Payne, I have received Several scam letters from people in Nigeria. I don't even open them anymore. Any suggestions on how to get these stoped? Any would be appreciated. Brenda in Alabama

Send the messages to your local TV news that handles "Investigative Reporting". Our local station if 28 Action News. Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brenda Joiner" <wheeliebj@msn.com> To: <DANIEL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:36 AM Subject: [DANIEL-L] Scam letters from Nigeria > Payne, I have received Several scam letters from people in Nigeria. I don't even open them anymore. Any suggestions on how to get these stoped? Any would be appreciated. > > Brenda in Alabama > > > ==== DANIEL Mailing List ==== > Don't forget to change the Subject line of your message when you change the subject of a reply message. > >

Brenda, SPAM is a difficult problem for all of us - I get from 50 to 75 SPAM messages a day. If you can find a way to keep them from getting in your inbox, then copyright that idea and sell it. There is no easy way to keep SPAM out of your inbox. Payne seems to think they got his email address from the DANIEL list, but not so. They probably got it off his website or where he left it as a contact address on another website. Nobody has access to your email address on the DANIEL list but me and Rootsweb and we do not sell or give it to anybody. It would violate Rootsweb's Privacy Agreements.. There are programs out there that will limit the number of SPAM messages you receive but they also delete some messages that you did not want deleted. You can also forget that No-SPAM Registry, just like the Anti-Call Telephone Registry. I think those suckers sell your name, address and phone numbers to anybody that will buy them. And, if you were not on their SPAM list before, you will be after you register with these registries. <grin> The only way do get rid of these SPAM messages is the old fashion way - delete them with a click of the mouse. You can use Message Rules in Outlook Express to automatically delete messages that contain certain keywords but these Spammers have already figured ways around any keyword search by changing the subject line from "Viagra" to "V.I.A.G.R.A," etc. Mine catches the dummies but the smart persons get by this check in a heart beat. Also, no matter what we do, these folks, often poor little old ladies or disabled fellows living in a mobile home, will find a way to circumvent keyword searchers, blocked sender lists, etc. Until the Congress passes laws that will provide for economic sanctions against Internet Service Providers or Domain Registrants for the conduct of those using their services, there is not a lot you can do about SPAMERS. However, these person can just a quickly switch to a new ISP or use an overseas ISP where US Law cannot reach them. This is why I limit who receive my primary email address. Also, when I am posting an email address to a website, I use my Hotmail address. Also, if you have a website never link your primary email address directly on the website but use a web driven form to feed any contacts information back to you. The reason is SPAMERS have robots that go from website to website looking for any email addresses contained on a website. These folks are smart, crafty, have reasonably good computer equipment and have a lot more time than they have money. That latter commodity is what they want from you. <grin> As for what you can do about SPAM essages - little or nothing, except never respond to one and delete any and all that come in to your mailbox. Most of these folks work on a .5 to 1.5% return from any message they send, so if they do not get any responses, they quickly drop off your email address. The only problem, there are lots of these folks out there and they probably trade email address lists between each other. What the Feds need to do is put a few of these folks in jail and I think will do as much as anything else to reduce the number of SPAM messages we get. However, what do they do -- they prosecute people like Bill GATES and Martha STEWART - high profile targets. Did you know the Clinton Administration spent more money prosecuting Microsoft from 1993 to 2001 than it did in pursuing Usama Bin Laden? One of the main reasons SPAM and viruses are such a problem, today, is because the Clinton Administration was able to coerce the US Courts into forcing Microsoft to release parts of the code for their operating systems to their competitors, whose minions later put critical parts of it the public domain. Once you have the keys to the backdoor, why bother about opening the lock on the front door? I guess it all shows where their priorities were........ So much for SPAM on the DANIEL list. John R. Clarke Thomasville, GA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brenda Joiner" <wheeliebj@msn.com> To: <DANIEL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 11:36 AM Subject: [DANIEL-L] Scam letters from Nigeria > Payne, I have received Several scam letters from people in Nigeria. I don't even open them anymore. Any suggestions on how to get these stoped? Any would be appreciated. > > Brenda in Alabama > > > ==== DANIEL Mailing List ==== > Don't forget to change the Subject line of your message when you change the subject of a reply message. > >