# Spammers use preone.com then pretwo.com then prethree.com then..gawd, please help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482 "2008-08-27T23:09:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Broken\_Hoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Broken\_Hoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Hoe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/1 "2008-08-27T23:09:44Z")
I keep getting the same stupid spams in my yahoo mail several times a day. They always have the same, or almost the same subject line, like “get a perfect lawn” or “sell your timeshare” or “over 30 still looking”. But the domain changes each time, circumventing the “block domain” feature of [yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com). Today it comes from [preself.com](http://preself.com). Later, from [prehelp.com](http://prehelp.com) Then, [premine.com](http://premine.com) then [preright.com](http://preright.com) and on and on. ALL of this is coming from domains that start with “pre” I tried blocking these by adding stuff like this to the blocked list: None of this works. _timeshare_@_.com @pre.com @pre_\*\*.com Nothing works. In yahoo mail. Can anyone help? I am getting so fed up I’m ready to dump yahoo, but unfortunately that would be a major hassle since I’ve had the same yahoo email for years and that’s how people get in touch with me… ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Hoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Broken\_Hoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Hoe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/2 "2008-08-27T23:14:55Z")
Forgot to add that of course I report each and every one as spam. Does no good. The exact same email with the exact same subject line and the exact same prefix to the domain eg. “SellYourTimeshare@pre\*\*\*\*.com” keeps arriving at least once a day… ---
**Author:** ![Hi\_Neighbor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hi_neighbor/32/494_2.png) [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/3 "2008-08-27T23:17:52Z")
I’m not really familiar with Yahoo mail. I use Gmail, and the spam filter is EXCELLENT. It may not be convenient at the moment to create an account, but I’d say it’s well worth it in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/4 "2008-08-27T23:43:27Z")
Can you create a subject line filter to mark something as spam? ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/5 "2008-08-28T00:30:42Z")
Maybe Yahoo doesn’t allow wildcards in custom filters? That would be kinda dumb, but in any case, you shouldn’t have to configure your own blacklist to cover for the inadequacies of Yahoo’s spam filter. It may seem like a pain now, but IMHO it’s better in the long run to switch to Gmail than to wait around for Yahoo to get better. I’ve been using Gmail since the beta first launched back in 2004, and of the tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of spam emails I have received, maybe around a dozen have ever made it to my inbox. Spam can’t hide from Gmail. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Hoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@Broken\_Hoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Hoe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/6 "2008-08-28T16:08:38Z")
[QUOTE=groman] Can you create a subject line filter to mark something as spam? [/QUOTE] Could you explain exactly how to do this in Yahoo mail? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/7 "2008-08-28T16:11:41Z")
You wouldn’t want _@pre_.com to work anyway, that’s too prone to block future good e-mails. That would block [fred@prestone.com](mailto:fred@prestone.com), [george@president.whitehouse.gov](mailto:george@president.whitehouse.gov), [alex@previews.org](mailto:alex@previews.org), etc. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/8 "2008-08-28T16:26:24Z")
Yahoo’s spam filtering is terrible. I too would echo the sentiment to switch to Gmail; I found no workable method to dealing with the massive numbers of spam messages (mostly Nigerian scams) that made it to my inbox regardless of how many I flagged. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/9 "2008-08-28T16:29:08Z")
Yahoo has a spam filter? \ ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/10 "2008-08-28T16:34:35Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] Yahoo’s spam filtering is terrible. [/QUOTE] Huh. I have the opposite experience; my Yahoo spam folder catches 150+ spams per day, and only lets through 3 or 4. Seems acceptable to me. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/11 "2008-08-28T17:42:21Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] Huh. I have the opposite experience; my Yahoo spam folder catches 150+ spams per day, and only lets through 3 or 4. Seems acceptable to me. [/QUOTE] That’s not a good result. In the past 30 days I have gotten 3700 spam messages. Gmail has let through two into my inbox and did not mis-recognize any legitimate e-mail as spam. I would say 3 to 4 a day is much worse than 2 a month. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/12 "2008-08-28T17:47:10Z")
[QUOTE=Broken Hoe] Could you explain exactly how to do this in Yahoo mail? [/QUOTE] Options –\> Mail Options –\> Filters –\> Add but you can only move to a folder you created or to Trash. I don’t know if this helps you in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/13 "2008-08-28T18:36:12Z")
[QUOTE=groman] That’s not a good result. In the past 30 days I have gotten 3700 spam messages. Gmail has let through two into my inbox and did not mis-recognize any legitimate e-mail as spam. I would say 3 to 4 a day is much worse than 2 a month. [/QUOTE] By contrast, yahoo has recognized legitimate email as spam dozens of times for me, resulting in not-so-funny discussions with my friends and coworkers. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spammers-use-preone-com-then-pretwo-com-then-prethree-com-then-gawd-please-help/461482/14 "2008-08-28T18:56:39Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] Yahoo’s spam filtering is terrible. I too would echo the sentiment to switch to Gmail; I found no workable method to dealing with the massive numbers of spam messages (mostly Nigerian scams) that made it to my inbox regardless of how many I flagged. [/QUOTE] Could the OP set up a gmail account and then set a filter to fowards ALL mail over there? That way BH can keep the same email address, but gmail can do the filtering.