General Chat

I don't know what it is like there in England, but we are supposed to have a law that spam is not allowed. Yea right. I get about a hundred a day. My wife thinks it is because I put my e-mail address on a lot of the genealogy sites. What do you think?? Neil

Hi Neil Not sure where they get the email address's. but I was on Outlook express, and had loads but then I went to Incredi Mail and I didnt get any. I had to go back to Outlook as I was having problems and now I get loads again. Debbie

Neil, I'm in the Uk and get approx 150 a day! my husband is now getting a complex (apparently he is 3 inches short and I need pain killers & anti-deprecents for it!!!!) but they keep telling me that not him. He gets nothing on his email addy, it all comes to me, so, as I only go on genealogy sites, what does that tell us! Kim

Not very 'up' on this, so perhaps I should leave it to someone else to answer, but if you leave your cookies on, can't spammers trace your address from those????? Norah

Hello Ladies. Deb, I have tried incredimail as well. I had problems too and now back to Outlook. What I liked about Incredimail was that if the message was from a legitimate address you could send it back. Kim - I know how your husband feels, I felt inadequate at one time until I noticed I wasn't getting any bad vibes from my wife. :-) Nora - I don't know about cookies but you have to have them on to get back onto the sites. Neil

Neil....your wife is correct, leaving your e-mail address on sites, or using your primary e-mail address to sign up for sites, will surely guarantee that you will receive spam mail....and in mass quantities. There are several ways to alleviate this, one being that you set up an e-mail account (the free one offered by Y a h o o is a good one) and use that account when leaving messages or signing up for things. There is a thread on the TIPS boards that explains other ways that your e-mail address is obtained for spamming purposes and how to alleviate most of it.....I'll see if I can find it on the boards and nudge it to the front for you. Judy

Neil....Nudged the article to page 1 on the tips board for you....should be in the first couple of pages by the time you read this.... Judy

Hi Judy and thanks for the info. Will try different e-mail address. Take care. neil

I have a suspicion that they get them from the servers. I use AOL and was getting a load of spam so devised another address that I was absolutely sure no-one else knew of, even my wife. It comprised of a mixture of 14 letters and numbers. The chances of anyone discovering it accidently were so remote it was not worth considering. I did not use the new address for several weekw so only AOL and I knew it existed - but the spam stated to arrive before I sent my first message. Another way spammers get it is from commercial concerns who sell-on data. So never release your address to any firm or company. They may promise never to divulge details, but when they are under financial pressure, promises are thrown to the winds Len

I can't explain what happened to Len (except I wouldn't touch AOL with a bargepole) but apart from Judy's excellent advice, using an addy with letters and numbers in it will usually help. Both Y*ahoo and H*otmail have quite good spam filters as do many others now.

I am on incredimail and get loads evey day but have installed mail washer so am able to bounce then back! And Blacklist them. It's a pain isn't it Ann

HI Since BT joined with Yahoo I get more Junk mail than ever I averaga about 120 a day and some of them end up in my In box instead of the Bulk messages I mark them as being spam but it doesn't seem to decrease the amount of junk mail I get Personally I think Yahoo is to blame Bren

I believe they get addresses by using a piece of software that generates addresses automatically, and they get sent by the thousands. What ever you do DO NOT reply to spam, DO NOT click on the "unsubscribe" text or button - this will only let them know that your e-addy is for real, and spam will then saturate your inbox completely. I use Hotmail, with filters, and now have the maximum amount of domains blocked, together with the maximum number of addresses - that's 250 of each! Not to sure what I am going to do next. Do not want to give up my email address. Badger Bill

Hi Neil i am not a great lover of my email server Aol but I will give them their due credits. With this new version they seem to have really nailed down spam. But watch Windows Messenger if you open that then your life will become a misery. In answer to your last Question last night I think my nan arrived in England about 1880 but in truthI am not certain. Cheers