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"Junk Mail"

mterra

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HELP

How do I get the "junk mail" to stop? I do not open up this kind of email. Why do I keep getting it and is there any way to make it stop?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Mary
 

pjrose

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Most important, do NOT click the "unsubscribe" links. That tells the senders that it is a legitimate email address and will supposedly increase the amount of junk mail.

Do not click on any of those pop-up, pop-under, and other little ads - every time you do, you send info to someone and your address will end up on a spam hit list. Clearing your cookies (look under preferences or settings or account) may also help - but then any automatic logins and so forth may be lost.

Check the help files of your email program as well as your internet provider's site or phone number, to see what filtering is offered. Often you can go under something like settings or preferences or account and find something to check to set spam or junk filtering on. That will preview your emails for words like "viagra" and "diet" and so forth (and possibly "timeshare" as well). Those emails will be trapped and put in a folder labeled Spam or Junk. You can ignore that folder, but you should probably check its contents every few days to see if something legitimate got through.

You may also be able to check a setting to only receive email from those in your address book.

You might want to set up a new email account, and tell it only to your personal or work contacts. Then just check the other one occasionally in case something legitimate is in it.

If you set up a new one, use a mix of letters and numbers, and avoid English words. Cutebunny@wherever.com will get lots of email about diets and so forth, and sixpackabs@somewhere.com will probably get lots of offers to enlarge body parts.

moneytoburn@iwannagetrich.com will get lots of ungrammatical emails about helping the orphaned nephew/niece/aide of a deposed ruler of some third world country get $12 million out of the country, and all you have to do is send your name, address, social security number, bank account, passwords....

On the other hand, jb26cr@online.net is unlikely to be "guessed" as an email address.

When I dropped an address that was just a plain dictionary word and created one that wasn't and that had a number in it, my junk mail dropped to almost nothing, and has stayed that way for years.
 

TUGBrian

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oddly enough...earlier this week they shut down an ISP that was found to be responsible for nearly 75% of all the junk mail on the internet.

I have noticed a HUGE reduction in overall junk mail...easily less than half the average each day.

Its a constant battle we fight here at TUG...as a very large % of our own valid membership, password, and renewal emails are labeled as junk and placed in many users junk/spam folders where they never get seen.
 

falmouth3

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I always felt that I shouldn't open them and click on unsubscribe, but a few months back I started getting hundreds of jumk mails. I tried the unsubscribe route and it actually worked.

This past week I started getting a lot of junk mail again so I unsubscribed again and voila, the junk mails stopped.

The ones I don't open at all+ are the ones with the .ru or.ro suffixes. And the dear friend ones.
 

pjrose

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A few years ago someone ordered from an online company and in error transposed some letters which resulted in him or her using my email address. I got the person's order confirmation, street address, etc, and even the login and password for the person's new account! I immediately contacted the company and had them correct their file, and got a polite response. It was an honest mistake, no big deal (except perhaps for the password info :eek: )

HOWEVER, that company apparently sells its customers' email addresses, and ever since I have gotten 3-4 junk emails per day on that particular email address. They are for all sorts of products, but all have the same format - obviously there's a template in use. For years I just deleted them, but the other week I clicked a whole bunch of unsubscribe links - all took me to the same advertising company's website. No change yet...but it'll be interesting to see if the emails stop or if I start getting even mor!
 

Makai Guy

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Many email suppliers have spam detection/marking/blocking services available, but in some cases you may need to turn these on for your account. If your email supplier provides webmail access to your account, try logging in there. Poke around any Configuration, Preferences, or Option links they may supply and see if you can find any spam filtering options.
 

caribbeansun

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Interesting - I noticed a huge decrease as well and wondered what had happened. I was getting ~200 a day and now it's a more manageable 30-50.

oddly enough...earlier this week they shut down an ISP that was found to be responsible for nearly 75% of all the junk mail on the internet.

I have noticed a HUGE reduction in overall junk mail...easily less than half the average each day.

Its a constant battle we fight here at TUG...as a very large % of our own valid membership, password, and renewal emails are labeled as junk and placed in many users junk/spam folders where they never get seen.
 

swift

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Also, be careful in giving out your e-mail address. Everything these days asks for it. Unless they truly need it don't give it. When you do, check the companies privacy policy. Many sell your e-mail address.
 
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