Blank E-Mails - SPAMS

[OneBigNewbie]

Lately I have been receiving a lot (as many as 20 a day) e-mails which has nothing:
- no sender
- no receipient
- no message

And all that is shown is the time/date (I believe it is the time-stamp on the sender's server).

What are these e-mails ?

I have read something about Outlook that someone can send an e-mail, and before the recipient downloads it, the sender can remove it even if it has been sent already... are these blank e-mails I received of this type ?

I appreciate your help. I post on this Forum because I think they are SPAMS, relating to Computer Security and Viruses.

[SpywareDr]

They actually may contain a "web bug" in an attempt to see if your email address is valid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug

[LindaHewitt]

I use MailWasher Pro, http://www.firetrust.com/, and my policy is that I do not download any email to my computer, unless it is from someone that I know or a legitimate email message. Everything else is blacklisted.

Firetrust allows for a free 30 day trial. Mailwasher allows you to see the content of the email in ASCII format, so it is easy and fast to determine what is legitimate.

I get a couple of hundred emails per day and 80% are SPAM but I can scan my email in Mailwasher in a minute or two, so the SPAM does not consume very much of my time. I have been using Mailwasher since Jan 2002 and I have not been infected with any form of malware. I mean it hasn't even gotten downloaded to my computer.

I also practice safe computing and there are other security tools that I employ such as:

Firetrust Benign
Panda Platinum (firewall & A/V), version 7

Freeware:

Ad-Aware
SpyBot
SpywareBlaster
SpywareGuard
Defender

When Yahoo got infected with a worm, it wanted to download something to my computer and I got a warning dialog box. If in doubt, I always say no. 24 hours later, when I went to check my Yahoo mail, everything was fixed.

After I started using SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard, I stopped getting tracking cookies and all of the stuff that Ad-Aware and SpyBot would detect. I run Ad-Aware and SpyBot once a month.

I would also recommend installing two Microsoft freeware products, which are

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and
Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER click on a sponsored link. The malware creators either contract with these companies or they own these companies, who then pay the search engines for prime locations for searches on specific words. They do this just so they can plant various forms of malware on your computer.

Microsoft has published a report of what they have found as a result of their Microsoft Anti-Spyware Removal Tool.

Always keep all of your software on your computer up to date, by using Windows Update with any released patches. Most big name software vendors will release patches on their software for at least the latest version and the previous version. When you are using software which is older than that, there is a risk. One way to mitigate that risk is to put that software on an older computer, which never connects to the Internet.

Cheers,

Linda

[JPnyc]

You could filter them out by creating a rule in outlook also. If the sender is null, mark read and delete, also delete from server.

[buf]

Am I second guessing myself since I sent this email to a couple of friends. OR am I correct?

I 'think' a reason that I have been getting so
much spam lately is because my address is being harvested and used by spammers.
They can do that VERY EASILY because my address appears every
time you send me an email. Not ONLY me, but EVERYONE you email using the same
procedure "could" be receiving spam. It ain't no trouble for you to simply use
the bcc(blind carbon copy) line INSTEAD of the TO line when you fill in the
address of those you want to sent an email to. NO ONE, including spammers, will
see who is getting your email. Believe me, it is far far safer IF you will do
this. I may have to consider BLOCKING your emails in my email account to help me
avoid getting so much spam. I know of no other way to help me----AND YOU. I
enjoy getting your emails but NOT the spam!!

And as usual, TIA.

[SpywareDr]

... am I correct?

... use the bcc(blind carbon copy) line INSTEAD of the TO line when you fill in the address of those you want to sent an email to.

Yes, you are correct.

[buf]

Thanks for the confirmation SpywareDr. Just wanted to be sure before I totally lost email contact with my niece and others whom I care about.

[SpywareDr]

No problem.