Just Found a Trick That May Be HelpFul Against Spam if You Use FireFox
By drknlvly6781
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
United States
April 8, 2008 11:25pm CST
For those that already know this, please disreguard this message. I learn things by figuring them out as far as the computer is concerned, and if this is late news to you forgive me.
I use Firefox for internet browsing, and Outlook for my main e-mails. I have been getting spammed left and right in my main e-mail address, despite how many times I click on the unsubscribe links and send them e-mails.
I just had to clean my computer tonight, since it was running slow. I figured since I am doing several things online to make money, I might need to up my security. So, I went to my start menu, and right-clicked on my Firefox icon. When I got the drop-down menu, I clicked "Mozilla Firefox Options."
Once that dialog box opened, I clicked on the privacy tab and in the "Cookies" dialog box I selected to accept all cookies, but in the drop down menu I selected "ask every time."
After this I went back into Outlook as usual. I went to unsubscribe from yet another spam e-mail, and lo and behold, when I clicked on the link it asked me did I want to accept a cookie from the site!!! This means that every time we attempt to unsubscribe from a website through a link, they are gathering our information, including our e-mail address in a cookie, that they sell to other spammers for them to send e-mails!!! I quickly clicked the check box that said to perform this action for all cookies from this site, and hit the "deny" button!!!
I am so glad that I found this out. Now I can delete bad cookies before they even get settled in, whether it be from the e-mail or even here at MyLot.
If you are using FireFox, you should try this out following the exact instructions I have above. Let me know if it works!!!
4 responses
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
9 Apr 08
Well I came up with my name back when I first started to go online. I wanted something that expressed part of who I am. I've very Irish so I chose the name Emeraldisle. Now sometimes in places that is taken so when it is I just add some numbers. Usually they are just randomly picked ones or i might use my birthday. It all depends on what is available. Thankfully when I joined here I didn't have to add anything.
1 person likes this
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
9 Apr 08
Its cool Emerald. Sometimes we need slip ups like this to get our lazy butts off the computer and go to bed lol.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
10 Apr 08
Thanks for understand. I went to bed not long after posting that :)
With IE once it's open you'd go under tools to Internet Options. You would then want the third tab, Security, and adjust the cookie settings there.
1 person likes this
@bongkarpasang (1377)
• Indonesia
18 Apr 08
oh my goodness!
I didn't ever realize that until I read your discussion. so in fact they still collected my email address, knowing that I have unsubscribed and then spammed me another way around! 
thank you for sharing the important fact about the spam cookies. from now on I would also use firefox to unsubscribe from any sites.
grraah!! I wished I knew it earlier so I wouldn't get those bunches of spams. I have suspected that they came from the same site but under different names. no wonder when I did the CCleaner thingy, the cookies were a lot and I didn't even get the idea that I had ever visited such 'cookies' sites. 
thank you for sharing the important fact about the spam cookies. from now on I would also use firefox to unsubscribe from any sites.
grraah!! I wished I knew it earlier so I wouldn't get those bunches of spams. I have suspected that they came from the same site but under different names. no wonder when I did the CCleaner thingy, the cookies were a lot and I didn't even get the idea that I had ever visited such 'cookies' sites.
1 person likes this
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
19 Apr 08
Yes, its a loophole these sites have found in the Can-Spam act. They aren't allowed to use your e-mail address once you have unsubscribed, but there are other companies that you haven't unsubscribed to yet, because they haven't sent you any mail. So they get to make a little money by collecting your info as you are unsubscribing to them, then selling it to yet another company to spam you.
@wittyakanksha (436)
• India
9 Apr 08
It's an amazing trick!I have been wondering the same thing over the past few months that whenever i delete this mails and report them to spam they come back again haunting me and flooding my mailbox with junk.I have done as per the instructions in your post and will see till the evening.Hope it works Because I'm tired of them.Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge.
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
9 Apr 08
Let me know how it works out for you. Since finding this out last night I have seen a slight drop in the spam. I didn't expect much of a difference, because I had been using the unsubscribe links for a while, so Lord only knows how many spammers have my e-mail -_-* Anyway, good luck!!!
