Reduced Spam?

[Jeffrey Shaw 89]

I usually seem to receive about 50-100 spam e-mails each day.

But, within the last week, they seem to have reduced to only 2 or 3.

No more Nigerian trust funds; no more lists of women all of whom unaccountably need urgent carnal assignations.

I doubt that it's anything to do with summertime or The Virus. And I'm not complaining at the nuisance's disappearance!

Is it because:

a. anti-virus and spam-fighting software have suddenly become markedly better; or

b. the usual senders have been mysteriously driven offline?

[RollingJ 1,993]

I don't know which of those options is more true, tbh, but I too have noticed a marked reduction in spam to the account that receives 99.9% of mine recently.

My suspicions are that it is a combination of the two, as the ISPs and the likes of Yahoo, Gmail &c hate the carp as much as the users do.

I understand, from my many years of experience, that there are periodic purges of known spammy servers and carriers, so maybe this is one those times. Unfortunately, it won't last - these wastes of oxygen will find other facilities to recommence their activities.

[MrRobot 10]

Meanwhile I'm getting more than I ever have lol

Edited August 9, 2020 by MrRobot

[tinfoilhat 11]

Mine stopped for a couple of weeks, now they're back.

[RollingJ 1,993]

@Jeffrey Shaw,  @MrRobot, @tinfoilhat - mind me asking who your ISPs are?

[tinfoilhat 11]

Plusnet. 

 

But it's mainly one account that gets it, one that I've had for a number of ISPs including Talk talk.

[RollingJ 1,993]

7 minutes ago, tinfoilhat said:

Plusnet. 

 

But it's mainly one account that gets it, one that I've had for a number of ISPs including Talk talk.

Ah - the dreaded TT.😀 The problem account for me is my old Tiscali (now TT) one, which I only hold on to as there are a couple of really long-standing  email subscriptions which are a pain to change.

 

Only one of my PN mailboxes gets the very occasional spam, but that was due to an old breach at one of the companies I used to do business with.

[Thirsty Relic 206]

If it helps, many of the ones I get are to an email address I use purely for ebay purchases.  Despite their T+T telling purchases to only contact their sellers using ebay, they give purchasers email addresses to sellers!  The end result is I often get offers from them outside ebay..... and spam not linked to any sellers, but presumably initiated by individuals dealing with my purchases and having sight of my email address.

[zach 234]

I made the mistake of getting an account with SYT? I think it's called that, the one where you can buy bus passes etc. The day after joining, the email account I used was getting hammered with junk and still is...coincidence? I think not!! I'm not that bothered as I used a 'spare' email address to join.

[RollingJ 1,993]

@zachIt's actually SYTM (South Yorkshire Travelmaster), but that is irrelevant to this topic.

 

The more interesting question is the type of spam, bearing in mind that the regulations say that SYTM should not share your email address without your express consent.

[zach 234]

Just now, RollingJ said:

@zachIt's actually SYTM (South Yorkshire Travelmaster), but that is irrelevant to this topic.

 

The more interesting question is the type of spam, bearing in mind that the regulations say that SYTM should not share your email address without your express consent.

That's the ones.

 

Yes, I know what they say but IMO it was just too much of a coincidence. I can't prove it, and they would never admit to it. Just a case of adding to junk and moving on.

[apelike 10]

3 hours ago, RollingJ said:

@Jeffrey Shaw,  @MrRobot, @tinfoilhat - mind me asking who your ISPs are?

I don't think the ISP makes a difference as Spam is an email thing and I use Yahoo for email and have not had any spam for months. Some companies such as Alibaba send mail but that is automatically filtered into the Yahoo spam folder anyway. I have 2 email accounts also and one is only used for friends and family and the other for all else and the above applies to both. I never use the ISP ones provided as I tend to change ISPs after the contract is up.