# spam cop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719 "2002-09-26T14:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71e660/32.png) [@guava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guava)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/1 "2002-09-26T14:33:29Z")
I received along with my usual dozen spam messages today a message (Are You Gay And DOn’t Know it?) with the following disclaimer: This Is Not UCE You Are Opted In To Our List Also Our List Was Washed Through The “SpamCop Wash” We purchased From [http://spamcop.net](http://spamcop.net) I did NOT opt in to this list. What do they mean the list was “washed”? Anybody else get these messages? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/2 "2002-09-26T14:41:48Z")
Rule No 1: Spammers are liars ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/3 "2002-09-26T15:57:18Z")
Wow. I got this several times from different people. What do we do if we DO know it? ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/4 "2002-09-26T17:12:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > \*\*Wow. I got this several times from different people. > > What do we do if we DO know it? \*\* Kinda like my wifes main complaint about spam… MAKE YOUR PENIS GROW 1-3 INCHES!!! ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/5 "2002-09-26T17:24:54Z")
Is there any good way to prevent spam? It’s getting ridiculous…I’m getting over 100 pieces a day on my Yahoo! account. It’s becoming quite a chore to get rid of it. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/6 "2002-09-26T17:34:23Z")
[Spamcop.net](http://Spamcop.net) may be a victim of an attack, at least according to their site: [http://www.julianhaight.com/forgery.shtml](http://www.julianhaight.com/forgery.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/7 "2002-09-26T17:37:13Z")
[Spamcop.net](http://Spamcop.net) is dedicated to fighting spam. A recent tactic of spammers involves including an “authorization” by [spamcop.net](http://spamcop.net) in an attempt to associate teh sending of spam with that organization. Rest assured that the email you received has nothing to do with sending spam as a quick visit to their website would show. The easiest and most effective way to reduce spam without altering your browsing and posting habits is to become familiar with the custom filtering options of your mail reader. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/8 "2002-09-26T17:37:53Z")
[Spamcop.net](http://Spamcop.net) is dedicated to fighting spam. A recent tactic of spammers involves including an “authorization” by [spamcop.net](http://spamcop.net) in an attempt to associate teh sending of spam with that organization. Rest assured that the email you received has nothing to do with spamcop as a quick visit to their website would show. The easiest and most effective way to reduce spam without altering your browsing and posting habits is to become familiar with the custom filtering options of your mail reader. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/9 "2002-09-26T17:45:46Z")
The easiest and most effective way I have to reduce spam is to be lightning-quick on the “delete” button. It gives me a feeling of power. ---
**Author:** ![Coilean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/10 "2002-09-26T19:21:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*Is there any good way to prevent spam? It’s getting ridiculous…I’m getting over 100 pieces a day on my Yahoo! account. It’s becoming quite a chore to get rid of it. \*\* I’ve the same problem with my hotmail account. Thing of it is I don’t really use the acct that much so it’s easy just as easy to do a mass highlight then go through and pickout the messages I want to save. Un-highlight those, move em do a different folder and deal with em there. As for prevention, probably not gonna happen. After all, we still get junk mail the ol’ fashion way no? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/11 "2002-09-26T19:37:04Z")
I know what you mean, **Drachillix**. A quick count of the 52 or so pieces of spam i’ve accumulated since the last clearout reveals that more than half are offering to “add 1-3 inches overnight - guaranteed!” If I take all of them up on their offer, soon I won’t even need to bother taking the train up to Birmingham to see my girlfriend 😃 Surely even if we can’t get them for sending out spam, they could be prosecuted for false advertising? Anyone feel like putting together a case…? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/12 "2002-09-26T19:52:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Anyone feel like putting together a case…? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/13 "2002-09-26T20:02:59Z")
I have two e-mail accounts . One ends in ".com " and the other “.co.uk”. The ".com " account is always full of spam ,either from the USA or aimed at USA citizens. On the other hand the ".co.uk "account is completely spam free ( touch wood ) so it seems that spam is mainly an American problem. On the subject of junk mail ( and junk phone calls and faxes ) there is a system here in the UK wherby you can register not to receive these letters and calls. All commercial organisations must sign up to this and it seems to work. I now get very little junk mail of unwanted phone calls. ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/14 "2002-09-26T20:52:16Z")
I get about 75 a day now. I used to never get any and it all started when I used this address when registering a freeware version of PGP. I don’t know if that’s the source so I won’t make the claim but until that happened, i never got spam. Since it was work related I used my work account. Another big crime by me… replying to one of those official looking “You receive this because you opted to… click here to be removed”. I can’t block their domains because it’s either a main account like yahoo or msn or it’s a phony one like 1313403-3@imi-net-pod.net.qu It takes me about 45 seconds to delete it all in the morning. Is there a way to trace the return address to get the real domain or IP so I can block that one? I know they may be spoofing others but I want to at least give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![ForbiddenFruitsalad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@ForbiddenFruitsalad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForbiddenFruitsalad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/15 "2002-09-26T21:13:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > **Is there any good way to prevent spam?** There’s unfortunately no really good way. The most common way is the **blacklist** approach: keep a list over machines used by known spammers and refuse any mail from those machines. (A slightly more sophisticated system will also analyze mail contents and block messages based on spam-like patterns.) This works fairly well, but keeping an accurate and up to date blacklist is a difficult and time-consuming task. If you use a blacklist with an aggressive policy it will block some legitimate mail, and a conservative policy will let some spam through. A little used but very effective spam-stopper is the **whitelist** approach, where you instead keep a list over the machines and/or addresses from which you will accept mail. However, this will obviously make it difficult for people not already in the whitelist to send you mail, so it’s mainly used for the personal accounts of really paranoid people. I currently use three different relatively conservative blacklists and have managed to keep the spam down to about one message per day, which isn’t too bad for an address I’ve been using for years and haven’t been particularly careful about revealing online. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spam-cop/129719/16 "2002-09-26T21:14:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Is there a way to trace the return address to get the real domain or IP so I can block that one? I know they may be spoofing others but I want to at least give it a try. Depending on the skill of the spammer, simplying examining the mail header (by setting your mail reader preferences to display the full header) can give you a good clue where it may be coming from. The full header should list every server that the message passed through on the way to your inbox, in reverse order. However, the spammer can fake these too, _but only up to a certain point_, as they are automatically added to, from the bottom up, as the message makes its way to you. If you can identify the first spoofed header, then you have a good way of spotting the numeric IP address responsible. If your mail program allows it, then you can set up a filter to block any message with that IP address in the header. Useful info [here](http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers/headers.html) (especially towards bottom of page).