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Blocking Unwanted Email
by Mr PC Chat, MrPCChat@aol.com - October 04, 2001 at 00:25:32:
A number of people have written to ask if there is any way avoid unsolicited"spam" email. Many have discovered that clicking on a "no more mail" link just seems to generate more of the stuff. Well, I've heard that clicking "unsubscribe" or "remove my name" just tells the spammers that you've actually opened the mail and read far enough to reach the "no more mail" line, and that this just encourages them to keep you on their list as well as passing your name on to others.
Outlook Express and Hotmail each have a "Block Sender" option, which lets you choose to block incoming mail from a given emailer, but they point out that choosing this option in no way keeps you from receiving junk mail from other spammers, not to mention from the same sender who may simply change his email address or screen name.
Personally, I don't have a problem with spam mail. I can usually spot it from its subject line and use my delete key accordingly. As an example, a lot of spam has arrived lately with email addresses that begin with "an1" such as "an1acehrdwre@mail.com." I have no idea why so many of them use these three characters at the beginning of their screen names, since it's a dead giveaway.
Also, if I happen to open a letter that begins with "The following is a result of your feedback form..." it gets instantly deleted. "Your feedback" is merely a phrase that hopes to trick you into thinking it's something you've requested.
Anyway, one of my long-time readers sent me a referral to a Web site called " www.removeyou.com" which purports to remove your name from lists you don't want to be on. I haven't tried it, and have no idea if it really works. If I wanted to try it, however, I would create a new screen name on one of the free webmail services like Hotmail or Yahoo and send that name to " www.removeyou.com." Then I'd check periodically to see if that name was receiving spam.
Personally, with all due respect to my reader who is trying to be helpful, I tend to be very suspicious of Web sites that offer to "help" you for free. Yes, there are many Web sites that do let you download legitimately helpful programs, but there are also some very devious scams out there. I recently warned all my AOL newsletter subscribers about receiving e-mail from names such as "yourAOLaccount@..." or "AOLpaymentproblem@..." These letters appear to be from AOL and tell you your credit card somehow failed and that you need to log onto an AOL site where you can update your billing information. The site appears to be a genuine AOL page, complete with admonitions about not giving your password or credit card information to anyone but authorized AOL personnel. It then goes on to ask you to type in this very same information.
Many people wrote to say thanks for the warning, but others wrote to say they'd been previously taken in by this scam, and told me of some very devastating results. This scam is actually very easy to perpetrate, as the crooks simply get another e-mail account under a different name and put up another phony Web page as soon as the current ones get shut down. Be very careful.
Speaking of Web sites, I'd like to answer some questions I've received about mine, www.pcdon.com. A number of people have asked if mine is one of the "free" home pages that various Web services and ISPs offer to give you. Well, if you've ever signed on for one of these free services you'll quickly notice that your page o pages contain a lot of colorful ad banners, including animated ones, that advertise things you may or may not approve of. If you've been to my site, however, you've seen that no such advertising appears.
Yes, I do mention a computer book I've written, but that's it. No other ads of any kind appear anywhere on the sixty-some pages of the site.
No, mine is not one of the free sites; it's one I pay for every month, and which I maintain primarily to offer people helpful tips on using their computers. As such, I occasionally receive complaints that the site is not organized as a comprehensive instructional manual, complete with a table of contents and index that would let readers find an immediate answer to any computer-related question they might have.
If I were independently wealthy and had nothing else to do, I would be delighted to create and maintain such a site. However, this one is maintained at my own expense in what little free time I can find to work on it. In any case, a lot of people write to tell me how much they enjoy it, and that's the real payoff for me.
By the way, I finally got my free downloadable music page up and running again. It had to be completely reconstructed after I recently changed Web host services. Thanks for your patience as it was being reassembled.
All of this year's and last year's PC Chats can be found at www.pcdon.com. The site is currently being rebuilt, however, so please forgive any broken links or missing graphics that are still being reconstructed.
If you'd prefer not to receive this free newsletter, please click Reply & type No More Mail. Thank you!
As usual, I'm backed up with more email than I'll ever be able to answer in a lifetime, but phone calls are welcome at (949) 646-8615 or (949) 646-4167. Thank for your patience and understanding.
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