Wow I cant’t believe people get so upset over nothing. Spam is a reality and it will not go away. It is like the junk mail we receive every day in our snail mail box. To be quite honest I do not mind it in AOL mailbox or snail mail. Sometimes I find good offers I’m interested in. Hello people if you do not want to read spam mail there is an option in almost every e-mail acount. You turn off the emails from coming in. Or if you see the mail subject line and if your not interested delete it. AOL sends spam itself and they aren;t going to stop it.
The reason we get email from an AOL member is some dope has given his screen name and password out to one of these phony AOL letters or they have received a letter that somehow gets their passwords. If you don’t like it turn off your email, so that you cannot receive email. What’s the big deal. I’ve seen people in my area that have signs on their doors at their homes “no junk mail” well I’m sorry I like junk mail since I can look at it and if I don’t want it I throw it out. Sometimes I like to see what the bargains are. I guess some people just like to pay retail prices, but not me.
Wake-up people it is a part of life and they will not ever stop it for every block they put in these people get around it. There are even programs and companys out there that allow you to send spam and it leads back to their hosting center and they do not identify you. The people that spam know it’s a numbers game for every 1000 they might get one person to buy so they just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. If you want email just create one and block all the others if you’re concerned.
And by the way don’t bother emailing me, but if you must I might read it, I might not…so who cares anyways ?
Dandmb50: Some of what you said makes sense. On the other hand, some of what you said has me rolling my eyes.
It is interesting that people get so upset about spam but don’t seem as upset about junk mail. Maybe that’s because junk mail is so easy to recognize. Spam letters are not always as easy to recognize as you imply. I frequently get spams with a subject line like, “Here is the information you requested”, or “Have you seen this?” I hesitate before deleting letters like that, although I don’t delay in clobbering letters labelled “XXX Co-Ed Super Sexy Babes!”
Actually, when you come right down to it, junk snail-mail also annoys me. I never ever read it. Fortunately, it is always easy to spot. Even dignified junk mail uses “bulk” metered postage, so you can identify it in an instant. It all goes into my recycling bin unopened.
As you suggested, it wouldn’t be done if it didn’t work. Apparently (judging from what you wrote), it works on you; you said that you sometimes respond to the entreaties of spam or junk mail.
I would hazard a guess that we could rank people’s annoyance at unsolicited propaganda in the following order:
[list type=1]
[li]People who ring your doorbell[/li][li]Telephone solicitations[/li][li]Spam[/li][li]Junk mail[/li][li]TV and radio ads[/li][li]Blow-in cards in magazines[/li][li]Other ads in the print media[/li][/list]
Speaking of TV ads, I habitually tape the shows that I watch, so I can zip past them using fast-forward. For those times when I watch in real-time, I always have a book handy so I can read while the ads are on the air.
Will spam ever go away? You assert that it will not. I understand your position, but I would like to point out that there are technological solutions for getting rid of it; my “100 emails per day” idea was just one example.
So while I disagree with much of what you said, you did make me think. To wit: why does spam make my blood boil? Before I give my feelings on the matter, I’d be interested to hear what other people have to say.
I mean, maybe I’m being overly sensitive. If somebody can show me how to learn to stop worrying and love spam, life will be that much nicer. 
Uh, can somebody email me to tell me why my UBB list didn’t work right? I followed the instructions carefully, but it didn’t produced a numbered list.
(If you don’t understand my question, just ignore the foregoing!)
Timothy your comments…
That is right and it really pisses me off too but I maintain that we can beat the system by blocking our e-mail and just use one e-mail address for all our mail.
But they do this on purpose it is just like the snail mail people who use envelopes that look like a check and in that case we always open them first, it is an old technique but very clever.
The other thing that annoys me is those websites that you visit and they have this exit screen keep popping up different windows that we just can’t seem to close. That should really be a crime. I mean if they did it once that is not bad but 5-10 times that really annoys me.
But your thoughts brought up one of my other major concerns for years.
