# Anyonw else notice a drastic reduction of Spam on Hotmail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989 "2004-01-17T20:20:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/1 "2004-01-17T20:20:28Z")
How’s that for a descriptive thread title? Anyway, I’ve recently noticed that my Hotmail address, which is what I use to register software/hardware/sites, is down to about 5-10 spams a day. This is a _drastic_ reduction, because about a month after I got that I was probably getting 25-40 spams a day. Granted, much of that did go straight into the Junk Mail folder, but it still had to be deleted. The really strange thing is that my Yahoo! account is now getting about 30-40 spams a day, which is _way_ up from it’s original ~15-20 spams a _week_. I guess that part of Hotmail’s success is that they’ve now granted people the ability to block email addresses and domains - seemingly an unlimited number of them, too…whereas Yahoo gives you 100. So has anyone else noticed this spam-related phenomenon? And does anyone know what Hotmail did to upgrade or assist their filters? ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/2 "2004-01-17T20:22:06Z")
Blast my typo…if a mod/admin would generously correct my typo, my pride would greatly appreciate it, lol 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Psifireus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Psifireus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Psifireus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/3 "2004-01-17T20:26:57Z")
I haven’t noticed any reduction in spam but I have noticed a drastic reduction in the number of my outgoing emails getting to the recipient. Some just never arrive and others arrive with no message, only the document I attached. Some of them do finally reach their destination…about 2 days later. Have you noticed anything along these lines? ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/4 "2004-01-17T20:36:25Z")
Frank, My hotmail spam has gone from 12-15 a day to about 1-3 a day! I have no idea why but I’m not complaining. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/5 "2004-01-17T20:44:43Z")
I haven’t noticed a reduction in reliability, but Fred Langa has…here’s the article: [http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17300016](http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17300016) . ---
**Author:** ![leafrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cab0a1/32.png) [@leafrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leafrog)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/6 "2004-01-17T22:21:11Z")
Yes, and Amen! Although, it used to be exciting to check the email from my messenger at work, see that there were 5 new emails, and feel that anticipation that there might actually be a real piece of mail, actually written to me. Now there is nothing. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/7 "2004-01-17T23:49:18Z")
I too have noticed a great drop off in Hotmail’s spam. It’s down to 5-10 a day, at most, from 20-30, at least, a while back. Like **Frank** I only use Hotmail for online activites that tend to generate spam. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/8 "2004-01-17T23:55:51Z")
My daily Spam is down to 3 or 4 messages a day, compared to at least 20 a day before the big Hotmail change. I remember a time when I went 4 days without checking my e-mail, and when I finally logged back in, I had 104 messages… 3 were non-Spam. I haven’t noticed any problems yet with my messages getting to their destinations. I don’t send a huge number of e-mails, though, and they’re rarely life-or-death important. I wouldn’t really have someone calling me in a frenzy, asking why my e-mail didn’t get there yet. ---
**Author:** ![Psifireus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Psifireus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Psifireus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/9 "2004-01-18T01:38:56Z")
Originally posted by **Call me Frank** : > [@](#): > > I haven’t noticed a reduction in reliability, but Fred Langa has…here’s the article: [http://www.informationweek.com/stor...icleID=17300016](http://www.informationweek.com/stor...icleID=17300016) . Thanks for the link, interesting story. I’d be interested to know if any other Dopers have had trouble with Hotmail reliability lately. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/10 "2004-01-18T02:17:15Z")
I’ve had a problem with Hotmail reliability. Sometimes the messages I send end up being blank other than my signature or don’t arrive at all. That really put me out when I sent an assignment to my drama instructor and my it didn’t arrive at all, making it a week late. Roar. I also noted that I had a reduction in spam, but I put that up to the fact that I made a filter that deleted all emails with “Paris Hilton” in the subject. _sigh_ How could I be so wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Teelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Teelo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teelo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/11 "2004-01-18T02:24:16Z")
