Spam Emails

A couple of months ago, I discovered an AOL mail feature that allowed me to "delete and block" spammer emails sent to my spam folder.  But now it seems I'm just getting more every day.  Easy enough to delete with the "check all" box, and I never fall for one of course, but did I do something stupid? 

Blocking Spam

Ducky (and thank you muchly) mentioned that the "3 dot" option depends on the provider.  It may be the browser too.

The article I read didn't mention that, but it makes some sense that it could.   I have AOL mail that I can read on Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.  It is the same on all.  Maybe different email providers have the same feature in different places or with different icons.

But the important thing is that there is probably that option in all providers.  I love having discovered this.  IUt is so easy to use.  Click on "block senders".  It has to stop some of them.  Maybe some spammers change their emails frequently, but anything is worth a try.

I know it is working somewhat.  I used Facebook a couple of times to read articles from friends, but then I stopped.  So, Facebook "threatened" me with cancellation for not using them enough.  That was fine with me.  

But then they said they would "allow" me 6 months to renew my account.  I didn't, and what they did was extremely annoying.  They sent a daily or 2x daily notification bragging about how good they were and "promised" to send me a daily notification of the cancellation for 6 months!

I emailed them directly asking them to stop the notifications.  No luck.  I emailed the support staff to stop the notifications.  No luck.  Apparently, they just won't stop.  I had to keep manually deleting their notification (even after I sent them to the spam folder).

But "block sender" works.  I haven't seen a notification from Facebook In the week since I blocked them.

I encourage everyone to find and use the "block sender" feature, wherever it is on your computer.  Search for it in HELP if you have to.  Call your email provider if you have to.  The initial effort is worth the spam reduction (and I do think I get less spam than I used to).  Every email in the spam folder gets the immediate "block sender" treatment (after review to make sure it isn't actually legitimate, of course).

It is SO easy...

Something I learned Recently

I learned a new thing from the newspaper tech column a few days ago.  I say that acknowledging that I am not the most natural or skilled computer user.  So if the following is obvious, forgive me.  I never know what others know.  But it may help "someone".

When you get spam, go to the upper right where you see the 3 dots.  Click on that.  It allows you to block the sender.  Sure, there are a lot of spammers.  But some produce a lot of spam.  Blocking them helps.  

I just automatically do that now.  My spam messages are cut in half (it seems) after only a few days, and I expect that there will be fewer in the future.

It isn't that I ever pay attention to spams, but the fewer I have to delete, the better!

Happy 2024!

An Odd Spammer

I was suddenly getting 6+ calls per day from a nearby local electrical company (so the phone display said) for several days.  I generlly ignore such calls.  But when they get too frequent, I like to play games with the callers.  And I was getting tired of deleting the "missed calls" manually.

So I picked up the phone.  The person I spoke to couldn't get my name right at all:

Hello, are you Nark Via"?

No.

Is Nark Via at home this day?

No.

Who am I speaking to?

Who are you?

I must talk to Nark Via!

Please check your list and get my name right.

Are you [my name]? 

Yes.

Why didn't you say so?

You didn't say my name

I said your name.  Are you deaf?

I hear you fine.  Can you speak English?

Drink poison and die!  

CLICK 

Later that day, same phone display name BG&E...

"Hello my name is Susan"  (female voice in same Indian accent)

Your name is "Susan"?  (laughing) 

Why do you complain at me like this"?

CLICK 

Which was disappointing becauae I had my headset on and was prepared to drag the caller along for as long as as I could by pretending to be interested.

It actually made sense that BG&E was marketing me, since they can offer me electrical service over my local co-op lines.  So I called  BG&E about the annoying calls.  Guess what?  Its a problem for them, too.  The calls are scammers.

I didn't even think about that, since I like my co-op and wasn't tempted to change providers.  They actually appreciated my calling them with details of the calls.  They apologized for the spam calls and assured me they weren't causing them (and had their security team trying to find the scammers).

Huh!  Sometimes it is worth calling about the "apparent" spammers.   *I* felt good about calling them about it, and THEY seemed pleased to get some general day/date/time data about the calls.

The same thing happened a few months ago.  I was getting calls from a local carpet-cleaning  company.  Except they weren't placing the calls.  Spoof display...

So don't get mad at the people you THINK are calling you all day.  Just let them know they are spoof-victims.  They want to know about that because they care about their reputations. 

But it WAS some weird calls...