Windows 7 Anyone know what this is?

[MikeHawthorne]

My wife keeps getting these e-mails.
I have never seen anything with the strange symbols in the titles.



I've run scans, no malware, anyone have any idea what's causing this?

They are always together in a group like this and though they have different senders I'm guessing they are coming from the same bulk mailer.

None are from places she normally gets mail from.

Mike

 

[Joe S]

They may be coming from machines infected to spit out their spam. Look at the number of people who don't keep their AV up to date or think you don't need it at all.
Joe

 

[Drew]

Mike, no, I've not seen anything that looks like that before BUT, it, certainly, is spam, of course. Rt click, treat it/them as Junk & select Block Sender. Moreover how or what settings are being used on your wife's Junk Mail filtering? Can the level or strength of that be increased so more is being blocked or routed, directed to Junk Mail? Just out of curiosity, what mail handler is she using?

Drew

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

She's using Thunderbird, I use Windows Live Mail so I'm not that up on how her's works.
I've tried blocking the stuff but everyone comes from a different sender so it's hard to do.

It doesn't seem to have a simple Block this Sender button anyway.

Not that easy to use.

I'll look at it and see if I can find a way to make it more discriminating.

Mike

 

[Drew]

Mike, since WL Mail will take non-Hotmail addresses (& I reckon she isn't using a hotmail address) is it possible for her to switch to WL Mail instead of Thunderbird? @ least WL Mail has a nice, easy to use Junk Mail filter. Just a thought...

Drew

 

[catilley1092]

I get that kind of crap when using Yahoo Mail all of the time, and more. Plenty of scams where someone (usually in Nigeria) is telling me that they want to "share" their fortune with me, but needs a bank account to "deposit" it into. Yeah, right! Yahoo does the sorriest job of all of my email providers. Perhaps that's why the corporation is on shaky ground.

With Windows Live Hotmail, I get a piece of spam once in a while, but it usually goes into the "junk" folder, if not, I put it there. They do an excellent job of filtering out the crap from the good.

GMail does a good job too, I get an extra piece of spam or two a week, but once I mark them as such, it goes into the spam folder. Actually, I wanted GMail for their free web phone. From the GMail account, one can make calls to the US & Canada for free, no limits. All that's needed is the voice & chat plugin, which takes a minute to install. Although I can talk through the PC, I prefer the headset.

Thunderbird, I tried, but it was too complicated to setup.

AOL, some junk, the spam filters helps, but nowhere near as reliable as Windows Live.

OperaMail, administered by FastMail, the free version has virtually no spam control. One can mark a piece of spam as such, but it shows right back into the regular mail box.

EarthLink Web Mail, my ISP based email service, does a good job. Although I use it little, it filters out known spam & the customer never sees it. There's a chart that shows how much (as a percentage) of emails that's spam.

OperaMail, I mainly use it for forum use, no business.
Yahoo Mail, I use it for businesses who I expect as known spammers, or those who sells their lists.
AOL, some business, some forums.
Windows Live Hotmail, my main account for business only. I don't use this account for any other purpose.
EarthLink, I've not used much, mainly to obtain trial software.
GMail, an all around good account. The free phone service is worth a fortune to have. I use it an hour or so per day.

Cat

 

[davehc]

She's hooked into something. I would worry about how much access there is onto her computer.
I know nothing about thunderbird, but could she try deleting her account and setting it up again?

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I kept blocking the addresses as they came in and they have stopped for now.
I've tried to get her to change to Windows Live Mail but she wants to stay with what she is used to.

Mike

 

[Joe S]

Yahoo Mail has turned into a giant pile of crap. I only use it where you are required to provide an email addy. It was my first email account. For other stuff I use Hot Mail or Lycos mail.
Joe

 

[Drew]

Then, sounds like stay w/ the woes she's used to, as well.

 

[catilley1092]

Yahoo Mail has turned into a giant pile of crap. I only use it where you are required to provide an email addy. It was my first email account. For other stuff I use Hot Mail or Lycos mail.
Joe

Yahoo Mail was my first email account too. For years, it was a good service. But recently, there's been no stability at the leadership (CEO) level. This means employees working with no direction, many of which today probably fears for their jobs. Which is a direct factor in job performance.

Seems like for the past 3 years, it's really took a turn for the worse. Some days, there are 50 or more spam messages in my regular box, and even more in my spam box. I'm highly considering dumping the account, it's a waste of time to logon, knowing what I'm looking forward to.

I don't look for Yahoo Mail to be around much longer. The new look that they recently sported does not make up for the crappy service that's provided. I'm also glad that whatever deal that MS had in the works with Yahoo fell through. No way would I want to see that crap trickle down to Windows Live Hotmail.

Cat