Spam Revisited

It is occurring to me that recent posts are re-visiting old themes I have already discussed. In this case, with respect to the spam issue, I have noticed a surge in spam emails in my mailbox.

And when I say surge, I mean it.

In the last few days (I mean this weekend), I have received over 1000 spam messages in my account. It's getting to be unmanageable.

The problem arises that some legitimate emails will be automatically filtered into the junk mail folder, and I just don't have the time of day to sort through them all. Especially if I receive 300+ messages per day.

Here's the kicker for ya. A few months ago, I set up a hotmail account for the sole purpose of logging onto MSN messenger. I expressed due diligence when it came to unchecking "subscribe" boxes and other marketing lists when I set the account up. Furthermore, I did not submit that email address to anybody. When I published the username on my webpage, as you see on the sidebar, I used tricks in order to prevent spam-bots from recognizing the email address.

Guess what? Within 1 week, I had 20 spam messages in my hotmail account. Micro$oft's privacy statement about not providing your email address to solicitors is a pile of excrement.

I really don't want to give up my Yahoo! account, since I have had it for (nearly) ten years, many people use the address, and I can't be bothered to create a new account, and inform everybody in my address book to use a new address for me.

So I have to apologize profusely. If you send me a message and get no response, there is a distinct possibility the message got filtered into my bulk mail folder, and has disappeared to the great unknown. I cannot be bothered to check that folder anymore, now that I am getting 300-500 bulk messages per day.

Was Bill Gates right when he said we should be charged for every message we send? He is right when he says that all the spammers will go broke. If I were to pay to send email, I would sooner buy a stamp and send my friends legitimate mail. The beauty of electronic mail is that it is free. The Pandoras' Box of email is the ability to send the same message to numerous recipients.