So I got my mom an email account....

krackato

Golden Member
Aug 10, 2000
1,058
0
0
I once tried to setup an email account and tried to see how many pieces of spam I could actually get by trying to sign up for things. This was so I could test various spam filters. I remember getting bored of the project because I just couldn't get enough spam. Little did I know that the solution was just around the corner.

So I got my mom an email account with gmail. Let's just say after 3 months she gets on the order of 500 pieces of spam A DAY. That's 15000 pieces of spam a month. You haven't really lived until you're going through your mom's email and she excitedly exclaims "I want to keep that one!!" in a huge pile of spam in her inbox. I looked at her in disbelief and slowly said "email isn't supposed to work like this."

Gmail's spam filter is awesome imo, at least for me, but it is virtually useless against this juggernaut of spam. I have no idea how in the world she signed up for so many things that led to spam.

Moral of the story. When you get your computer illiterate mother a spam account, tell her the dangers of signing up for that cooking "newsletter."
 

potato28

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2005
8,964
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Ooo I hate the hotmail spam filter, always leaves the pr0n in your box and leaves the real emails in the spam... :|
 

chrisms

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2003
6,615
0
0
Originally posted by: potato28
Ooo I hate the hotmail spam filter, always leaves the pr0n in your box and leaves the real emails in the spam... :|

Perfect!
 

lizardboy

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2000
3,488
0
71
My Mom gets a ton of spam also because of all the idiot relatives who forward her every joke, urban legend, etc. I set her up with Outlook & Spambayes, it keeps 99% of spam out of her inbox. I showed her how to check the "Maybe Spam" folder (it gets ~5 mails/day...her spam folder gets ~100) and mark them accordingly.
 

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
Does she get the sexually explicit ones? Wait til she asks you what a "lolita" is... :laugh:
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
What about sites with some stupid animation that will say, "Send this to a friend" and you enter their e-mail address? I figure that's there to harvest e-mail addresses.
 

Born2bwire

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2005
9,840
6
71
Originally posted by: potato28
Ooo I hate the hotmail spam filter, always leaves the pr0n in your box and leaves the real emails in the spam... :|

I've never had a problem with the Hotmail filter. I use my hotmail account as my public account and registration account and I maybe only get at most half a dozen spam a day and it's collected in the junk folder.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I never have a problem with GMail's filter. Since I use aikouka on gmail, I get a TON of Japanese/Asian spam and I never see a piece of it in my inbox. Heck, I never see anything unless it's something I've signed up for. Hotmail tends to block even things I sign up for and it still let's some of the "Free Soda Trial" crap through. Although, I think Hotmail's filter has gotten significantly better.

I signed my mom up for GMail and she never sees spam in the inbox, but she did mention how she has tons in the Spam box... I was like "that's what it's there for..."
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,446
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Originally posted by: zerocool1
Originally posted by: lizardboy
My Mom gets a ton of spam also because of all the idiot relatives who forward her every joke, urban legend, etc.

I know the feeling...it seems that's what some of my relatives do.

I started replying to every urban legend spam I got with a Snopes link showing them that is was crap. I don't get forwarded them anymore :)
 

RaiderJ

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
7,582
1
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Hotmail's spam filter doesn't listen very well. I've "junked" emails with the EXACT same title multiple times, yet they still come through as regular mail.

So far Gmail has been great. Less than 5 spam messages a week get to my inbox.