Anyone else getting a lot of Spam?

[dryheat]

I do. I've learned, just delete it. Don't respond in any way. If you see little meme's or cartoons and smiley faces don't touch it (it just has that goofy Chinese look). If you mark it as spam you get an unsubscribe option. Don't click unsubcribe. It's not going to do anything. What it does do, is tells the spammer that you looked at their post. I got an email today; your card has been locked. Hmm, which card? I don't see anything from the bank about this. -Call this number. Don't call the number. Even deleting this stuff probably gives them a clue that there is a live human at the other end, but I'm not going to let this stuff pile up.

[Allen]

It's a lot of trouble but it worked for me. I use mostly Yahoo for my email. I was getting the SOS every day w/o fail so I found out about their filter that will block names that you enter. It sends them directly to "trash" file or where ever you select.

Problem there is if you get an unwanted email (for example) from Globe Life Ins. and block the name as it appears the next day you may get the same email with a slight difference such as Globe-Life, Globe_Life, GlobeLife and etc so you will need to enter each different name but eventually you will block all of their variants.

If some of these crap emails are for something like erectile dysfunction remedies. The names might appear as "Hard as Iron", "Hard as can Get", or so on and so on. Here, you can get by with just blocking one common word. In this case maybe "Hard".

This sounds like a bunch of bull but it worked near 100% for me. The more names I entered into the filter list the less crap I received. I was getting at least a dozen emails a day now I get one or two a week and these aren't the repeat, repeat, repeat senders. For most of these I just direct them to spam and never see them again.

Every so often I look at my "trash" file or items I've deleted and it still has many of the same spam names I put on the filter a year ago such as Globe Life--they're still sending them, I just don't see them.

Overall, simply putting things in spam doesn't work. I looked at my spam file thinking "how are all these names coming through, I know I put them in spam"? Turns out the spam list, instead of having hundreds of names only had about a dozen. Yahoo was only retaining the names for a short, short time.

Be careful not to give out your email address to just any one. As you know most companies retain your info and sell it to others. If you inquire about something like flower bulbs for instance they have your address. Soon afterward you'll be getting offers for flower bulbs from all over the world. Every nursery that grows plants and has an email address will be sending you spam.

It can be a pain. Some of it goes away after a while without doing anything but some of it doesn't. You don't want to block too many words as this may block wanted emails so be careful there.

The filters worked for me. My 2 cents.

[Mark in Ottawa]

I get a lot of it and start my day by deleting anything that is unfamiliar. If I think that there is a possibility that it might be legitimate, I check it out on my cell phone rather than on my computer

I still do get some telephone nonsense but our normal approach for a while has been to use the "call block" button on our cordless phone and that has decreased the number of calls

Having said that, I got a call yesterday from an unfamiliar number and an unfamiliar area code. As soon as the caller said "I want to talk to you about your computer" in a heavy Indian accent, I totally lost my temper, told him to F.O. and hung up. Usually, I try to waste some of their time. The last time I got such a call, I asked the fellow if his mother was proud of what he did for a living and had he actually told her that he gets on the phone and lies to people in an attempt to steal money. He was not amused

[Allen]

Usually, I try to waste some of their time.

I use to have a co-worker that did that. He would listen and carry on a conversation like he was really interested in what they were selling for as long as he could stand it then he would say "hang on , let me go get my credit card" then never return.

Other times he would spend maybe 30 minutes or so edging them on like he was excited about their offers then at the last moment say "you know, I changed my mind" and hang up.

Personally, I won't waste time with them. Our line phone extension rings on low volume in the back bedroom. My wife hears it but I don't. She looks at the caller ID on the phone closest to her and doesn't answer if it isn't familiar. In cases of emergency where family and friends may need us they know to use our cell phones.

I tried the caller blocking. On my phone it would still ring once till recognizing the caller so I didn't care for that. The only unwanted calls we get now are those taking polls and we don't answer them or any others that we don't care to speak to.

We have a life. They don't.