# 1981 messages in my hotmail **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043 "2001-08-13T15:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/1 "2001-08-13T15:33:00Z")
I just logged into my hotmail account, and as expected, there was nothing in my inbox… (I use this account for SDMB purposes only… so no news there!). Then I turn to my “spam” folder… WHAT? 1981 junk mail messages? WHAT??? I clicked on “junk mail”… it took a while to open, and there were, indeed 1981 messages! WTF? Most of them (I didn’t count, but let’s say 1975…) were from the same address! I tried to read one, but was informed that I was over my limit for the folder and couldn’t access the e-mail! Not that I really care… I’m sure this particular e-mail is pure spam, but still, WTF? Has anyone else had this problem? Can I do anything about it? Argh! ---
**Author:** ![muffinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@muffinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muffinman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/2 "2001-08-13T15:43:53Z")
I quit using hotmail because of the incredibly high spam levels there. I prefer Yahoo… it has more features, and it can be accessed through Eudora or MS Outlook. Plus, I recieve almost no junk mail. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/3 "2001-08-13T16:30:08Z")
Astro, did it have anything to do with [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81627), by any chance? I could be way off, but it just struck me as odd. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2001, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/4 "2001-08-13T16:38:26Z")
Happened to me once too… just once though. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/5 "2001-08-15T17:39:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*Astro, did it have anything to do with [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81627), by any chance? I could be way off, but it just struck me as odd. \*\* No, Coldie… had nothing to do with that. (with the exception of a few ‘legitimate’ spams) All of them were from a single sender… To be honest, I had forgotten about this thread until just now when I check my “Astroboy” account again… this time, there were something like 1850 msgs. in my junkmail folder (keep in mind that I last checked it maybe 7 hours ago!), all but three or four from the same spam sender… WTF? I may have to change my e-mail account! Oddly enough, I have another hotmail account under my real name that I use for everything non-SDMB related, and it hasn’t yet been hit by this! Weird… ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/6 "2001-08-15T18:00:53Z")
Great Googly-mooglies! Your Elemental has arrived. It seems to be an Electronic Mail Elemental. A Spam Elemental. Just too weird. -Rue. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/7 "2001-08-15T18:05:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Astroboy14 \* > \*\*all but three or four from the same spam sender… > > \*\* So why not just put a block on that sender?? Then it won’t overload your account… at least, that’s what I’D do, and I know you live you life according to my tenets… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Blunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Blunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blunt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/8 "2001-08-16T07:48:17Z")
Did these emails happen to come from [heather@aol.com](mailto:heather@aol.com) (obviously not really from that address), and did they have the subject of “sorry it took so long”? The actual email seems to be trying to hype up some stock. There is also a form on the email to submit your personal info (name, phone, email, etc.) and a link to click to be “permanently removed” (yeah right), so it looks like its also meant build some kind of spam list as well. I had over 200 junk emails from that address a few hours ago, and I just checked my email again, and there were 200 or so more. In fact there’s some comming in right now. I just emptied my junk mail folder, and like 2 minutes later there were 9 more of the same emails. I wonder why this particular spammer chose to send out hundreds, or even thousands of emails to the same people. My guess is that it was some kind of mistake, but you never know. Maybe there was some strategy to sending out so many emails, like to make people at least want to see what was in it (hey it worked on me). I really need to get a new email account. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Stewart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/9 "2001-08-16T09:26:03Z")
I gave up on hotmail a while back - too much spam. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/10 "2001-08-16T10:01:38Z")
Hmmph…I though you meant messages from the _year_ 1981. _That_ would have been interesting… ---
**Author:** ![Pnuk\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Pnuk\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pnuk_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/11 "2001-08-16T10:02:02Z")
Had a hotmail account for about 3 years and in that time I’ve probably received about 4 pieces of Spam. Not sure why either, as I don’t keep my address a huge secret, I don’t blurt it out wily-nilly but I’ve never had any problems. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/12 "2001-08-16T10:11:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FairyChatMom \* > > So why not just put a block on that sender?? Then it won’t overload your account… at least, that’s what I’D do, and I know you live your life according to my tenets… 😃 \*\* You got to be one hell of a smart person who can block spam addresses _before_ they arrive. This happened to me too, about 400 messages all from the same source, some porn thing or other. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/13 "2001-08-16T10:30:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Andy \* > \*\* > You got to be one hell of a smart person who can block spam addresses _before_ they arrive. > \*\* Well, DUH… If all of this spam is coming from the _same originator_, and I believe that’s what’s been said, you pick the “Block Sender” option for that address and you don’t get stuff from them any longer. Naturally, it doesn’t stop crap mail from anyone else, but I’ve used that option quite successfully to keep junk from specific individuals out of my inbox. I didn’t think it took **“one hell of a smart person”** to figure that out… ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/14 "2001-08-16T13:25:10Z")
ya, I was gonna spill the beans about the block sender, but FairyChatMom beat me to it. You can also set up a lot of different anti-spam levels that will cut down on a lot of the traffic. I think you can even set it to where you only receive email from an address in your address book. I have my personal yahoo account, that I try to keep reasonably private. Use the same name for my hotmail account, and that’s the one I give out when signing up for stuff, listing resumes, etc. and I get all sorts of spam on the hotmail. Most of it is not even porn spam, and the porn seems pretty random as well. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/15 "2001-08-16T13:29:41Z")
This whole “Hotmail has more spam than Yahoo” thing annoys me. Hotmail is at fault for listing member addresses in its address book by default, but beyond that is not any more “likely” to receive spam in my experience. If you take care to read all the options on registration forms before signing up that should remove the main flaw. Being careless about handing out your email address is the killer: I’ve had two Hotmail addresses. One I was less than careful with and has now been abandoned (getting around half a dozen junk mails a day, even with filters); the other has not had a single junk mail yet. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/16 "2001-08-16T14:03:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FairyChatMom \* > Well, DUH… > > _If_ all of this spam is coming from the _same originator_… Mine were from a different address than these, so the operative word becomes **if** …one knows the address beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1981-messages-in-my-hotmail/76043/17 "2001-08-16T16:22:51Z")
Let me join in and say it happened to me too. I got 636 messages from the same junk mail address. What sucked was how long it took to delete everything. I was on an older Mac that could barely even work with the internet. I think it took me 45 minutes and in that period the computer crashed 3 times.