Spam

[Waldo 96]

40 minutes ago, Top Cats Hat said:

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.

Yep. I've been using Gmail email servers for donkey's years, no problems (and next to no spam) so far.

[Ghozer 112]

1 hour ago, Top Cats Hat said:

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.

I was like you, however, I now.have between 10-15 unfiltered spam emails per day in my gmail atm...

 

Only since xmas tho

[Cyclone 10]

I use my own domain, so I give out a new email address whenever I register anywhere these days.  I then watch for spam arriving with any particular address so that I can complain to the company.

I also use gmail to pick up my email, then forward it to yahoo.  The combination of both spam filters is really good.

[zach 234]

2 hours ago, Cyclone said:

I also use gmail to pick up my email, then forward it to yahoo.  The combination of both spam filters is really good.

Good idea.

 

Any reason you go from Gmail to Yahoo, or just the way you prefer?

[Cyclone 10]

I was using yahoo before googlemail was a thing and having tried google I find that I prefer the more traditional layout in yahoo.

I do still use the yahoo address for somethings, so for convenience as well it's easiest to stay with that service as the final one.

[Jomie 30]

Quote Cyclone: I use my own domain, so I give out a new email address whenever I register anywhere these days.  I then watch for spam arriving with any particular address so that I can complain to the company.

I congratulate you on having the patience to do this. I have my own domain and a number of aliases but these days I can’t be bothered setting them up for new contacts. In any case, if it’s like my set up you end up using the default email address for replies anyway.

 

For the OP I think that the aforementioned gmail set up would be best. If he wants to phase out the Virgin address in favour of the new one he can do so gradually. If he prefers Outlook, that too can be set up to collect the Virgin emails. The spam filter is arguably not as good as gmail but ok. 

[Cyclone 10]

I don't have to do anything to be fair.  I literally just make up an address in my head and give it out.  All emails to the domain are picked up by the same account.

 

You're correct for replies I use my yahoo address, I don't often email back lots of website registration addresses though, so I'd know if for example "[email protected]" had leaked, because spam would start arriving to that address.

[Longcol 601]

On 07/02/2019 at 14:59, Waldo said:

 

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 [email protected] 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.

When we moved to France last July I cancelled my virgin subscription but can still access my @blueyonder.co.uk e-mail account - although it's 99% spam as all family / friends / billing / bank / pension etc was switched to my new gmail account. Still monitor it in case there is the odd one I've missed. 

 

I'm sure they said it would be stopped after 90 days...............................

[Guest]

On 10/02/2019 at 09:12, Cyclone said:

I don't have to do anything to be fair.  I literally just make up an address in my head and give it out.  All emails to the domain are picked up by the same account.

 

You're correct for replies I use my yahoo address, I don't often email back lots of website registration addresses though, so I'd know if for example "[email protected]" had leaked, because spam would start arriving to that address.

Great minds and all that   It's amazing how little spam you get on your own domains as well.

[Top Cats Hat 10]

On 10 February 2019 at 09:12, Cyclone said:

so I'd know if for example "[email protected]" had leaked, because spam would start arriving to that address.

Slight thread drift but when Screwfix used to refuse to sell you stuff if you didn't give a name, address and matching postcode I stuck an X in my name as a ficticious middle initial.  Six months later I started getting spam mail in the post addressed to Top X Cat's Hat.

 

When I complained to Screwfix about it they said that it must be a coincidence.

 

Yeah, right!

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

Slight thread drift but when Screwfix used to refuse to sell you stuff if you didn't give a name, address and matching postcode I stuck an X in my name as a ficticious middle initial.  Six months later I started getting spam mail in the post addressed to Top X Cat's Hat.

 

When I complained to Screwfix about it they said that it must be a coincidence.

 

Yeah, right!

I had that when I started getting spammed....but when I use <sitedomain>@<mydomain> I think the chances of it randomly generating that email address for some entirely unrelated spam are rather slim

[tzijlstra 11]

On 07/02/2019 at 01:18, Top Cats Hat said:

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.

 

Top-tip for Gmail users - you can add the + character with a custom line behind it, and the . character without it affecting your address. So you could have: [email protected] and then set a filter in Gmail to send all incoming mail on that address straight to the spambox.

 

You could also use: [email protected] or even [email protected] etc. so you can make endless custom addresses, very useful!

Edited February 12, 2019 by tzijlstra