it. Haven't these people heard of the delete option? Seems like a lot of people overreacted. I get spam emails every day but I’ve never actually opened one and abused the person that sent it. Haven’t these people heard of the delete option?

Seems like a lot of people overreacted.

]]> By: Smit http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5723 Smit Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:53:53 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5723 Seems to me that if they included your message in a spam, you should go after them for copyright infringement. If you can find them, that is. Seems to me that if they included your message in a spam, you should go after them for copyright infringement. If you can find them, that is.

]]> By: Brandon Hopkins http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5694 Brandon Hopkins Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:42:39 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5694 No biggy, at least it was only one. No biggy, at least it was only one.

]]> By: Kris http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5692 Kris Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:31:55 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5692 I'm familiar with your family of blogs, but am not a newsletter subscriber, so was surprised to see the spam show up in my mailbox, and also knew right off that it wasn't you. It seems to be having the unintended consequence of sending you a lot of traffic and winning you some new readers, so I guess there's a silver lining. I’m familiar with your family of blogs, but am not a newsletter subscriber, so was surprised to see the spam show up in my mailbox, and also knew right off that it wasn’t you. It seems to be having the unintended consequence of sending you a lot of traffic and winning you some new readers, so I guess there’s a silver lining.

]]> By: Bes http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5648 Bes Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:35:12 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5648 I was wondering about it too. "W8 loss" did not seem to be a kind of subject you would usually write for a digital photography email. I got the same email earlier and thought it was spam, and saw it was from your e-mail [spoofed, of course] and read the entire thing to see if you used weight loss as an example somewhere. I then decided to come back to it later in the day. Thanks for explaining this. Keep up the good work! I was wondering about it too. “W8 loss” did not seem to be a kind of subject you would usually write for a digital photography email. I got the same email earlier and thought it was spam, and saw it was from your e-mail [spoofed, of course] and read the entire thing to see if you used weight loss as an example somewhere.

I then decided to come back to it later in the day. Thanks for explaining this. Keep up the good work!

]]> By: smc1377 http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5638 smc1377 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:02:03 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5638 Wow. Welcome to the new members/readers. Be sure to check out the forums! Though it sucks that someone soiled the good name that you (Darren) has been so good at building, I guess that old saying still holds some truth that "there is no such thing as bad publicity." Again, welcome to the new readers and introduce yourself over at the forums. There's always something to learn and something to share. Wow. Welcome to the new members/readers. Be sure to check out the forums!

Though it sucks that someone soiled the good name that you (Darren) has been so good at building, I guess that old saying still holds some truth that “there is no such thing as bad publicity.”

Again, welcome to the new readers and introduce yourself over at the forums. There’s always something to learn and something to share.

]]> By: Grant http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5635 Grant Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:32:11 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5635 You handled yourself very well and you've won a new reader simply by the way you post this and in the way that you responded to my angry email today complaining about the that was sent in your name. The good thing that came of this is that after spending 3 hours surfing through your site and the forums you've proved to me that you're a decent guy and you've found yourself a new reader. Sorry for reacting so badly to you, I was angry when I got the spam but now I'm actually glad (in a round about way) that I did. You handled yourself very well and you’ve won a new reader simply by the way you post this and in the way that you responded to my angry email today complaining about the that was sent in your name.

The good thing that came of this is that after spending 3 hours surfing through your site and the forums you’ve proved to me that you’re a decent guy and you’ve found yourself a new reader.

Sorry for reacting so badly to you, I was angry when I got the spam but now I’m actually glad (in a round about way) that I did.

]]> By: Darren http://digital-photography-school.com/dps-and-spam-emails/comment-page-1#comment-5619 Darren Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:24:15 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/dps-and-spam-emails/#comment-5619 thanks for your understanding and welcome to DPS. Hopefully some good will come out of this. Unfortunately I've had many hundreds of emails today from people who were anything but understanding - although I do totally understand their frustration. thanks for your understanding and welcome to DPS. Hopefully some good will come out of this. Unfortunately I’ve had many hundreds of emails today from people who were anything but understanding – although I do totally understand their frustration.

]]>