[Traceywid]

Windows XP Home SP2.
Internet connection ADSL broadband.
A few months ago I started getting spam e-mails (4 or 5 a day) from a company giving shares advice. I scanned them & found them harmless, but no way to unsubscribe so I ignored them.
They all had very strange subject titles, eg: schizophrenic yoga, discourage entitled, crochet twitter, carbon paper wineglass, termite, camel illegitimacy etc (relevance to come)
They stopped as suddenly as they started on 21/9.
On 29/9 I started getting 'bounced' e-mails that I hadn't sent. It took me a few days to realise (as I couldn't open the attachments) that they all had strange subject titles like the spam e-mails listed earlier. They all come to my inbox with different prefixes before the @. I am now getting up to 14 a day & it's increasing. I have scanned them & again found nothing sinister in them.
I have up to date McAfee Virusscan 8 & Zone Alarm Pro running & run Lavasoft AdAware scans after every 'internet' session.
In addition I have scanned my pc with System Mechanic, Trend Micro Housecall, Ewido, Spybot S&D, The Cleaner, Spyware Doctor & Windows Defender. I also have Spyware Blaster installed.
None of these have found anything on my system.
I have e-mailed my ISP 3 times about this but they don't answer my e-mails.
Can anyone help, or do I have no choice other than to change my e-mail address?

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Hi Tracey, I use Microsoft Outllook to receive all my emails. I have Norton Security suite that comes with a "This is Spam" option that informs Norton that the email recieved is spam. As soon as I get a spam email I click on the "This is Spam" button. The next time I get an email from the same sender it goes directly to my Spam folder.

From what you have written, it looks as if the sender has hundreds of different sender email addresses. What you could do is purchase some anti spam software (spamfighter, Mail Washer Pro, etc). There are hundreds of packages around, and the good ones will allow you to block a specific domain where all the emails are sent from. Once the anti spam software intercepts all emails from the spam senders domain, then all of the spam you recieve from that domain will hopefully be blocked.

What ever you do, dont respond or open the emails.

[Wizard1969]

Hi Tracey, I use Microsoft Outllook to receive all my emails. I have Norton Security suite that comes with a "This is Spam" option that informs Norton that the email recieved is spam. As soon as I get a spam email I click on the "This is Spam" button. The next time I get an email from the same sender it goes directly to my Spam folder.

From what you have written, it looks as if the sender has hundreds of different sender email addresses. What you could do is purchase some anti spam software (spamfighter, Mail Washer Pro, etc). There are hundreds of packages around, and the good ones will allow you to block a specific domain where all the emails are sent from. Once the anti spam software intercepts all emails from the spam senders domain, then all of the spam you recieve from that domain will hopefully be blocked.

What ever you do, dont respond or open the emails.

[Neil Jones]

On 29/9 I started getting 'bounced' e-mails that I hadn't sent. It took me a few days to realise (as I couldn't open the attachments) that they all had strange subject titles like the spam e-mails listed earlier. They all come to my inbox with different prefixes before the @. I am now getting up to 14 a day & it's increasing. I have scanned them & again found nothing sinister in them.

Just ignore them, they're the latest spammer tricks.
Some of them will be genuine bounces as some spammer somewhere has forged the headers to make it look like you sent them (hence why the bounces come back to your address), others could potentially be the next generation of viruses. Never open any attachments though.

I have e-mailed my ISP 3 times about this but they don't answer my e-mails.

They won't, there's nothing wrong with the email, their email, your email or their service. The messages are being generated on the wider internet.

[Traceywid]

Thanks guys,
So I don't have a trojan or something nasty?
Somebody has suggested I change my ISP password, do you know if that would work?
I will look into Anti-Spam programmes. (Been lucky for 4 yrs I guess)
Is it easy to see the specific domain they're coming from? I've looked at the headers & can't make head nor tail of them.

[Wizard1969]

Tracey - If you purchase some anti spam software, there will be all sorts of options on the software itself that will allow you to reduce or eliminate spam mail. MailWasher pro (www.firetrust.com) has had several good reviews and I think that PC Advisor magazine released a free trial version.

You say that you use Maccaffee security suite. I have not used it myself, but I would have thought that there would be some anti spam options on there. Have a look and see if you can find any anti spam options on Maccaffee before you layout any money.........hope this helps.....Paul