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On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 1:01 PM, NW wrote: > On my emails I get hardly any spam. (I don't have any filters set up for > myself.) My wife gets lots. We have a web site and I use the email set > up on there (IMAP). Recently I have persuaded the wife to move across to > using emails on our web site to try to avoid her getting so much rubbish. > > Don't ask me why, but she has started getting rubbish emails already. I > have set up some filters, which are already having to block over forty > addresses! There are many ways how an email address can end up in a spammers' database (and once it's there, it'll stay there forever): 1. the email address has been published on a web site; 2. the local-part (bit before the @) of the email address is very "easy": spammers commonly try to send email to john@, tom@, mike@ addresses regardless of whether these exists; 3. the owner has dealt with a dodgy company/organization which has sold on the address; 4. the owner has dealt with a legitimate company/organization whose database has been hacked; 5. there is some malware on a computer that scans mailboxes for databases. You should be able to decide whether 1 or 2 could be the case, but let's assume neither is. 3 and 4 aren't very likely either, especially since the problems re-occurred after she changed addresses. With regards to 5, note that I say "a computer": while it's definitely worth checking she doesn't have any kind of malware running, it may well be one of her regular contacts who has malware installed on the computer that regularly scrapes their mailbox for addresses. But that only gives a possible explanation about why she does get so much spam. As others have pointed out, much as it is very frustrating, spam is part of (online) life and is going to be for a while. The best solution is to use some kind of spam filter; there are many decent solutions available, both for Linux and Windows, many of them free. It's also worth checking with your provider and see if they offer spam filtering. Most providers do this for free and it is usually more effective than doing it at on your computer. (But a combination of both is probably most effective.) I wouldn't recommend only accepting mail from your contacts. People change email addresses, she might register on a website/order something online etc. and miss essential emails this way. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html