Problems With E-mail

[Eamonn 61]

I have no idea what brought this on, but over the last month or so I have started to receive lots of E-mails for pills and stuff that are supposed to enhance my sexual performance. I normally either delete these or hit the block sender. My spam filter isn't catching them. Add to these all the other junk that comes in. People who want me to refinance my home or sell me an extended warranty on my car or whatever. There is just a lot of this stuff.I don't like this stuff and would prefer not to get it. Still I look at it as 21st Century Junk Mail, and much as I don't like it, these guys have to make a living and it's not filling the land fills. I just delete it and move on.

I enjoy a joke as much as anyone, but I have two friends that send out too much and two many.

Our District Commissioner is a contradiction. He sends me all this religious stuff mostly to do with dying kids who see Angels and if I don't forward it to everyone in my address book within twenty minutes the world will end,and all my hair will fall out. I suppose I could be a little more religious. It wouldn't do any harm, but I am not comfortable using E-mail to preach my beliefs to others. Sure I will sit down and explain who I am and where I'm coming from with you if you want to.

On the other hand he gets all these jokes that might be acceptable in the locker room and sends them out in mass E-mailing. Some times as many as 20 or 30 at a time.

Our Order of the Arrow Lodge Adviser sends out mass E-mailings of mostly cute stuff again 20 or more at a time.

I don't have a problem not opening this stuff. I never forward it. If the Angel of Hair Loss is going to get me, that's fine.

The bad thing is that they mix in important stuff with this junk.

There is some things that I arrive via E-mail that I like. Some one sent me the photo's of the Concords last flight, with the plane surrounded by the RAF flying team the Red Arrows. The pictures were breath taking and I will admit that I did forward them . I don't have a problem with receiving the odd joke. I just don't want to get 20 of them at a time.

I have asked both these guys to "Slow Down" It ain't happening. I think the District Commissioner thinks that he is on a mission from God and E-mail is his way of spreading the Word.

I don't want to block them. As I say they mix in things of importance with this junk.

I really do like E-mail. I use it a lot. I now do a better job of keeping in touch with family,friends and Scouts from the old Troop then I ever did. But what with the spam and the jokes and the Angels that are mad at me for not forwarding their messages it is becoming a pest. Why can't people use the priority settings.

If I seem to be letting of steam it is because I am. I had 96 messages in my In box last night all but two of them were junk.

Eamonn

[OneHour 11]

Eamonn,

 

You have been spammed big time. One thing that you shouldn't do is to reply to the spams. Apparently, you have sent or posted your email address on a website that seemingly sent out its email database to spammers and they proliferate from there. The spammers nowaday are getting fairly good at getting around filters. They use spaces, characters, and miscellaneous techniques to get their email through the filter, for example (V*1A*GRA). You can ask your ISP to perform additional filtering and of course, you can shell out more money for some decent spam filtering software.

 

You have tried to ask your DC and OA to take you off their mass mailing list for jokes and cutsies, have you? A phone call or two reminding of the "a scout is courteous" law will do the trick. It worked for me. Many people assume that you would appreciate what they are sending and just need some remindings.

 

By the way, just be thankful all that you get is spam. I'm fighting daily diluge of worm infested emails in my home email-box.

 

I, too, hate those chained-emails!

 

1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[AggieScouter 10]

Ah, the joy of Spam. Forget about forwarding those mass emails of the "forward this or you will die" variety. Ask the sender if they would be willing to send postage to send those dozens of letters instead of sending it free by email. Bet that message won't be that importa

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Spam, spam, spam, spam! Wonderful spam!

 

You don't even have to give out your email address to get spam. Some spammers just find a domain and start generating email addresses (a@abc.com, b@abc.com, etc). If mail gets bounced back, they remove that address from the list. If it doesn't get bounced, they assume that it is valid.

 

I get about 100 spams a day. Deleteting them isn't the problem. I hate waiting for them to download.

 

Fortunately, I have stopped my friends (all three of them) from sending me the joke of the day, etc.

[acco40 95]

I am proud to say that I live in the only county in the USA that has brought charges and arrested individuals for violating the new federal anti-spamming laws.

 

see: http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0404/29/a01-137416.htm

[ozemu 10]

linux helps with the bugs but not the spam.

 

my sister-out-law sent some bulky photo spam once and i asked her to desist as i pay by the hour and the download time was huge. she doesn't email at all now.

 

not a bad result in all.

 

actually the only other people who spam me apart the viagra thing are christians. as in practicing and preaching ones.

[buffalo2 14]

Just a thought...

Wonder how we could get the virus merchants to direct their attentions to the Spam generators? Maybe establish a bounty or take up a collection or pay them by the pound? Or perhaps apply for a Federal grant?

[Proud Eagle 13]

I guess I have been pretty lucky. Every time someone starts sending me lots of forwards I am always able to convince them to either take me off the list of people they forward to, or at least to only send the good stuff. Most of them went the rout of only sending the good stuff.

 

I personally try to avoid forwarding anything non-essential.

 

I know there are some scouting people around here who cause problems. The DC has been blocked by almost every Scouter in the district because he forwards everything to everyone, no exceptions. One SM even had him blocked from the entire network at his place of work, and had them rig up a somewhat interesting auto-reply.

 

Maybe Bob White should offer a electronic communication etiquette class at that U of Scouting he is working on...

[hops_scout 9]

I have my hotmail account set to automatically delete anything with a subject line of: FWD or something similar.