puter ediquate

so heres the problem. my ex lodgers family keep in touch with him through my puter. one of his relatives constantly sends 'funnies' and chain letters to him. this has been going on about a year now., but there seems to be an ever increasing amount. 1 feel obliged to open these e-mails just in case its bad news or something about his family, so i cant simply relegate the sender to 'spam'. i dont know this person, and have never spoken to them. to make matters worse the man in question no longer even lives with us. i don't want to offend either my friend or his relative, but what sort of idiot routinely sends up to a dozen spam emails PER DAY to everybody on their address list?? how do i tactfully stop it, without putting them off keeping in touch with Elrod through my puter. ??

ps. why cant i find the word eticate in spell check. ?? spelling please. lol

 

he is living in a tent on someones land, so my puter is the only way for his family to keep in touch (and snail mail of course). i use yahoo mail, and that will send mutlipal addressed mail to a 'bulk' folder, however due to the possibility of important messages being sent, i de-relagated this address. i am going to have to write to them, i know, and somehow explain that whilst i appreciate the humorous intent, i do not wish my computer to be vulnerable to the kind of problems that repeated unknown links cause. what i would like to do is send them a 'spam' explaining the dangers of these chain letters. if someone can find a good article about this i would appreciate it. aloha and stuff.

 

Just tell the sender that your friend doesn't see these spam mails and only to send important stuff. This would be proper etiquette.

 

Yep, it's spelt etiquette, as in Augie's post, above.

Like what has been said, the straight up approach is usually the best. Just tell them that the guy no longer lives there, and to please confine future emails to essential/important mail only - no jokes, spam etc. I've had to tell a few people that myself, as has most people, I'm sure. If that offends them, it's not your problem.

 

i have to learn not to take responsibility for other people. its not my place to keep the lines of communication open for a man that doesn't EVER contact his own family. i have 'blocked' the address. they have our phone # if there should be an urgent message. part of the problem was that these are perfect strangers to me. the other part of the problem is the contempt i feel at the morons who perpetuate the flooding of the net with spam. once there was the excuse of ignorance. surely that no longer applies as everyone who owns a puter now must be aware of the damage these seemingly innocent mass mailings can cause. you would think?

 

You would think, but sadly it isn't the case. I have made friends all over the internet and people add you to their mailing lists and send copious amounts of spam out that they forward because the instructions tell them to do so or they "will die within 5 days", or some such :crap . I've taken to either asking them to remove me as I don't like spam, or some, who forward virus threats (you know the ones...."don't open this email entitled Free Laptops as it is the upyourbutt virus which will slowly kill every board in your PC :eek ). I try and explain to them this is a hoax and all they are suceeding in doing is wasting bandwidth. They can't believe it is a hoax and haven't even bothered to google it before forwarding!!! Talk about lemmings.... :mad

 

well..isn't this just always the way things happen. yesterday my hubby got a frantic phone call from the lady concerned to say that she was flying my friend out to Texas as a surprise for his brother, and my puter keeps returning her mail!! i 'unblocked' it and wrote explaining that yahoo had relegated her address to the 'spam', folder because of the repeated mass mailing addresses, and that i had undone this so that she is now able to send him the itinerary and 'e-ticket'. (yes i know, i lied and blamed it on yahoo). in the two - three years since this woman has had my address i have never received a single piece of 'real' mail for my friend. (except possibly birthday and Christmas 'e-cards') then as soon as i get fed up and block it, presto!!!

THEN she sent me the mail about the flight AND EVERY SPAM I HAD MISSED FOR THE LAST TEN DAYS!!!

i have now written:-

"dear kitty,

please remove me from your mass mailing list. not only will my spam filter block your address, but in addition i dont need random jokes and platitudes to brighten my day, i dont believe a single prayer sent by email carries any more weight with God than the ones i say every day, and, there are NO virus warnings sent via spam, only the viruses themselves. each time someone forwards this kind of mail they are subjecting their friends to the very real risks of malware. my sincere advise would be for you to refrain from forwarding spam to the people you know, however cute the package is, and to delete UNOPENED all spam that you yourself recieve.

i will of course be happy to continue to receive personal mail for elrod.

much aloha"

which is what i should have done a long time ago. i'll let you know if it works!! much aloha and good morning everybody.

 

I know that one.....funny how someone else's problem is always our fault, after you've kindly offered to help, huh?

Have a blessed day Laurie

 

Well, I'd be a bit harsher than that, and tell her that she needs to get him to have his own email account if she want to communicate with him via email. And the he no longer resides with you, and it is not, and can not be your duty to act as a messenger between the two parties.

If you don't say something like that, you run the risk of being made a convenience of indefinitely. Just my opinion/advice.

 

such is life phantom.



ps whats with the number next to the name when you hit 'quote'?? i am 909207...???
shades of 'the prisoner'.... i am not a number....

 

....In that case - C'est la vie!

 

OMG, that's unbelievable! You did mention that she sent you prayer emails so she's obviously a zealot and also missing a few cards up there. I'd tell her in no uncertain terms to cease and desist or you will ban her forever. My friends used to do it to me and I told them the same thing. More than once their mail was infected! Aarghh. They would then ask me why their computer was doing strange things.:mad

 

I've wondered about all this too so I use three email services that virus check incomming mail Would this keep my laptop safe? Would it be better not to open these prayer mails and jokes?

 

I want a copy too!

 

As a general rule, Everything I get is scanned before I look at it, but I also have 4 different addies depending on who you are and how much I trust you. Most people get my Yahoo or Hotmail addy, I keep my ISP based and gmail accounts for close friends, family and business contacts only. That way I can have a little more control over what gets to my computer and what doesn't

~C

 

I personally have fun with these folks. There is usually a 'ringleader' with a website. I use Who Is or other sites to get their real name. Then I hit them with a highly offensive reply.
Usually works.

E