Mohawk Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Can anyone give me some information on how to munge my real e-mail address. I have always used my REAL address on Microsoft News Groups and various forums. No doubt this has brought spam into my box. Does anyone have RELIABLE web links I can go to to munge my address (address munging) so I won't be identified and found by others on newsgroups and forums and thus not get more spam? THANKS A MILLION!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Yes, posting your "real" address these days is an issue, and a lot of the Microsoft newsgroups have many warnings in place about this .... No idea why you'd not find anything by means of a simple Google search "mung address" .. ton loads of stuff out there, methods, tricks, advice for and against .... If it's just examples you need to see, take a look at the headers of other folks' postings. You'll find all sorts of variations on the theme. You make no mention of your e-mail / news client, but basically, you configure that app to use whatever for your "address" .. some ISP's systems are such that if you change it there, you may have issues getting your stuff to go out, so that's not always an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WB8TYW Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 The number one guidline is not to use a domain name that can be registered, even if it does not look like it is currently registered. That way you do not increase their spam load. If you use a fake address that a human can decode like example.company it seems that the spambots will harvest it. And if it is close enough to your real e-mail address, you may even get to see it in the CC: list for spam that gets through to you. The spammer's software is dumb enough to harvest things like: every[at]address.on.this.cdrom.is.fictional. -John Personal Opinion Only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spambo Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Can anyone give me some information on how to munge my real e-mail address. I have always used my REAL address on Microsoft News Groups and various forums. No doubt this has brought spam into my box. Does anyone have RELIABLE web links I can go to to munge my address (address munging) so I won't be identified and found by others on newsgroups and forums and thus not get more spam? THANKS A MILLION!!!!!! The ease of munging depends on your email program. Some programs allow you to open your Preferences and type in whatever you want, other programs require you to create an identity (or profile) which is a little more difficult to create & change when the need arises, and a few will only accept valid addresses. There are a number of ways to munge your address. Obfuscate your real address Use a bogus address Completely phony Special purpose [*] Use a "throw-away" address #1 is accomplished by adding obvious letters to the username and/or domain name that humans can easily spot and remove. username[at]domain.tld can be altered to read NOSPAMusername[at]domain.tld, userREMOVETHISname[at]domain.tld, or REMOVEusername[at]domNOSPAMain.tld are several commonly used examples. If you choose this method you need to take the policies of your ISP's mail and news servers into consideration. Many email servers won't allow emails to be sent if the domain name doesn't resolve so you may be restricted to munging only the username portion. Some news servers may also refuse to accept posts if the domain is invalid although these are not as common. #2 Suggestion "a" is not recommended - if you make up an address you could inadvertently choose someone else's real email address, or one that someone will use someday. You could be passing your problems on to some innocent party & mail admin, and more importantly this very well could be a violation of your ISP's TOS. Suggestion "b" is more worthy of consideration. There are addresses which have been created especially for people to use for munging. Privacy.net's me[at]privacy.net address (and a number of slight variations) were created just for this type of use. Any username [at]example.com, .net, or .org can also be used without causing any problems for others. SpamCop recommends users wanting to use a non-existent address in its forums use nobody[at]spamcop.net, however I'm not sure they would appreciate it being used elsewhere. This method could violate your provider's TOS, but it is less likely to cause you problems because you aren't forging a username if the owner has given you permission to use that address. #3 Throw-away accounts are actually valid addresses for the user and are abandoned once spammers have begun filling their inboxes. New addresses are then obtained so the user can start out "fresh". There are services like Sneakemail which offer free or paid accounts that allow users to create multiple email addresses and delete them whenever they have the need. This type of address is excellent for submitting to web sites since addresses can created especially for that site and will easily identify any domain that sells your address to spammers, and they can also be used for newsgroup posts so regulars in the newsgroup can still contact you by email. Sneakemail's biggest drawback is that the username portion is a string of random alpha-numeric characters and they aren't easy for senders to remember so people you correspond with will need to update their address books whenever you delete an address. Additionally, Yahoo and Hotmail have been extensively used for throw-away addresses by many people. Since "throw-away" addresses are technically valid and belong to you it isn't likely this method would violate your ISP's policies, but it is possible that some ISPs don't allow it, and some ISPs mail servers may not allow you to send email through them if you use an unauthorized domain name - so you might want to check their FAQs.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohawk Posted March 3, 2004 Author Share Posted March 3, 2004 Spambo, THANKS! Since I use Outlook Express 6 (and the User Groups within OE and a few others) do you have any suggestions as to what OE allows concerning munging ? Thanks a Million!