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Friendly SPAM?

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
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Good morning folks.

I wonder if this happens to you, and how (if?) you deal with it.

Have the morning coffee and check the email. You've got the usual ads, notices, and email from friends. But many of those friend emails have FWD FWD FWD in the subject line.

The "FWD" emails have nothing personal, no note, no "how are you?" - just forwarded copies of other generic "forward this to all your friends" emails, often with imbedded cartoons, dubious YouTube movie links, cuddly rabbits or pretty flowers. Yech.

You don't want to hurt someone's feelings, so you email them back with a personal message and a few comments on "things". You end the message with "By the way, I don't usually read Forwarded messages, so don't worry about sending them. I'd rather hear from you personally!"

Of course, then you never get a "real" reply.

But then several days later you get another FWD FWD FWD from the same person, again, with absolutely nothing worth reading.

To me it's like someone thinks "well, I don't really want to write something myself, so I'll just forward these messages I get from other people". But maybe they're lonely?

guilt trip guilt trip guilt trip

How do you handle those things? Just click "delete"?

Thanks.
Tom
 
NutmegCT said:
guilt trip guilt trip guilt trip

How do you handle those things? Just click "delete"?

Thanks.
Tom
Click to expand...

Yep - delete 'em; don't look back. No need for guilt; you didn't request the "communication".

This internet thingie is a bit new yet, but no doubt someone will write a book on etiquette before long...
 
They probably have you in their bulk mailer. Request them to remove you from it. Then if they want to send you a personal email, tell them to take your address out of their address book. A "friend" would do this at your request! Other wise block them! JMHO.
 
Some of the forwards I read...but if it takes more than three clicks to get to the message, or if it is a mess when I get there due to forwarding, it gets deleted. I have one married couple that I get the same forward from each of them many times so I only read one. And one person sends me 20+ a day, and only read a few where the subject is intriguing. Sometimes I know his email will be completely false, so I send him the snopes link to show him, but he probably never checks it out. And when I really enjoy or appreciate a particular forward, I then respond personally with a comment or a thank you.

Being ignored on a forward is not something that is an insult as most people do not respond. And Mickey is correct that right not there is not an etiquette guideline, so just relax and enjoy the good ones, or just delete them all.
 
I use Yahoo Mail, It has filters you can utlise either by subject line, body or both, You enter a keyword such as FWD in the subject line, then you choose what to do with filtered mail such as delete or sent to ? {bulk mail or a specific folder you create}.You can customise these filters further by entering a key word for the body also. OR you can mark and addressee as SPAM and never hear from that addressee again!
I have SEVERAL yahoo accounts for specific purposes, one in particular I only give to immediate family and NO ONE else!
One I use online to register on forums and the like {the one I use here} One I use specificaly for friends. ECT.ECT.
Needless to say my spam filters on one account is about a mile long. No problem as long as one keeps up with filtering it. the other {Friends account} spam filter is reasonable and my {Family} account has NO filters at all. They all know what to and NOT to send me.
 
re Yahoo mail.

Have you ever received spam on that family account? I used to use Charter.net and would receive tons of spam (stock ads, "male improvement" ads, etc.)

I created a completely new charter address for myself (my account allowed up to 10 addresses). The address was completely unrelated to my original address. As a test, I didn't use (or share) that new account name for 48 hours.

Get this: I got a dozen spam emails to the new account in the first 12 hours it was open! And had never even used it, shared it, published it, or even typed it anywhere other than the original Charter "new address" creation page.

yeesh ....

Tom
 
Tom, I receive a few of these every day from the same senders. There seems to be three distinct types:

Cute in a warm fuzzy Family Circus kind of way
Naughty
Ultra Right Wing Propaganda

I think of myself as fairly easy-going, so I just read and delete. I don't forward them, no matter how many years of bad luck that will cost me! Rarely I will respond with a humorous remark. Sometimes they have gotten my Irish up, but I figuratively bite my tongue. Once or twice I respond negatively. I do the Snopes thing too.

I think that many of these are forwarded by folks who desperately want to communicate, but lack the communication skills to write their own messages. I would much rather receive personal messages and photos than this stuff.

Wonder where they originate?
 
NutmegCT said:
re Yahoo mail.

Have you ever received spam on that family account?
Tom
Click to expand...
Verrrrrrrrry little Tom! It isn`t a charter account tho. Just plain ole Yahhoo mail. It too has never been published anywhere.
Now the "Friends" account gets quite a bit of spam {I just mark any unrecognised sender as SPAM and let it go at that.}
The online account, now that an entrie different ballgame I have created filters up the gazoo for it, and still get spam quite frequently. A lot of "Getting Spam" has to do with How often you clear your cookies and temp files. I do it EVERY time I`m done browsing NO MATTER WHAT!
Yahoo mail sets a cookie to ident your P.C. the next time you log on to thier mail. Other websites set Supercookies that read your yahoo cookie and report to thier owners, hence spam. {Not the only way one can accumulate spam by the way}
I DO NOT leave the yahoo {or any other} cookie on my PC EVER! Once I use it, it`s gone until next time. When I check allow cookies and allow yahoo to re set thier cookie so I can check mail. Normaly I don`t allow cookies ever unless I have to! {like log on for the forum here} once I log off I clear the cookies.
 
If there's nothing personal in the first line I just delete them....

I once mentioned this to a freind of my wife and you'd have thought I'd accused her of child molestation (or worse.)

We were drooling monsters for not liking cutesy kitten pictures and demands to reply if we were her friend and pass it on to everyone we knew or else... sheesh, get a life, woman.

We've not had anything from her since... a minor blessing since I couldn't stand her anyway.
 
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