I am getting e-mails at work to look at porn stuff - like animal porn,
etc.  I don't know where these people are getting my e-mail address -
I have unsubscribed every time I get one and a couple of weeks go by
and they are sending them again.  This is making me crazy.  These
people need to be stopped - I have never subscribed to any porm sites
- how can I stop this???  They need to be turned into someone.  This
is over and beyond porn - its pictures of girls making it with
animals,  and other filthy things - it shows right on the e-mails.  I
have never clicked into any of these sites - I ALWAYS click the
'unsubscribe' button - sometimes it works and sometimes it goes
nowhere.  Please advise me what I can do to make this stop once and
for all?  I also have tried to reply to the e-mail address it came
from and it always comes back 'undeliverable'.  PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Kay Hoover

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Greetings kay7,

I find it awful that you are receiving these pornographic spam emails,
especially at work when you are trying to conduct business. Spam is a
worldwide problem that unfortunately has no clean-cut solution. I'm
going to give you some information on steps you can take to help rid
yourself of the spam and also take action against those sending it.

First of all, some basic tips I found in an article on "How to Stop
Porn Spam":
Full article: http://www.moralityinmedia.org/index.htm?stopSpam.htm

"1. If you've been "spammed" by someone you don't know, do not reply
to the sender or follow any "removal instructions" which might be
included.
Why? Because if you "unsubscribe," you're telling the pornster that
your e-mail address is working, and they then turn around and sell
your address to other spamsters.

2. If you receive porn spam, complain to your United States Attorney.
Don't accuse anyone of a crime; just ask your U.S. Attorney's office
to investigate the porn spam as a possible violation of the Federal
Obscenity Laws that prohibit the use of computers to transmit obscene
material (18 USC 1462 and 1465). MIM has a list of the 93 U.S.
Attorney's offices across the country on our Obscenity Enforcement
page.

3. Complain to your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

4. Complain to their Internet Service Provider (ISP)."

I suggest reading the entire article as it lists some other
interesting points such as how these people manage to obtain the email
addresses of their "victims" and also other things you can do to
report the problem.

Another thing you can do is report the offenders to the U.S. attorneys
office via an online form available from Obscenity Crimes.org:

"WHAT DO I DO ABOUT 'PORN SPAM' IN MY E-MAIL BOX?"
http://www.obscenitycrimes.org/complaint/ReportPornSpam.cfm

Once you take care of reporting the problem senders to the proper
authorities, the next thing you need to do is try to block or filter
out the spam messages so they don't fill up your inbox. There are
dozens of software spam killing solutions available on the market.
These applications run on your PC and basically download your email
before it reaches your Inbox, filtering out everything it can detect
as SPAM. I would recommend reading up on a few of them and trying to
determine which one may work best for you. CNet.com did a review of
two popular Spam killers back in June of this year, McAfee's
SpamKiller ($39.95 - Now works with MSN/Hotmail) and SpamCop ($30).
Each of these solutions received high marks from CNet labs. Symantec
recently added Spam Blocking to their popular "Norton Internet
Security 2003" software application. Another product CNet recently
reviewed was Sunbelt's iHateSpam, which they found especially useful
if you use Microsoft Outlook. I'll leave links to all these reviews at
the end of this answer.

If you work in a large office or for a corporation, you should ask
them to look into installing corporate-based spam blocking tools such
as those that run on the BrightMail database. Many large corporations
such as BrightMail focus on ridding the world of spam by building
databases of spammers and helping software vendors to filter out these
people.

And, of course, the last thing you can do is change your email address
and only give the new one out to people that you know. Never post
messages on any type of public forum or newsgroup or signup for public
newsletters that are not from reputable companies. Spammers get their
list of addresses by using sophisticated robots that scour all the
public forums and newsgroups on the Internet and pull out all the
email addresses they can find. They also purchase email addresses from
third-parties that host "newsletters" and "contests" which are used
almost solely for gathering your personal information.