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 As said a few times .... OE will let you do anything you want ... it's your ISP that may or may not have a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spambo Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Spambo, THANKS! Since I use Outlook Express 6 (and the User Groups within OE and a few others) do you have any suggestions as to what OE allows concerning munging ? Thanks a Million!!! As far as I know, there are two ways to munge beyond what the parser already does: Forward the spam "inline" and be sure to remove any comments added by OE above the headers. For best results the headers should start on the first or second line in the message composition window. Do not add any personal comments, and be sure to remove any signature block if OE is configured to stick one at the end of your emails. Forwarding "quoted" could theoretically be done too, but you would need to remove any comments made by OE as well as the quote characters at the beginning of each line. The second option is to save the email to a file (somewhere that you can easily find it) then use a plain text editor (NotePad will do) to manually munge. The edited files can't be forwarded "as attachment", however you can open a new email composition window and attach one or more munged files. Don't write anything in the message body area, the submissions normally aren't seen by humans, and unnecessary comments could cause the parser to fumble. Using "Reply anyway" (without the quote marks) in the Subject line should force the parser to respond even if an error would normally not generate a response. Beware, while it is permissible to munge certain instances, such as a portion of your email address, that the parser wouldn't recognize as something it should munge, any unauthorized alterations could cause you to be penalized or banned from using SpamCop. Tricking the parser into finding addresses it normally wouldn't find is especially taboo. I suggest reviewing Material Changes to spam before submitting any spams or allowing the parser to send out spam reports if you're going to make any changes to your spams. If you want to make any changes not covered in the FAQ you should get Ellen's attention (or send the specifics to admin.spamcop.net]the Deputies inbox) and get an official opinion on whether the alterations are allowed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohawk Posted March 4, 2004 Author Share Posted March 4, 2004 Wazoo, Your Quote: You make no mention of your e-mail / news client I USE OUTLOOK EXPRESS 6 Do you know how to MUNGE so that I can use Newsgroups in OE...meaning I want to view and post and reply and receive (Newsgroups) thru my Outlook Express 6 Thanks a million Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Wazoo, Your Quote: You make no mention of your e-mail / news client I USE OUTLOOK EXPRESS 6 Do you know how to MUNGE so that I can use Newsgroups in OE...meaning I want to view and post and reply and receive (Newsgroups) thru my Outlook Express 6 Thanks a million That which you quoted was from way back, before you identified your app, before the PM's, etc ... so, yes, we all know now that you use OE <g> .. OE running ... Tools | Accounts | select the news account in question | Properties In the first window that pops up, (General Tab), suggested "e-mail" address is nobody[at]spamcop.net .... (please put in a"Name" that you can be singled out from all the other "nobody[at]spamcop.net users, Mohawk would be just fine) Hit the "Apply" button .. OK .. and away you go ... connect to the SpamCop news-server, post away ... Thinking that I just assumed that you'd already added in the SpamCop server to your accounts .. so just in case, the SpamCop news-server address is news.spamcop.net, this you'd plug into the "Server name" box under the "Server" Tab ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farelf Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 "Privacy" issues arise fairly often, is there a place for information like this in the FAQs? I don't see it covered already (but the labyrinth ...) Considering the definition in the SC Glossary the thought arises it would be nice to have some content/substance somewhere given that it is all part of the spam fight scene, useful and SC-specific cautions linked to "material changes" and so on. Besides which, all the work which went into the replies begs conservation. First thought was "How to ..." but, as usual there other possibilities/splits. Connected only in terms of "privacy" - the Forum name = e-mail address lack of response. A few members want to receive spam, for the rest I guess the "last active" dates might be instructive. Perhaps some way to extract and sort that data would be a useful administrative tool (if there might be some reliance on forum announcements for member communication)? Not to mention survey validity. Just some thoughts ... I have actual work to do, honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 Response is in the Lounge, due to the multiple subjects addressed. Link will be provided when I get it posted <g> http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5027 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ain Posted September 14, 2008 Share Posted September 14, 2008 Mac OS X users can use a Dashboard widget called obfuscatr. It provides JS or just plain encoding of your email. See the details at flash tekkie. obfuscatr was also featured in MacWorld Italy of March 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted September 14, 2008 Share Posted September 14, 2008 Mac OS X users can use a Dashboard widget called obfuscatr. It provides JS or just plain encoding of your email. See the details at flash tekkie. Somewhat confusing. Adding in java scri_pt to a newsgroup post or "just plain encoding" ?????? I'm thinking that someone doesn't understand the mode and usage of "plain text" ..... Hard to actually consider this post anything but Forum spam in order to do some form of advertising (for a product that doen't have much to do with the subject of this Topic.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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