Can't stop the pesky spammers!

[Baldilocks]

It started when I couldn't remove DuckDuckGo. I tried everything but the only thing that would remove it was RegHunter. Being paranoid about security I ended up with not only MalwareBytes, but SpyBot, RegHunter, and SpyHunter. SpyHunter kept flagging up Conduit (which is not anywhere on my machine) and if anything seems to have INCREASED my spam! I run Mailwasher which means nothing can get through, and gets bounced back as 'no such address' but what more can I do to lose the spam filling my inbox?

[Firefox]

Hello and Welcome to Malwarebytes

Well Malwarebytes can not do much about the spam you receive, and quite honestly now that your email address is out there, there is not much you can do, except maybe change your email address.

As for being paranoid, and if you want to make sure your computer is not infected, feel free to follow the instructions below to receive free, one-on-one expert assistance in checking your system and clearing out any infections and correcting any damage done by the malware.

Please see the following pinned topic which has information on how to get help with this: Available Assistance for Possibly Infected Computers

Thank you

[daledoc1]

Hi:

 

In addition to @Firefox's excellent and expert advice....

 

 I run Mailwasher which means nothing can get through, and gets bounced back as 'no such address' but what more can I do to lose the spam filling my inbox?

 

I hope you're not using the (outdated) "bounce" feature in Mailwasher Pro?

 

I am a longtime MWP user, as well.

I don't recall why they still include the "bounce" feature, but its use is strongly discouraged.

It can get you in hot water with your ISP and it won't help to reduce your spam:

 

Again, caution is warranted. Some ISP's will terminate your account(s) for using bounce. You can unleash an attack from the spammers on their servers.

http://forum.firetrust.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=13783

 

A much better approach is to use the built-in spam-reporting features in MWP and to auto-delete spam using MWP filters.

Although it takes a bit of time to get those set up, once you do, they are much more effective.

I don't know if doing so will resolve your specific issue (from the sound of things, it might not).

But "bouncing" via MWP is NOT the way to go.

FYI, they have an excellent user forum >>HERE<<, with lots of expert users/beta testers and frequent staff participation.

 

Having said all that, I suspect you'll probably need to take @Firefox's advice and start over, with a new email address and better counter-measures.

 

Hope this helps,

[Baldilocks]

Thanks for the help. First thing I'll do is stop bouncing. It would be a pain to change my email address so I guess I'll thy to tough it out and hope they eventually give up.

[Baldilocks]

My spam has reduced dramatically. I've stopped the bouncing in Maiwasher, but more telling - I removed RegHunter & SpyHunter and in the following 36 hours I ONLY GOT ONE SPAM EMAIL. During the 5 days I was using SpyHunter most of the spam were of a different type with about 1000 words of gibberish. Could this be a coincidence or maybe.............?

'Haveibeenpwned?' proved that 2 of my 3 email addresses were clean, and the 3rd had just one breach, so it looks like I might be OK and if not, I will only have to close 1 address. So thanks for the help. 

[daledoc1]

Hi:

 

I'm glad things are better for you now.

 

We really can't say for sure, especially since this is the support forum for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM), which is not an anti-spam product.

 

If you continue to have issues, then you might want to follow @Firefox's original suggestion, and/or seek help at the Firetrust forum for help with MWP filtering and spam-reporting.

 

Cheers,