How do I remove my traces in google?

Well I didn't mean that you tell anyone looking at this thread how to do it. I meant what is it that they do. And you explained what they're doing. Now even though the bad guy is trying to spoof your address, if you were to go into the e-mail header won't that ip address still be of the bad guy's computer and not the guy who's being spoofed ip? Also when you said shut down that e-mail address and possibly your access, do you mean access as in your internet access? I mean if they know theat people can spoof your address won't they give you a chance to prove it wasn't you sending thsoe mails and allow you time to cahnge that e-mail address before shutting it down? And if you meant by access internet access, won't they give you a chance there before shutting you down to prove it wasn't you?

Now even though the bad guy is trying to spoof your address, if you were to go into the e-mail header won't that ip address still be of the bad guy's computer and not the guy who's being spoofed ip?

Nope! That's where it is spoofed. If it were that easy, it would be no problem tracking the real offenders down.

And note the real badguys (and not wannabes) know not to use their own computers or network connection to send millions of spam messages. Instead use their army of compromised computers left carelessly unsecured by users who fail to practice safe computing.

Understand that if it appears spam is coming from your machine, the very first thing the ISP is going to do is block all access to and from your machine. Millions of spam messages can be sent out before you have time react. They can not wait for you to notify all your contacts that your address is changing.

Another real issue is bounced messages. The spammer's lists contain many addresses that are no longer (or never were) valid. So when the message hits the domain and it is determined it is not a valid recipient, the email is often bounced back to the (spoofed) sender's address - your address. And you may suddenly get a bunch of undeliverable messages. If those start to add up to 1000s in a few minutes, your ISP is going to shut you down there too - at least until that wave has passed. In any case, your email address is compromised.

What can you do? Well, have a spare email account - perhaps with Gmail, Yahoo etc. so you can notify your contacts in case your main address is suddenly disabled, or so overwhelmed with bounced messages as to be unusable.

And practice safe computing as I describe in my canned text, Cleaning Out Malware, and extracted here:

Practice Safe Computing! Keep systems patched, updated, scanned and blocked, and use a disciplined approach to operating the computer and using the Internet.

• Patch operating systems and applications to the latest security patches, including XP SP3 and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)
• Update anti-malware signature/definition files promptly and apply operating system critical updates in a timely manner (see "Windows Update" under "Prevent Re-Infestation" below)
• Scan using "real-time" anti-malware scanners for viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware
• Block unauthorized access attempts, spam and popups using a good good client-based (software) firewall, spam blocker, and popup blocker.
• Self Discipline, the most crucial! Self discipline includes:
  • NEVER click on "To stop getting these spam messages, click here" links
  • NEVER click on any links in unsolicited pop-ups or email
  • NEVER open attachments or downloads without first scanning for malware - regardless the source
  • NEVER visit sites bad guys are known to wallow in: such as porn, gambling and Peer to Peer (P2P) sites where illegal file sharing is tolerated
    and finally…
  • NEVER skip any of the above.

And so if your isp shuts down your internet access, that's only temporary right? It's not like your no longer allowed to be a customer of them right?

And so if your isp shuts down your internet access, that's only temporary right? It's not like your no longer allowed to be a customer of them right?

If they disable your Internet access, yes, it will be temporary (assuming you are innocent - any by "you" I mean every one and every computer you are responsible for from that IP address). However, if your email address is compromised, that may be permanent. But you probably will not want to use it anyway because once compromised, it will stay on spammers' list a long time, if not forever.

Understand that with the billions of addresses out there, it is only a tiny fraction of addresses that are compromised. But then, remember, 1% of 1 billion is still 10 million.

And how would I prove my innocence?

And how would I prove my innocence?

It will be apparent to the administrators once they get out of reaction mode and start looking at the logs. If your machine was compromised and taken over and did send the spam, I am sure they work with you to make it right. If they determine it was not your machine, they will restore access right away - but still your email address and IP will be changed.

I see. So basically a tempoary, but time consuming, but correctable and preventable problem. At this point the Lucaforum thread the moderator I talked to soft delted the thread. To those who don't know what soft delete is, it means that the moderator made so that only admins and moderators can see the thread. By doing so this made the site link still appear in the google search, but no e-mail address appeared in the link. So now he's told an admin of the thread. Hopefully the admin will get the thread completly delted. At least from soft deleting it we can tell instantly the thread will no longer show the e-mail address. As for the Clancore thread the deletion of the post the mod made and the re-edit has been done. All that can be done now is to wait a couple weeks to see if it disappeares like the Tribalwar game thread. So we'll see in 14 days. If that doesn't work we'll just get Clancore to delete the thread. I'm sure they will have no problem doing it if they had to. It's a thread some guy made that had a picture that no longer is there and ended up going off topic anyway. I'll keep you guys posted.

I see. So basically a tempoary, but time consuming, but correctable and preventable problem.

Temporary? Yes, as far as Internet access is concerned, permanent as far as your email address being compromised
Time consuming? Yes
Correctable? Yes, except your email address is still compromised and unusable
Preventable? No. But you can limit your risks by being careful who you give your email address to. And note that many addresses get out by people forwarding jokes, chain letters, etc. which many claim to be spam in the first place. If someone sends you and 20 people a joke and puts all the email addresses in the To: and CC: fields, all recipients will be able to see each other's addresses . And if those 20 forward to 20 more without cleaning the joke up, suddenly 400 people have your email address.

So even at grave risk of doom and despair, and a great loss of miracles coming my way, I don't forward.

I would be not too concerned about those Google hits. I don't see badguys trolling old, cached webpages for email addresses as a lucrative method for harvesting addresses.