> We all know what spam is but my email
> address is presently being plagued with
> "one-off" emails which finishes
> off by saying you do not need to respond to
> this message if it is of no interest.

It's an old tactic, and the unsubscribe or complaint addresses are forged. Griping to the originator simply tells them there's a live address there.

> Much, much worse is the unwanted emails
> which actually give me an unsubscribe link,
> which does not exist.

The tactic is to send you off griping to an old (or nonexistant account) so that you don't get the spammer's REAL account kicked off the net.

>Is
> there a program which can refuse to accept
> an email, if it does not have a valid return
> address, just a thought.

Some folks are using MailWasher (which I don't use because downloading mail onto your computer presents some security/virus risks) and say that they're getting less spam after using Mailwasher. I use a $30/year mail account at Spamcop (as you can see). It features spam reporting (automated) and is heavily virus-and-spam filtered. Spamhausen know to drop my name off their lists, because it's a sure bet that anyone with a spamcop email is going to hunt down their upline ISPs and send through lots of gripes. I've posted using this contact (and put it on my websites) and get fewer than 3 pieces of spam a month at my Spamcop email.

...and those get promptly whacked, too.

A number of the big places are doing a better job of spamkilling -- including Yahoo (I almost abandoned an account there because of the spam) and Hotmail. Of the options I've tried, Spamcop is the best answer for my needs.




The Five Minute Mentor