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BruceThief37
(experienced) Sun 22-Jul-07 12:06:44

spam sent to zen mailhost

[link to this post]

To my amazement I am now getting spam --- & highly unpleasant too --- which is not addressed to my usual e-address but to my zen account number preceding the "at" symbol and after the "at" symbol the address completes as mailhost.zen.co.uk

Have I somehow shot myself in my own foot? In some three years this is the very first message of any kind I have ever received in Outlook Express addressed to zen mailhost

Can anybody explain please? Bruce +++

Plz keep things simple. Age 78 displaying bad ping rate between brain cells

Windows XP Pro & W-Explorer with OEv6 & Asus A7V-333 & AMD XP2200 & Enermax 550watts & Leadtek GeForce T14200 & 1024 MB of PC2700DDR ram & 1394 Firewire & USB 1.1 plus 2 & Mirror Raid on two 60GB 7200rpm Barracuda & Aurigy2 PCI sound & Taxan 19-inch CRT monitor & Samsung internal read-only CD drive & LaCie external 48x12x48 CD burner & Epson Perfection 1200 scanner + negative copier & Netgear814 gateway & BT phone line & Zen Lite ADSL & Belkin phone-protect surgeblock & Excelsus filters & Firewall with AV & of course a sharp piece of string

deleted
(deleted) Sun 22-Jul-07 16:00:46

Re: spam sent to zen mailhost

[re: BruceThief37] [link to this post]

Quite simple: the default email accounts for Zen users are of the format "zen99999@..." (where the '99999' is a four, five or six-digit number) and so it doesn't take much grey matter for spammers to work out that if they start spamming at "zen1000" and work through to "zen999999" they'll manage to get a fair proportion of spam through to mailboxes.

As with all spam - ignore it, delete it, use it to teach your anti-spam software (if you have any) but don't open it or reply to it.

BruceThief37
(experienced) Sun 22-Jul-07 17:11:14

Re: spam sent to zen mailhost

[re: deleted] [link to this post]

OK Babylon-Mike & thanx --- your explanation understood. Though the implications are dire if all spammers started this ploy?

I do have Spamihilator and it does work. It can learn. I just hope I am not teaching it summat best not taught? Bruce+++

deleted
(deleted) Sun 22-Jul-07 17:26:23

Re: spam sent to zen mailhost

[re: deleted] [link to this post]

It is possible to disable e-mail to a zen12345@ address. If you send an e-mail to Customer Services they'll be able to action this for you - so you'll only get e-mail sent to aliases you have set up.

ta,
Phil.

deleted
(deleted) Sun 22-Jul-07 19:59:01

Re: spam sent to zen mailhost

[re: deleted] [link to this post]

Good point Phil, I'd forgotten to mention that. Worth doing if you don't use the default address.

tras2
(newbie) Sun 22-Jul-07 20:06:07

Re: spam sent to zen mailhost

[re: deleted] [link to this post]

And there is always the spam filtering that you can set within the customer portal.

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