I hope I've given you some things to think about and have helped to
answer your question regarding email based spam. Please don't hesitate
to "ask for clarification" if you need further assistance with this
question -- I'll be happy to answer any follow-up questions you have
or conduct further research if necessary. Thanks!

Sincerely,
PWizard

CNET Roundup: Spam Stoppers (6/11/02)
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227888-8-9984052-1.html?tag=txt

CNET: SunBelt iHateSpam Review (7/26/02)
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3227888-1204-20178661.html?tag=pdtl-list

Norton Internet Security 2003 Information
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/nis/nis_pe/features.html

BrightMail Anti-Spam Technology
http://www.brightmail.com/

Thank you for your reply - I haven't had time yet today (because of
work) to research the information you gave me - I forwarded the info
to my home e-mail.  I will do what you say and see what happens.  You
did alot of research to find this out...thanks.  It was a great answer
but don't have very much money to tip tip right now. I didn't know
about the tipping part so I'll get back to you with a tip.  I hope
this is ok.

While the question was answered by a person with good intentions for
sure, they answers are irrelevant.  I have been working on this for
years and years.  Here is the stark reality:

1.  ISPs do not care; it is too expensive and difficult to curb porn. 
Sometimes, ISPs are paid very well by spammers to "ignore" their spam.
Those spammers are placed on what is called a "pink list."

2.  Most porn is sent by overseas operations, whose countries either
do not properly regulate spammers, or the countries' economies are so
desperate that goverment officiials or ISPs are easily paid off to
shut up.

3.  I used to use SpamCop (spamcop.net) for reporting spammers before
I realized that the ISPs just don't care.. nor do many of the hosting
companies the porn spam mail refers to.  Regardless of the terms of
service that may be stated by the ISPs or hosting services. <ost
people lie.. and they do so for money.

Now, here is how I literally ELIMINATED spam and viruses as well.  Go
to http://mailwasher.net and download their software. It is free, but
I suggest that you donate $20 to help their cause as it uis more
worthy of your support than any anti-spam products I have seen in the
past 5 years or so.  Mailwasher allows you to check your mail on your
ISP's server BEFORE you download it onto your computer.  By
downloading, you also contract viruses - but not if the virus is on
the ISP's server.  Mailwasher alerts you of that so you can safely
delete the spam and its attendant virus very simply from the server.

By downloading spam unchecked, the spammer knows that your address is
good, and then, watch out for a ton of mail from him, or his so-called
partners who claim you opted in.  But you can use Mailwasher to easily
"bounce" the mail back to the spammer, who will believe your address
is incorrect, and so he will very likely delete it from his spam list.

So there's the truth... not some generic response offered by someone
who hasn't "been there" and been through it as long as I have,
although his ansdwer was well-intentioned.  This is a real world which
requires real solutions.

Now here's how to ged rid of those spam-generating, annoying pop-up
ads THAT CAN TRACK WHERE YOU SURF AS WELL.... believe it ir not:

http://www.emsproject.com/FS

It's absolutely free and eliminates 99% of all popups.  Period!

Hope this helps you....

shelswartz@yahoo.com

Forgot to add:  Morality in Media is a great organization, but their
hands are tied by the ACLU and others who believe in freedom of speech
no matter the cost of abuse to people.  And our government can't
prosecute porn spammers that originate outside of the U.S.  Even the
FBI has no interest.  Sorry! :) shel

Thank you amaze20000, I have to say I'm disappointed that I may not be
able to stop this - but I will try anything and everything suggested.

I appreciate the additional information you just provided - all of
this has been a real eye opener for me - I had no idea, until I
started receiving these e-mails, that there was this sort of thing
going on in our America - unsolicited.

Thanks again for this info.

Also, your e-mail service provider is a big indicator. Certain
web-based e-mail providers are markedly worse than others when it
comes to spam. Many people suspect that they are selling email
addresses to spammers. Try a few of the top providers and see which
one works best for you. The same goes for your local ISP - some seem
to have problems while others do not. I use Yahoo and have never had a
problem in over 4 years.