Spam Flood

[#1]

Quote from: ShaGGyhome

I am getting hammered with failed delivery emails, ...

This sounds like backscatter -- some spammer is using your address as spoof sending address on a lot of tripe -- and you may have to grin and bear it for a few days. I wonder if you recently opened a spam email by mistake, and thus told a spammer your address was good?

[#2]

Im upto 965 emails in the last 4 hours. And no I haven`t opened any spam as I have said I have used this account for 15+ years and looking around on here and other forums it seems to have all happened to people affected today and all with plusnet (or aliases).
Too much of a coincidence wouldn`t you agree.

[#3]

Yes, I get those "failed delivery" messages in bursts every now and again.
Just learned to ignore them and expect another batch in a few weeks.
But I still haven't worked out if they are "real" spam or "backscatter"; nothing I can do about it either way....

[#4]

@ShaGGyhome
Mmmm, I'm a believer in coincidence actually, and from what Bob says in Reply #11 above, your horrible experience isn't typical. If it's backscatter, it does come in waves (more like tsunamis in fact) and pass from one person to the next. Otherwise, it could be someone has found a way to get past the spam blockers until Postini catches up.... Dunno! Just to make matters worse for you, I haven't had a single spam for two days....

[#5]

hi Chris,
I know what your saying but considering on here and adslguide (or whatever its called nowadays) there's a few of us experiencing this and it has all happened today and considering the vast majority of users don`t even know that forums exist it makes me wonder how many people are getting hammered?
and why all in one day and on the same server/network?

[#6]

We are Lucky, it looked at his name and sent it to him instead of us - Phew

[#7]

Over the last few weeks I have had very little spam 2 or 3 a day but the last 3 days I have over 40 a day all have google in their subject
Puddy

[#8]

Quote from: ShaGGyhome

and why all in one day and on the same server/network?

Well I got a load too and my email is nothing to do with PlusNet.......
I've got a dozen or so domains and the spammers just move on from one to another, though not all are afflicted equally or in the same way.
And NDR spam isn't actually identifiable as spam - it (usually) has all the characteristics of a totally valid NDR so how can the spam filters catch it? Non-Delivery Reports are very important to people sending email. Only the recipient can tell if it's as a result of something they sent or not, which is why it's such a pain to deal with.

[#9]

Quote from: HPsauce

Non-Delivery Reports are very important to people sending email.

Agreed in the past two weeks my wife has sent two emails which were returned marked 'Failed delivery' both were marked spam and put unto the webmail spam folder, as she along with no doubt countless other customers has no idea how to access webmail and relies purely on Outlook Express for her email delivery, she would never have known that these emails were returned unless she happened to be in contact with the recipient and they had informed her that they had never received an email from her.
It was only because she was expecting replies to both that I checked her webmail and found the failed delivery messages in the spam folder, when raising a ticket I am informed that I should report them as 'notspam', tried that with the first one two weeks ago, it does not work they are still being marked as spam.

[#10]

Hobo, if you or your wife don't use webmail, it would be worth your while having tagged spam delivered to your inbox (Outlook Express or whatever). You can do this by going to Manage My Mail from the members' page, clicking the spam tag, and resetting the option there.
What I do is have a Message Rule in OE to delete emails with [-SPAM-] in the subject, then I just have to check the Delete folder for false positives before ditching all the garbage.
This does use up bandwidth, but as long as you don't get huge amounts of spam it shouldn't really matter.
On the matter of "notspam", this sends false positives to Plusnet to help train the filters, but it's a slow old process, especially since Postini itself doesn't seem to have an automated way of using them.  On the other hand, Postini does seem to invite missed spams being marked as such and forwarded to them. I think their filters get much more training to be harsh than they do to be lenient, arguably a good thing, but preferably if we can whitelist our newsletters etc....

[#11]

It was just a short, albeit a very bad storm.  But it does prove that more needs to be done to protect the e-mail system, no matter what type of attack it was.  I do have an active , but litle used Google e-mail address, but in the 18 months I have had it I have yet to receive one spam message.
OK, I know that less use means less risk, but I am very careful with my security and to whom I send e-mails and I do not open suspect ones when using my PlusNet address.

[#12]

That proves nothing, Cross Fingers, I havnt had bounced mail problems for the last 18 months either - that on PN

[#13]

Quote from: ChrisL

it would be worth your while having tagged spam delivered to your inbox (Outlook Express or whatever). You can do this by going to Manage My Mail from the members' page, clicking the spam tag, and resetting the option there.

Ta for that, it is that long ago since I set my mail preferences I had forgotten about that, since the hacking debacle when I took up the domain offer my spam had reduced from the hundreds to zero, consequently I have very rarely checked the webmail spam boxes until now.
Though I still cannot see how Failed Delivery messages are getting marked as spam.   

[#14]

Quote from: Hobo

Though I still cannot see how Failed Delivery messages are getting marked as spam.

No, a bit odd, unless postini is now recognising them as *spoof* bounces? There's some debate about that here and following.

[#15]

Interesting how different people have different experiences with different accounts.
I signed up for a GMail account when it first started, and got about 30 spam e-mails every day before I'd even sent one e-mail. The GMail spam filter correctly identified them all, but I soon closed the account.