On AIM, I’m constantly getting messages that read like this:
Lcy88923: Hi, I just saw your profile, My Name is Mariah, 18 from Cali, Just wondering if you might want to chat sometime. I have some pics on my page if you want to check it out, do you have any pics I can see? Here is the page, www~Mariah~us~tf (replace the ~ with a Dot or period so you are able to go to the site, sign my profile please!)
First of all, before I even say anything else, what kind of sob-moronic swine would actually fall for that? “Oh, yes, I’ve always had a thing for girls from the French Antarctic Territory. And the tildes in your website address, no, I don’t think there’s anything weird about that. I think I’ll do it!”
Secondly, what insidious entity is sending out these messages to me?
And thirdly, how in the hell do I stop them from coming forever? Some of them say “to stop, type ‘remove me’” and I do it, but other whores with different names still leave me messages. It’s so annoying. What do I do?
It might have done; having overlooked the mention of AIM, I was unsure whether these were spam emails (in which case a spam filter, locally or at ISP level, would be required), or if they were Windows pop-up messages (in which case turning off the Windows Messaging Component would be the fix), or something else altogether (as it actually turned out to be.
Having been pointed out to me that this is an AOL-related issue, I deliberately refrained from offering further advice, but if you really want to know what it would have been, here it is: “Don’t use AOL - this is only one of the good reasons not to use AOL”.
Oh, and, if it’s anything like MSN Messenger in terms of options, you can switch on a setting that only allows messages from ‘friends’ (i.e. authorised senders) to get through to you. This should prevent the ‘whores’ from getting their messages through. Its a while since I used AIM though so I’m not sure where the option is in the program.
I suppose you’re right - although I’m not sure what the statistics look like as regards people who have installed AIM standalone and those who got it along with the whole AOL package.
I may be guilty of over-reacting here, but having attempted to repair quite a number of computers after the user had inserted an AOL CD and ultimately screwed everything up, I have a somewhat visceral negative reaction to AOL in general.
I have a shared broadband connection, but installed it because I needed to chat with the support of a particular software package, and they were on AIM as opposed to MSN. In general I prefer MSN though.
The AIM network is used by many many people who don’t use AOL as their ISP. In my experience most college students use AIM (or other clients to access the AIM network, such as GAIM or Trillian).
If you don’t want messages from random people, you should be able to go into preferences and only allow messages from Buddies.
Go into preferances, and somewhere undier security, or privacy, there is an option about who can/can’t talk to you. There are three options. One, is everyone can talk to you unless they are on a blocked list, the secodn is no matter what only people on your buddy list can talk to you, and the third is like an anti-blocked list, only the people on a new list, seperate from your buddy list, can talk to you.
And I find it’s much better than Trillian, even though Trillian might be more popular. (For one thing, Gaim recognizwes links in away mesasges and profilse, I don’t know if Trillian does that now, but it didn’t last time I used it and that as enough to put me off of it.)
Thanks, that sounds like it might be useful next time I need to IM with someone who’s not on MSN. AIM got annoying quickly because of the stupid box it flashed up every time I started my computer.
