I am intrigued by my spam box. I find all manner of interesting things in it.
A while ago there were numerous Russian ladies who were eager to make my acquaintance. They seem to have transferred their romantic inclinations to someone else. How I miss them.
I also miss the Chinese ladies who want to be my Asian girlfriend. I wonder if anyone ever takes them up on their kind offer? I felt so mean refusing them all.
Then there were various gambling opportunities. I was offered hundreds of free spins or bets. They were playing the percentages and hoping I’d get hooked. I’ve seen the big cars the bookies drive and the large houses they own. I took a chance and refused.
Then there are a number who congratulate me on writing such brilliant informative posts. I think I might type out and frame some of those. They are great for the ego. Unfortunately the posts they attach they too are not related to the object of their praise. I feel let down. If only they had tailored it a little.
Then there are the religious ones who inform me that god is watching me and quote various chunks of bible at me. I remain unsaved. I am sure they are devastated.
The most strange of all are the ones which have a string of nonsense. Long rambling extracts of nonsense. I can’t see what their game is? Are they bots? Are they just being annoying?
Lately I have been inundated with offers of psychic readings. It just shows that they aren’t psychic. If they were they’d have known I wasn’t going to respond.
The annoying thing about spam boxes is that you have to check them because sometimes real messages get put in with the spam and need rescuing.
Spam. It is intriguing isn’t it? A whole world of weird motives. It gives you an insight into the unsavoury minds of people on the fringes.
Yeah spam is very amusing! I once got a huge quote from the Bible in Russian and I get a lot of spam from ‘psychics’
I bet you don’t get many Russian and Chinese girls wanting to befriend you though.
Lol no I don’t 😂😜
They must like me.
Golly! I didn’t realize we were sharing the Russian ladies! Kudos to you – I’ve never been propositioned by Chinese ladies – I feel rejected! Funny, it has been ages since I checked my Spam folder. Oh well…
It’s OK John, I think there’s a lot of them. There’s likely enough to go round. The Chinese ones are probably lurking in your spam box too.
I’ll bet you’re right, Opher! Hang on ladies, here I come!
Too late John – they’ve gone.
We do a lot of fixing and cleaning up people’s computers that have become infected with viruses and spyware. Findings in general are that if you are getting incoming spam type emails of a certain persuasion it’s because you’ve left your mark whilst visiting some web sites of a similar persuasion.
Now Andrew’s comment is interesting, isn’t it! I know for damn sure I have NEVER visited gay porn or sexting sites, let alone sought out viagra. Those long screeds of mandarin leave me bamboozled ???? I managed to get my spam right down to a mere handful after discovering to my horror how many I had. That was in the days when I was oblivious to the need to check it. I tediously went through each one and added “rel=”nofollow” to the end of each URL, saved, then permanently deleted them. They don’t come back. But new ones pop up now and then. Found that little gem somewhere in the plethora of WP info on managing spam . Now I only get maybe 1 -3 a day, sometimes none. Also have added a list of words to Comment Moderation and Comment Blacklist found in Dashboard: Settings – Discussion. But then, you probably know all this !
No, me neither Raili. Neither have I remotely approached anything to go with Everest double glazing or psychic readings. I think names get touted about for some reason or other. We shall never know.
I did not know how to remove them like that. Thanks for the heads up on that. I’ll give it a go.
But you do know because I’m sure that you’ve heard of related web-search tools that servers such as Google like to advertise and have you click on to accept cookies etc that will “enhance your browsing experience”. They sell you on.
You buy something online from B&Q home improvements, they’ll sell you on to Everest.
On a less wholesome level, a quick cheeky look at the girly free pages will result in salutations from interested Russian and Chinese “escorts”. Btw, it’s estimated that 80% of males with access to a computer peruse pornography of one level or another.
You buy a pair of reading glasses from Vision Express, give them your email so that they can mail you when your specs are ready and the next thing you see are incoming emails for laser eye surgery. At £500 per eye, how many pairs of reading glasses would you need to buy? It all makes good business as it’s the percentage numbers game, as they only need a 1% take-up and they’re quids in on profit.
It also sounds as if you need to update your email programme, which most people for some reason never bother to do, as there’s really no good reason why your spam hasn’t been fished out straight into the junk box never to be opened and all you need to do is press block once and that incoming email address will never return.
Worked well for me. Hasn’t entirely stopped, but has reduced a huge amount.
I’ll give it a go. Getting a spate of prostate cancer sites now. Weird huh?
You prompted me to check my Junk Mail and I found some that I’d been looking for. No Russian or Chinese ladies, though a Canadian Pharmacy seemed to think I might need a little help in that general direction!
Did you have any psychics Dave?
Nope … but all advertisers reckon they can read your mind, don’t they?
They have their computer programmes to assist in analysing our purchasing habits. We are all analysed to death.