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7 Steps I’ve Tried to Stop E-Mail Address Hacking

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As some of you may already know I have been battling E-mail Address Hacking for a while now.  Some nefarious persons or companies have been sending Spam without having to use their own Domain or E-mail address.  They have been using mine instead.

Actually, they haven’t been using any of my addresses per se, they have been making up user id’s eg. abc123@ mydomain as a return address.  The only reason I can tell what they are doing is when they (I) get an undeliverable E-mail it comes back to my main PO Box.

 

Here are the steps I have taken to try to fix this problem:

~~ I have made my Domain Private. (Thanks Lara)

~~ I installed the Contact Form on all my blogs where there is a need for contact. (Thanks TZ)

~~ I took my Contact Information Off the Webpage.  I did want to have it, but why take the chance?

~~ I sent E-mails to the site administrator for which there was a possibility to advise them of the scam occuring (so they knew it wasn’t me, to stop complaints).

~~ I sent scathing E-mails to the site administrator of whatever advertisers were included in the return mail body.

~~ I contacted a Professional Blogger who has his own domain to see if he may have any suggestions on how to fix the problem.  He was kind enough to respond, but couldn’t give me any insight or suggestions.

~~ Lastly, (really firstly) I called my hosting service and talked to them.

I talked to the supervisor for this type of Spam problem and he told me “There is no way to stop them” and “Maybe they’ll just get tired and pick on somebody else”.  They made note on my account that I was having this problem, so that they wouldn’t just close the account automatically since it was noted I called.  They would notify me first.  But if they recieved too many complaints it would be beyond their control and my account would have to go.

They were really very nice about it, explaining that they couldn’t jeopardize their business or all the other accounts they handled.  Thanks, guys… (Did you detect the sarchasim?)

I don’t want to jinx things, but I have not recieved very many E-mail returns with bogus addresses since I took these steps, I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Maybe some or all, or maybe none of the steps worked, but here’s hoping.

 

Has anyone else run into this?  Are there any other ways to stop it that I haven’t tried?

 

Related Posts:

Spam E-Mail Through Contact Link

Fighting Spam: One Step at a Time

October 7th, 2006 at 02:27pm | Posted by Joe | Basics, Community, Spam | 12 reader remarks | Print This Post