I noticed the reduction, and its very very cool. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/12 "2004-01-18T03:56:24Z")
Come to think of it…Yes! ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/13 "2004-01-18T17:17:29Z")
I was thinking about this just the other day! I thought perhaps it was because in the previous weeks my inbox had gotten so full that I wasn’t able to delete them fast enough and a few spammers “gave up” on me. Hah! To know that other people are experiencing this phenomenon is good news indeed! My yahoo account isn’t getting any more spam than usual, but it’s a paid DSL account. ---
**Author:** ![Psifireus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Psifireus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Psifireus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/14 "2004-01-18T17:46:27Z")
Originally posted by **lillalette** : > [@](#): > > I’ve had a problem with Hotmail reliability. Sometimes the messages I send end up being blank other than my signature or don’t arrive at all. That really put me out when I sent an assignment to my drama instructor and my it didn’t arrive at all, making it a week late. Roar. I’ve had this same problem lately. Also, at times, there have been whole emails that just disappeared. One I sent with an attachment arrived at it’s destination with only the attachment, no message text. Thanks for your input **lillalette**. ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/15 "2004-01-18T19:05:55Z")
My reduction in spam (on Hotmail) started months ago. It went from hundreds to maybe two a day, almost overnight. Thus far, I haven’t had problems sending or receiving email there…yet. My Yahoo account alway has had tons of spam (mostly in the bulk folder, thankfully) but it’s my throwaway account anyway. I fully expect it to be that way. My Excite account is just now beginning to get spam, but it’s my own fault. I screwed up and used it instead of the Yahoo account for something. And yes, I have lots of email accounts! I used to “collect” them…just for the helluvit. I’m now down to six (well, seven if I count my work email) instead of the ridiculous amount of twenty-one, that I had at one time. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/16 "2004-01-18T19:10:49Z")
> [@Call me Frank](#): > > Anyway, I’ve recently noticed that my Hotmail address, which is what I use to register software/hardware/sites, is down to about 5-10 spams a day. This is a _drastic_ reduction, because about a month after I got that I was probably getting 25-40 spams a day. Granted, much of that did go straight into the Junk Mail folder, but it still had to be deleted. > > I guess that part of Hotmail’s success is that they’ve now granted people the ability to block email addresses and domains - seemingly an unlimited number of them, too…whereas Yahoo gives you 100. Hotmail gives you 250, at least for the free accounts. Keep it a few years and you’ll hit it. I don’t know of any problems sending/receiving myself, except for one friend who has had trouble sending me mail for years, and I think she is a case of PICNIC. Still, the more filters makes you worry. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/17 "2004-01-18T21:03:32Z")
[QUOTE=lurkernomore] Hotmail gives you 250, at least for the free accounts. Keep it a few years and you’ll hit it.QUOTE] Blast…I counted 'em up the other day…239. I’ve had the account for 3-4 years now…I guess I’ll just have to clean those blocked addresses out like I did w/Yahoo… I was able to consolidate _many_ blocked addresses by just blocking the entire domain (Strictly commericial addresses though, nothing like [yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com) or [hotmail.com](http://hotmail.com)). I know there are those who are huge opponents to indescriminate domain blocking, and I agree that indiscriminately blocking an entire domain will affect your email reliability, but I’m confident in my ability to spot spam domains. What bothers me are the emails like [spammer@ajkhkjhkjad.net](mailto:spammer@ajkhkjhkjad.net)… ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/18 "2004-01-18T21:05:06Z")
Woops…didn’t mean for that to make an actual mailto link…should have put it in code brackets, I suppose… ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/19 "2004-01-19T10:45:00Z")
I have not had one single sole solitary piece of spam since I changed my Hotmail address. My old userid was 4 letters and 2 numbers which apparently is targeted by all those (what do you call them?) programs that send out bulk emails to every possible address… but I guess they never thought to try addresses with 4 letters, an underscore, 6 letters, and a 3 digit number! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989/20 "2004-01-19T14:54:51Z")
I don’t use free email services, but I have noticed a **significant** drop in spam lately. At the end of last year, I was getting more than 300 spams a day on my work address. As of this week, that number has dropped to 100 or so. I hope whatever happened stays happening… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyonw-else-notice-a-drastic-reduction-of-spam-on-hotmail/224989.md?page=2)