Hello - This is probably a stupid question but these emails are annoying me..... If it seems like the spam emails are targeting your interests...i.e. trading, fitness, etc. is this just a coincidence or can they find out what sites you visit online ?? Anyway to eliminate this ?? Thanks a lot.
More likely the case is that you registered yourself at some service in the past via your email address your concerned about. That email address has been sold, shared or rented to someone and that someone does the same with someone else. The above is one common scenario. Another common scenario is the stupidity of those you know. For example of the above, my brother's daughter decided to send me an email greeting card to my primary email address (my actual ISP address). That company she inputed my email address for the greeting card turned around and gave it to all their affliates and sponsors (about 100 of them). After about 5 years of never getting one piece of junk mail in my primary email address... Within one week after receiving that email greeting card...I was getting about 3-10 junk mails per day in my junk mail box and not my inbox because I use a spam filter. I immediately called my ISP and change my email address to random numbers and letters. Next...I called my niece and educated her how spammers collect email address. I then gave her my backup email address and told her to use it. Simply, you should have two email address. * Your primary ISP email address you share with nobody. * Your backup free email address (Yahoo, Hotmail et cetera) that you regularly use with friends, relatives, online registrations, brokers, banks et cetera. Since I've change my primary ISP email addrsess to a different set of random numnbers and letters after the greeting card incident (about 3 months ago)... I've not received one piece of junk mail to that box and my niece now emails me at my Yahoo email address that's designated for friends and family only. I have another Yahoo email address that's designated for all the other stuff I mentioned above. Next, get a software (many on the market) that allows you to check all your different email addresses in one program at the same time...saving you a ton of time via not having to log into different accounts at different sites. If your question was about your primary email address... That's easy to fix. Call your ISP and change your email address to random numbers and letters and activate any spam filters they may have because some ISP's have spam filters but will not activate them unless the customer (you and I) request it to be active. If your question was about a free email address like Yahoo and Hotmail... That is their purpose to get all the junk and not see it in your primary box. I recommend getting two different free email addresses...one for family and friends and the other for business and leisure related stuff. Summary, you should have at least three email address (ISP and two free ones) with spam filters on all of them and a software that allows you to check all your email addresses at the same time and reply. Just remember that all you need to do is register at one site via a particular email address... That email address will eventually someday start receiving spam. Mark
Thanks. It is my yahoo email but it still annoying. I guess I was spoiled since, like you, I had somehow managed to not receive any spam in there for many years. Then recently I received one of those "chain" emails from a friend & I think by simply opening it that triggered these spam emails somehow. Even though the spam goes into the spam folder, sometimes a "real" email gets into that spam folder, so I have to look in there & I don't like to have to look through all that junk to check. Oh well, I guess spam email is inevitable.........
Mailwasher is not very effective... I'm getting rid of all my ISP email accounts... Because I get about 100 spams/day each... Versus maybe 2-3 legit emails... And Mailwasher catches no more than 20-30% of spam... So it's f*cking hopeless. Easily by FAR the best is GMail... Where I am getting maybe 2-3 spams/day... After having my very active business email address open for over 12 months.
HoundDogOne, fortunately I get very little spam and find MailWasher works very well for me. These days most ISPs include anti-spam with their service, and tho I don't use Shaw's, a neighbour's grateful her provider filters all the crap out so she never sees it.
I believe that most ISPs charge for anti-spam service on the order of $10-$20/month... It's a major source of revenue... So they are in bed with the spammers... Just as phone companies are in bed with 900 number scammers, viruses packing dialers, etc It's entirely beyond me why people would ** PAY ** for 90s style email accounts with ISPs... Of which I still have 2 or 3... When free GMail totally, completely crushes 90s email. If you want local copies... GMail will forward a copy of everything to any ISP account.