Thread: My email is full. Help Please

Someone is probably using your e-mail address as a phony From or Reply-To (as mentioned by Kovich). I have over 50 e-mail addresses and that happens to a few of mine every once in a while. It is usually for a short term burst of spam sent out to thousands of victims. The second phase usually comes as the e-mail address gets added to the spam list and then I start to get dozens of messages per day that contain viruses and Trojans.

To better manage it, it might be a good idea to install Thunderbird or another e-mail client on your PC. Thunderbird makes it easy to delete this kind of junk and it has built-in spam filtering that works with Spam Assassin, which can be found on most Linux/Unix servers. I set up a Spam folder with each Thunderbird account that automatically redirects the messages flagged by Spam assassin to that folder. Thunderbird automatically deletes these messages at a time interval that you can designate. I usually have mine set to delete spam messages once they are 7 days old.

There is nothing that you can do to prevent this from happening, except to protect your e-mail address and never post it on a web site. Using an HTML mail-to link or using an address that is visible in a contact form pretty much guarantees that you will eventually be a victim of the spammers.

Use this whenever you need to post your e-mail address somewhere:
Email to image to avoid spam

The problem with Thunderbird is that if you do receive any malware, it's not just online - now it's on your local workstation, which can often cause problems if you accidentally open it! Though, this usually isn't a problem if your computer is secure. (Free firewall and antivirus program here, I use it myself.)

As for protecting your e-mail account, just make sure you access your mailbox using https:// and that you change your password often. Don't bother setting up a catch-all address if your server supports it, you'll get nothing but spam. Turn on any Anti-Virus programs if they exist on your server. And finally, as TopDogger said, be careful where you put it (your e-mail address) - but realize that you will receive spam, and the incident you just encountered will probably occur again.

Hi

Here is the contact form location.

Free Womens Blogs » Contact ME!!!

These are not coming from my personal address they are coming from address like

pjfkhiytjksfjie@freewomensblogs.com

nvjfhgk@freewomensblogs.com

Because the bounce notice saying not correct email is showing up in the catchall.

Still happening and I have changed all passwords again

Something is sending porn ads, drug ads and so on.

Butterflies Forever

Sami

Originally Posted by Kovich

The problem with Thunderbird is that if you do receive any malware, it's not just online - now it's on your local workstation, which can often cause problems if you accidentally open it! Though, this usually isn't a problem if your computer is secure. (Free firewall and antivirus program here, I use it myself.)

I forgot to mention the PC security issue, but that is important. You always want to keep your security software updated.


Sami4u, you have a catch-all e-mail address set up. That will catch all e-mail addresses for your domain that you do not have set up.

If your web site uses cPanel, you can change that. Go to the Mail (or E-Mail) section in cPanel, then select Default Address. Enter the following:

Code:

":fail: no such address here"

That will reject all e-mail for addresses for your domain that are not legitimate.