Spam

[JOHN HABS 10]

Every time I check the emails in my inbox I find I'm getting up to 20 spam messages, most of which are relating to Bitcoin or Meet Asian women.

How do I prevent these messages from arriving at my computer ( in simple terms ).

My  ISP is Virgin Media, I have tried checking different boxes as to where to send the messages to but to no avail.

In settings Virgin Media ask you to give the name and address of the sender, without opening any of these messages and risk getting a virus or whatever,

how do I block these messages from coming through - I'm on the computer twice a day and each time I have this problem with a load of spam messages.

 

Not being a computer person I don't know if this helps but I running Windows 7 SP1

[Top Cats Hat 10]

Given that many spam filters are rubbish (gmail excepted), what many people do is set up an email address for web browsing, compulsory registration etc. which will then pick up all your spam like a magnet.

 

Then be very careful where you use your 'real' email address.

[Waldo 96]

Gmail has a pretty decent rep I think, when it comes to filtering out spam. I have my own domain, so me@my-domain.co.uk etc, which I point to gmail for email. Not sure if you can still do that, but if you can, well worth it. Probably cost a tenner a year to get a .co.uk domain, and you can keep that email, even as you move from ISP to ISP.

 

Not sure what google call it, think it's something like google apps?

[bisphampaul 0]

I agree with the above comments. use ghostery and an ******* on your browser also no script they can be useful on cutting back on the crap but like whats been said before use one for personal stuff and be vary cautious in the use of it and for stuff like facebook and general browsing use another address. spam will always het in there its pretty much inevitable but just check the boxes you tick on sites. the I agree has   usual stipulations they can share your address with other people etc . 

[DeZeus 11]

My General Advice would be:

Never visit Dubious Sites, (very boring I KNOW)!

 

Or have your PC Machines / Laptops / Tablet Professionally Disc-infected on a regular basis,  or get a GEEK Type Friend.

 

These were my Bread and Butter Jobs, prior to my IT Retirement, along with upgrading,

Ghozer has I believe compiled a list of People, Who call out to you, I used too, he might even do it for you if you'd PAY him...... you'd have to ask him....

[Cyclone 10]

Cleaning a PC isn't going to stop spam, nor is upgrading.

[DeZeus 11]

True, but if you read my comments, in full, you would understand 

• But there is also a lot of Spam on utube
• The internet 
• email - there are techniques to avoid or  remove it
• popups
• Malware etc..
• Post
• clutter
• life in general

I'm retired it's not my chosen job any more

 

[alchresearch 214]

There's little you can do about it.

 

No matter what steps you take there will always be data breaches of big companies.

 

Barely a week goes by without a report that customer details have been lost:

 

https://www.techradar.com/news/houzz-reveals-it-suffered-a-data-breach

[Jomie 30]

John Habs - you say that Virgin is your ISP but how are you accessing your email? Are you using a web browser and logging into Virgin’s webmail or are you using an email client? If the messages are of a type (which it seems they are), it may be possible to block them based on key words (no good using the email address). Otherwise, you can set up rules to divert them straight to the bin. It’s difficult for me to help you with this because I don’t know Virgin webmail. 

 

As has been said, there is little you can do about it. Much of this comes from security breaches in companies that have your address in their database. Also, as referred to above, if your system has malware, that can be used to harvest information from it. 

 

If it is no great inconvenience you could perhaps set up a new gmail address and use that. Gmail can be configured to pick up email from your Virgin address and the spam filters are so good that you probably won’t be bothered by the messages as they will go straight to the spam box. 

[Cyclone 10]

2 hours ago, DeZeus said:

True, but if you read my comments, in full, you would understand 

• But there is also a lot of Spam on utube
• The internet 
• email - there are techniques to avoid or  remove it
• popups
• Malware etc..
• Post
• clutter
• life in general

I'm retired it's not my chosen job any more

 

I did read them in full, they didn't address what the OP was asking about.

[Waldo 96]

2 hours ago, Jomie said:

If it is no great inconvenience you could perhaps set up a new gmail address and use that. Gmail can be configured to pick up email from your Virgin address and the spam filters are so good that you probably won’t be bothered by the messages as they will go straight to the spam box. 

 

I'd still be tempted NOT to use any ISP based email address as my main email. The issue being that, when you change ISP, are you going to lose access to your me@virginmedia.co.uk type email address?

 

Best idea really is your first suggestion; setup a new Gmail account, use that, and faze out your ISP based email address.

[Top Cats Hat 10]

12 hours ago, Waldo said:

Gmail has a pretty decent rep I think,

That is certainly my experience.

 

My Gmail account has not contained a single item of spam for over 10 years and a quick look  in the filter shows 30,000 items of spam. I always have a nosey to see if any legitimate email has been tagged as spam but I think the last time was two or three years ago.