what’s with all the spam in my hotmail inbox? is it my imagination or did it just start a few months ago? also, my older (2+ years) hotmail accounts seem to be invulnerable to spam… anyone else notice any of this?
Actually, I’ve noticed the same thing. Maybe it’s just a coincidence?
I just recently downloaded hotmail, about two weeks ago, and I got two x-rated emails, which I immediately deleted as those things are prone to have viruses. I only downloaded it because my nephew wanted me to have the instant messenger. I didn’t realize that this is a new phenomonon.
I’ve had to give up a hotmail address just because of the spam. Even using the bulk mail feature didn’t defeat it. Somehow they’re slipping past the (not very effective) filters. This has been a problem for over a year for me.
i set up a filter to block all @msn.com addresses and it took care of quite a few. other than that, they just keep piling in… maybe a strongly worded letter to microsoft will solve this. hah
hopefully it doesn’t make my account spill over while i’m on vacation and make the hotmail server delete older emails. i’d hate to lose emails from old friends to hundreds of invading “ARE YOU HORNY TONIGHT??” emails.
I’ve also had acres of spam on my hotmail account but only in that last few months.
There is a hotmail spam filter, which scoops it all up into a special folder and deletes it regularly. Unfortunately it also scoops up communications from newsgroups as well, so for me that’s not adequate.
But what’s the explanation for the recent surge? I thought it might be cookies form some of the dubious sites I’ve visited, or from my ancient and expired “Adultcheck” membership. But this may be a clue:
On a recent spam I opened (cleverly, the message title was “remember me? John T” - and of course I thought must be someone from the past) there was a revealing set of addresses. 40 adressees in alphabetical order from Redboo@hotmail to Redbouv@hotmail.
Of course I’m in there (Redboss9, NOT Redboss, drat it), but I wondered where this list came from. It looks like an extract from a list of all accounts, which would imply that either someone has hacked into Hotmail, and sold the addresses, or someone within Hotmail has supplied them.
Maybe someone wiser can shed light on this?
Redboss (not Redboogie, not Redboots, and not Redbottom)
I have a hotmail account that I use solely for an email group I belong to. Never gave the address out anywhere else. However, I’ve still gotten a small handful of porn spams in the past couple of weeks. I assumed that the spammers either somehow culled the addresses of the people on the list, but it may be a simple 00001, 00002, 00003 type thing with them trying to hit every hotmail address permutation.
I know that they got hacked a couple months ago. I have over 20 filters, the bulkmail thingo turned on, and i stil get 15 or so EVERY single day. luckily i only use it for one email i get each day and can easily delete the rest… My main Email is with Yahoo… i find it strange that i get maybe 2 spams a month with yahoo, but so many more with hotmail. Something’s up for sure.
I have three hotmails. The one I use most (and that people reply to me on) always has tons of junkmail; about the same amount in the inbox as the bulkmail filter catches - about 15/day. My other two I rarely use. I send messages out, but if noone replys, I get no spam. Seems to have something to do with other people replying to you and a spam list being made somehow from that; my worst hotmail is also my oldest (3+ years). My best one only gets junk mail 1-2 times/month (and I never use it). I sometimes get messages sent by “people” with similar names to my own; once they somehow even figured out my mom’s name and stuck that in the “from” box… and here name isn’t published anywhere on the net as far as I know! A lot of persistant, annoying computer-geeks out there who spend all day figuring out new ways to get email addresses - and it looks like they’re doing a good job getting past hotmail.
My three daughters have a hotmail account each - all opened on the same day. Two get loads of spam, one gets virtually none. It looks like a lot of it is done by generating lists of combinations as suggested, but why is one account spam free? Wish I knew, because I could do something about the other two.
I have never had any since I opened it in (pre MS) 1995/6. I don’t have the filters on either - is it possible that this is because mine is a weird user name or perhaps that I am registered as living in the UK? Maybe you should change your location details to Kuala Lumpur or something and see how you go.
http://tsugumo.cjb.net/junk/hotmail.gif
I’ve been getting over 30 a day for a few months now…I just clean them up whenever I get past 400 in my account. It’s kind of a pain, but hey, this is the Internet. You have to take the bad with the good and all that jazz…I could always switch to a different service, but aside from the spam I like Hotmail.
And you never know…one day I may find myself needing to lose 30lbs in 30 days, make all my credit card debts a thing of the past, make thousands of dollars quickly and easily, and obtain a V.I.P. pass to hot teen sex…and where would I be without Hotmail then?
- Tsugumo
According to the magazine open in front of me (Australia’s Internet Directory, June 2001, page 4), the reason Hotmail users are getting spammed is because Microsoft has sold your email addresses to a third party: InfoSpace’s Internet White Pages directory.
Apparently, Hotmail users are automatically added to the directory unless they purposefully opt out of the service upon registering for a free email account. The author of the article also states that he failed to find an “opt out” statement or option anywhere on the Hotmail site, despite an exhaustive search.
Too bad if you were inconvenienced. Perhaps it’s time to find a different free mail site.
It’s brutal. To make things worse, I get unsolicited messages from a Hotmail address with titles like “DO YOU HAVE A SMALL DICK?”, “WATCH HOT YOUNG CHICKS EAT CUM” in bold letters and other assorted nonsense, even though I never go on porn sites. I giggle and delete them, however I don’t think it’s as funny if you have an 8 year old kid reading over your shoulder.
I emailed
and they said that the emails were from a phony Hotmail account, so there wasn’t much they could do. However, I did notice after I emailed Abuse, the number of offensive spams I got went down, but went back up a few weeks later.
I chalk it up to the same as junk mail and telemarketers- the price you pay for the convenience of technology, though the Hotmail problem is pretty extreme.
I haven’t had much.
A spate of it a few weeks ago, but not lately. Mostly porn, but it petered out.
You could always do what I have done - get a free email address on a smut server. I don’t get any spam at all.