DocAndersen
Why is something not in my junk mail folder? It is spam, offering me money, telling me my check is ready. But it is in my inbox. Why is that? First of all, there are several problems and several things we have to discuss. Let’s start with the reality of SPAM. SPAM, if you live in Hawaii, is meat. If you don’t live in Hawaii (or Minnesota), SPAM refers to the mail we don’t want. Before the rise of email in the 1990s, we called this 3rd class or junk mail. Depending on the mail system you use most of the time, you have either spam or a junk mail folder. The nature of the junk mail is broken into several categories and we will try to discuss most of them.
- Scam emails Including you’ve got money, click this link or one of the new ones, an email saying your account is suspended open the attached file.
- The concept of mass emails. Companies capture email addresses. There are opt-in and opt-out lists. One of the most interesting recent rises in fake emails has been the fake unsubscribe email (xzy, click here to confirm unsubbing from this list!!!)
- Phishing emails are the next, and their goal is to get you to click a link so that they can do one of three things
- Verify your email address
- Get you to enter information about your accounts or personal information
- Install what is called Malware on your computer
In the world of information technology, we have two terms that apply here the first is whitelisting, and the second is blacklisting. I include whitelisting only because from a computer perspective, if you are running Windows 10, they have several applications that are known good. They offer those in the windows store and those applications are whitelisted (known good). Internal IT teams use whitelisting differently.
The other concept is what we call Blacklisting for all of us here on Virily that has two impacts. For example, on occasions, Reddit has blacklisted Virily. When that happens, you cannot post links from Virily on Reddit. In your email client depending on which system you are using, you can create your blacklist! When you select a message and mark the mail as junk, it goes to your mail client. Over time the mail provider you use collects that information. So for a time, the mail is blocked at the client level when you connect to your email. Later, that message is added to the blacklist for the server and you ever see that message or sender again.
Many of the services (Google, Microsoft, etc.) take their blacklists and share them with another group that then publishes a listing. Companies, governments, and so consume the list, and over time, some junk mail senders are blocked. Sadly they have alternate domains they can use, so you start over every time but many junk mail systems.
So if a message bothers you, mark as spam!
More than 90% of the total mail volume on the internet today is SPAM.
To report abusive email or threatening emails in hotmail/outlook.com abuse@outlook.com
Gmail select the arrow next to send and report the email as suspicious or phishingi have !
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Question of
I have marked a lot of mail as spam?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
SPAM is delicious with pineapple and eggs right?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
I average more than 20 junk messages a day?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
I average more than 10 junk mail messages a day?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
I get less than 10 junk messages per day?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
sometimes I read the spam and it makes me laugh?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
I report phishing emails to my email provider (google, hotmail)
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Yes
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No
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Question of
I have reported emails to Microsoft, or Google!
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Yes
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No
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I think that Virily is blacklisted by all of the social media sites except for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. LinkedIn have never allowed for me to post any links from Virily over the past 3 years.
Reddit and Mix support Virily as does Tumblr.
I would never post something from Virily on Linkedin.
Actually, blogging has helped me find jobs on LinkedIn when I am in-between jobs because it’s showing that I am still being active.
That is awesome, i applaud that but for me, I would never do that. I do think it is awesome that it has worked for you!
Q: SPAM IS DELICIOUS WITH PINEAPPLE AND EGGS RIGHT?
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
Q: I AVERAGE MORE THAN 20 JUNK MESSAGES A DAY?
Yes (6 votes) – 86%
No (1 votes) – 14%
Q: I AVERAGE MORE THAN 10 JUNK MAIL MESSAGES A DAY?
Yes (6 votes) – 86%
No (1 votes) – 14%
Q: I GET LESS THAN 10 JUNK MESSAGES PER DAY?
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
Q: SOMETIMES I READ THE SPAM AND IT MAKES ME LAUGH?
Yes (4 votes) – 57%
No (3 votes) – 43%
Q: I REPORT PHISHING EMAILS TO MY EMAIL PROVIDER (GOOGLE, HOTMAIL)
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
Q: I HAVE REPORTED EMAILS TO MICROSOFT, OR GOOGLE!
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
I have a mailbox at gmail and receive no spam there. It’s so comfortable.
At the same time, I have to fight much spam at my another mailbox at yandex. Heaps of unnecessary info. The world’s gone crazy on offering junk here and there. If I need to purchase something I will find it without spam letters…
There is so much bad – gmail has done a good job overall reducing SPAM mail.
can’t respond to this right now, I need to help out a Nigerian prince
ROFL
thanks I needed a laugh, and you as always stepped to the plate and hit one out of the park!!!
hey, he IS royalty to spambots…
true
sad
but very true!
just one coup from not being though…
oceans may rise and nations might fall…
but the Nigerian prince rules the spambots, all!
Gibraltar may tumble the Rockies may crumble
Time will tell, and thanks for the giggle!
sometimes a limerick is the only thing that will do
a friend of mine always says, we have to laugh or we stop being able to.
these days I gotta laugh so I don’t cry
I find that is the only way to keep moving forward now.
the important thing is that we keep moving forward, making all the progress that we can
that makes us sound like sharks. Per the old myth a shark can’t stop moving (it isn’t true but it is a fun myth)
if any animal stops moving for long enough, it will die
🙂
a hero dies but once.
🙂 you are right of course!
the coward dies a thousand deaths
I report them all to spam!
That is the best thing you can do!!!!
I get quite some spam, dear friend … I just delete it and never open it … that’s what they call the safest
that is very much the safest thing to do. I open and read them at times, just because it is hilarious and I have s machine I can do that on.
I used to open one too, but then the number of mail increased
i actually have a computer that isn’t connected all the time. I only open things that make me nervous on that computer.
That’s a good idea, dear friend
yes most people don’t do that. I do because I want to be able to see what some of these things think they are going to do.
I receive a lot of spam. Thanks for sharing the info. There were some things I knew, but there was a lot of new information. I do not read spam, I immediately block this mail.
it is a good thing to block the email sender! I am always amazed at the amount of SPAM out there. I have a friend who does email management for a government agency in the US.
They have around 200,000 people in the agency overall. They get between 25 and 30 million (30,000,000) SPAM emails a day.
woow, that’s a lot of mail. I thought they sent such mail only to “ordinary” people and not to government officials.
they don’t care, they send to everyone. They do what is called an alphabet attack and try to figure out the naming convention a company uses for email.
like first and last name (first initial and your last name)
or first name.last name and so on
They are very resourceful and try everything. Surely they manage to get the kind of naive one they believe.
They often do. my concern is the evolution of the attacks. I am not as worried about spam, most of that is removed before we see it. I am more worried about malware now.
I have heard there is an option for blocking the spam email.
depends on your email system but yes there is!