I have the solution for overcoming this also, or at least a method to piss them off and cost them money.
Those annoying little cards that they have in magazines just take them out, everyone of them and as you notice they are free postage attached. Well I’m not sure what the postage in the US is but lets say 38 cents. Well when they receive this they must pay about say 45 cents to receive it. What you do is just write on this card “no way/no thanks” and stick it in the mail.
If everyone did this maybe they would stop this annoying method of marketing since it would hit them in the pocket book if they got a million of these things every month in the mail which they would have to pay to receive them.
Sorry Timothy I’m not too sure how that UBB code thing works but just keep trying you’ll evetually get it.
Please feel free to email me
Dandmb50@aol.com
There is one way that all SPAM can be stopped, once for all, permanently.
If nobody were to ever buy anything advertised in a spam message, then it wouldn’t be cost effective. They would have no incentive to spend the money to buy the EMAIL lists, if it did not produce sales.
If there could be some kind of campaign to inform the general public to identify spam and to not buy anything through it, that could be the first step. It could simply be pointed out that most are scams anyway.
yes it is true but I am sorry I do not mind it since occationally there is something that I wish to buy, and sometimes they have stuff that is much cheaper than you find in a retail store.
Sorry but whoever offers the best price they get my business. I like to save money for more important things like using the internet.
So there…
Please feel free to email me
Dandmb50@aol.com
A few weeks ago, I was getting spam every day from some guy. However, he gave an 800 number. So every single day I phoned and asked to have my address removed. Each time I said, “I’ve called x times before and I’ll call every day until I’m removed from your list.”
The problem solved itself in five days.
It was nice to be able to hit a spammer in the wallet.
I think the real reason people get annoyed with spam is that is it fun to get e-mail. And when you think you got mail, you get all excited, thinking it’s one of your friends and viola it is an ad for wrinkle cream. Then you’re let down and upset.
I think you’re right, Markxxx. Whenever I hear that familiar and cheerful AOL voice say “You’ve got mail!” it perks me up. When it turns out that it’s merely spam, it gets me down.
Maybe we don’t have the same reaction to junk mail because we can always say to ourselves, “Well, at least it’s not a bill!” That’s one great thing about email: no bills! (Not yet, anyway.)
dandmb: The junk mail you receive in your “snail mail” box does not carry a hyperlink to a malicious software site nor malicious software attached to it (unless it’s a floppy disk and you’re fool enough to load it).
Now on the subject of AOL spam: some of the spammers phish AOL members’ passwords and then use those accounts to send the spam.
Spam on my account is simply an annoyance. What I really object to is the spam that come to my kids’ accounts (ages 9, 11, and 14), and comes from AOL, since as I noted above I have non-AOL mail blocked at least on the two younger ones’ names. There is a lot of DISGUSTING stuff that comes to the kids. I’m sure you’ve all seen it, so I won’t go in to graphic detail here. If all it was was a discreet link to click on that might not even be so bad (well, yes it would), but the subject lines and the text have all kinds of words and things in it that 9 and 11 year olds ought not to be exposed to. Two or three times each day I go on the kids’ accounts and delete this stuff, but there’s stuff that gets through that I don’t get to. Then I have to answer questions about what these things are and why people would be advertising about it on the 'net.
If AOL were truly concerned about a family-friendly image, they would take steps to deal with this problem.
-Melin
Some other reasons spam is irritating:
[ul][li]What if you don’t have “free” local phone calls (as in Europe) or if the nearest connection number is a long-distance call? Then it’s costing you money to download unwanted e-mail solicitations.[/li][li]What if your ISP agreement is not for unlimited use, but you pay x amount per time unit? Again, it will cost you money to retrieve those unwanted e-mails.[/li][li]I usually hit the “retrieve all mail” button on my e-mail program and then go through the e-mails. If there’s spam, it takes longer to get the e-mails. Then it takes time to get rid of the junk in my e-mail box. And for many people nowadays, time is an even more precious commodity than money.[/ul][/li]
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Stendhal