Spam out of control

How did  these agencies get your email address? May look for another email provider if your looking for a more precise anti-spam or be more cautious who gets your email address.

You're very naive if you think only a one contact (malicious or not) can get your email address.  Could be Cox for all I know.

It's NOT hard for spammers to blast random emails until it sticks.  Cox needs to beef up their filters.

Oh I agree, I just doubt that they are, and if that is a deal breaker for a ISP you might want to start looking for a new ISP. Your not going to find a ISP with better email service then Gmail though.

Also, since we are name calling, which insult do you prefer I call you? :-)

Cool it, everyone. I don't like having to go all finger-pointy at the forum guidelines.

As for how they got your address, timborama, I really couldn't say. Cox does not sell customers' email addresses. I use all 10 of mine for various purposes, and I'm not getting messages like you describe. My primary account, the one I actually do real work with, has had an empty spam folder for the last few weeks.

Every ISP has trouble with spam to some degree. I hate to have to say this, but threatening to cancel your service is not going to help us improve our email filtering.  The best thing to do with it is to forward it as an attachment to spamreport@cox.net if you're using an email client program, or hit the  button if you're using webmail.

A pattern will be established eventually and the emails will start being automatically flagged, but if it's taking a while, that probably means that our abuse department isn't getting enough unique reports to create server-side filters.

I do not believe I broke any forum guidelines.  I was honestly asking a question I thought could improve the conversation. I was asking if the spam he had received was from agencies he recognized. Also I advised if email is mission critical, then there are other other free email alternatives that many Cox customer use. I wasn't the one who got mean. 

When I configured Microsoft Office Outlook with my Cox account, I didn't receive spam for seven years.  I only used this account with friends and family.

However, when I started using Cox WebMail this year, I get spam every day.  Whatever third-party contractor Cox is using for their WebMail...programming, administration, storage, security...they're selling our email addresses.

Before a moderator starts deflecting the fault, I know how to properly safeguard my credentials.  I served in the military for 25+ years...with a security clearance...and in various network operational positions.  I can keep a secret.

The Cox WebMail service is tainted.

I've flagged over 100 of these as [SPAM] from Shotzi Hosting and they still keep coming.  And now my Blocked list is now full.

It shouldn't be that hard for Cox to figure out the pattern and block them, as they're all virtually identical.... return email domain is always of the format xxxxxx.yyyyyyyyyyy.net, with the body of the message containing 3 images/links and no text.

I have similar issues, and I can no longer add additional senders to my blocked list as the "list is full"

I have reported these as spam many times and Cox doesn't seem to want to block them.

You could try adjusting your security settings higher that may block some of the spam email. Either on your internet controls or your internet security program.

I personally think Cox is using filters from a company that has arrangements with some of the advertisement groups. I noticed a pattern with the IP range from some of the headers and the IPs on the scripts my browser blocks ad content on the Cox page. I try to stay away from ww2.cox.com as much as I can. I have seen Myspace pages with better design and less bugs. :0)

The computer dummy here would like to know how do I increase my security settings? Thank you in advance.

One way you can improve your online security is to install an Internet Security package on your PC provided by a reputable vendor.  We've partnered with McAfee to provide their Internet safety package to all of our customers as a free value added feature of the Internet service.

I am seeing this Shotzi Hosting being flagged all over the internet. I would hope that Cox would get a handle on the IP addresses that the e-mails are coming from. Don't click on the unsubscribe link in the e-mails. If you did not sign up for the e-mails then opting out of them is not going to work. 

I do not think that Cox gave out our email addresses, as other posts have implied, but this is simply an unscrupulous group of spammers that probably hacked the addresses from various lists. I am only getting spam from this particular spammer and Cox has been great with everything else.