MSN chat contacts

I installed a spam blocker a few week's ago but email from friends was not coming through either so had to disable the blocker yesterday and the rubbish is pouring in now and on average about 70 a day.

I have also discontinued my MSN chat room in an effort to cut down on the spam so.... please if you have my email address and I'm one of your contacts would you please delete me from your MSN list. Tearing my hair out!!! :-)

Thanks!!

Margaret, isn't the volume and content of the spam disgusting beyond words? I get at least 70 pieces of spam per day, too -- every morning when I turn on the box there are 40-60, and I'm always afraid of deleting real e-mail along with the trash so it takes a lot of time to get rid of it. I wonder if the spam legislation that Congress just enacted is retroactive, or if the spammers who've been doing this for awhile will still be able to send this garbage.

Mags, try Mailwasher from http://mailwasher.net -- it will let you filter out the spam before you even download it to your computer. You can mark e-mails as being friends or blacklisted and it remembers what you've indicated. It also pre-marks e-mail from known spammers for deletion. When you're ready to download, you just hit the process button and it does its thing, then downloads only your good e-mail. :)

Kimberley, does mail washer let the mail that comes through DG and ebay come through?

I have my ISP's junk mail filter, but all my emails that come from here, including the daily newsletter, and most of my ebay emails get dumped in there. That means that I have to check two places to retrieve my mail. I'm thinking that letting it all come through might be easier than that.

If mailwasher works better, I may try to bypass my ISP's filter and try it instead.

It sure does, Mags. The first week or so you use it, watch to be sure nothing you DO want is marked for deletion. If it is, just remove the checkmark under "blacklist" and put a checkmark on "friend". Mailwasher downloads the headers from the e-mails and lets you mark them how you want, then it processes the whole batch at once, deleting the bad stuff at the server. It saves you having to download a bunch of junk, too - saves time.

Kim thank you so much you whiz kid!!! :-) I used to highlight and block all the horrid stuff but my blocked box is so full. In order to empty it out completely I have to go to each one in turn and delete but the process is a lengthy one and would take a month of Sundays to complete.

Bonnie, only yesterday two people were brought to book here in VA for sending out this garbage, so let's hope the trend to rope in the perpetrators continues.

Now to go to Kim's link and implement the mail washer!! Thanks so much!!! :-)

You're welcome, Mags! I read about that spammer nabbing - It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I have a program called Postini. I'm not sure if anybody can get it, I got it through our phone company, which is also our ISP. You might try looking them up though and seeing what they say. www.postini.com It won't send things through to my email program without my consent. If they are not in my address book and I haven't consented, I can go into a page and see what emails it has stopped and I can choose to put them on my remove list or send them through. Once in a while I get a junk mail in my regular mail, but nothing like what I used to.

I have offended friends and lost friends over this, but I have told all when you send me a forward that you are sending to multiple people, make sure you use bc or blind copy. When you send out fwds to others and don't use bc, you are sending your friends' emails all over the country. and the multi-spam begins.

Postini costs me one dollar per month, which is added to my phone bill. It has been worth its weight in gold.

Happy Day,
Kathy

Kathy, we have the same thing through our phone company, which is also our ISP . I didn't know they charged but even so, it is well worth a dollar. I thought it was included in the dsl charge.

It could be included in a DSL charge, but I'm out in the boondocks and we don't have DSL Yet. But I am at the top of the list when it comes out this way. Could be the next century. :) And it is worth the money! :) Happy Day, Kathy

Kathy, we are out in the boondocks too. It's 1 1/4 miles to a paved road, but we were just close enough to one of the "things" you have to be near. Maybe soon for you.

Lizh, I used to live in N Carolina and I know exactly where you are. When I was there 24 years ago, Boone used to be the boondocks, but thought perhaps it had changed...did that time share ever get off the ground there? We actually looked at buying a time share there. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was just woods with roads when we were there. :)

Actually we live about 16 miles from Boone in Todd NC. Boone is a "big little town" now. We moved here 23 years ago. It has grown big time since then. I'm not sure which time share you are talking about.

This subject is SOO tough for us around this house ...
I have a TON of filters set up in my Netscape, which sends designated junk into my trash folder, thank heavens. BUT !... and it's a very BIG but ....
If I had ever set my filters for 'just friends', or for 'only folks in my email address book', I would have MISSED a timid, lovely email from my high school buddy / MAID OF HONOR, from 33 years ago !!!! Oh, what a wonderful couple of years' communication I would have missed.
So, I've set up filters for the 'usual' junk (such as 'member'.. good grief!) but have decided it's worth a few mins in the morning to manually dump the rest. At least I don't have to OPEN them all, first. Just my 2 cents :)
Blessings, Pambi 8^)