Information on SPAM e-mails

There can always be an increased volume of so-called JoeJob e-mails.

Your e-mail address, which the SPAM sender has read from a stolen address book (analog or digital) or from your website, for example, is used as the sender e-mail address. The e-mail itself is sent to any other mailbox anywhere in the world.

You can compare this to an analog letter on which you use your neighbor's address as both the sender's address and the recipient's address.

It doesn't matter where in Germany you put the letter in a letterbox.

Examples of the content of such Joe-Job e-mails:

• Mailer daemon that your mailbox is full (mailbox is full) with the attached, supposedly original e-mail in the form of a .zip file, which in reality hides a virus or Trojan.
• E-mail from your scanner with an attached document that actually hides a virus or Trojan in a .zip file.
• Email with an allegedly attached invoice in the form of a .zip file, which in reality hides a virus or Trojan.
• Alleged warning message that your mailbox will be deactivated in 24 hours.

Have you recently started receiving an increased number of mailer daemons (e-mail bounces) stating that an e-mail inbox is unavailable or that your e-mail has been rejected as SPAM?

Then there is a possibility that you have become the victim of a Trojan or hacker in an open WLAN (hotel, airport, etc.).

You should take the following steps first as a precautionary measure:

• Check your computer for malware. If possible, this should be done from an external system or from a rescue system DVD. The website botfrei.de provides a rescue system DVD for this purpose.

• Change the password of the affected e-mail inbox. To do this, go to your customer menu ' Configuration ' Manage e-mail addresses ' Click on the Edit icon ' Open ' Click on the Key icon to generate a new, secure password. Do not enter the password manually under any circumstances, as it can be spied out again immediately if there is malware on your computer.

Another way to remove malware is to use the FixMeStick USB stick, which can be purchased. This is available on the Internet from various online stores.

So-called spam bots scan websites for usable e-mail addresses. It is therefore advisable to only enter email addresses in disguise, i.e. not in plain text, on the homepage. TYPO3 offers the following TypoScript setting for this purpose:

config.spamProtectEmailAddresses = 1
config.spamProtectEmailAddresses_atSubst = [at]

However, if an address has already been published once in plain text on the homepage, in many cases it is already "burnt". The only solution here is to set up a new address.

All request forms on the website should be protected against automated completion with a "captcha". With a captcha, a graphic with a code is displayed which the enquirer must enter into the form. To set up forms on websites, we recommend the powermail extension with integrated spam check.