Anti Spam by accident???

butchiedog · Post by **butchiedog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:07 am

Hello,

I'm a bit curious about my not receiving spam email, not that I want to, but I have somehow managed to block it without ever installing any anti-spam program. It might be just a fluke, but I'll try and explain what I did and maybe someone will know why it works.

First of all; I'm operating on Windows XP, Home, with all of the Microsoft updates, including SP2, but this has worked for the last 10 years or so, long before all of the updates etc. I'm on a broadband internet connection, which doesn't offer any spam blocking features, I use Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.

Back when I first set up an email account, I did receive my share of spam, but a year or so later I set up a second and third email account and after awhile it occurred to me that those two later accounts never received spam, even though I was using those two accounts more often than the first. Rather than spend a lot of time deleting stuff I didn't want to see anyway; I decided to not use that first account anymore. I didn't delete it, it's still there, but I simply never check it to see if there is any mail, so whatever spam etc., that would have been downloaded to me is still sitting on my ISPs server maybe, but it's never reached my computer and that's just fine with me.

I guess my main question is; why would my first email account work any differently than the accounts I set up later on?

I'm not complaining about this, just curious is all and perhaps it will work for someone else too.

Mike

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:17 am

Hard to answer....you setup those 2nd and 3rd accounts...perhaps they've simply not been around as long to get onto spam lists. Usually it's mailboxes that you either use often, have used for a long time, happen to post on forums or websites without encoding being used (so it's harvested by spam spiders), etc etc.

butchiedog · Post by **butchiedog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:32 am

Like I said in my first post; "but this has worked for the last 10 years or so" I have used the second and third accounts on an every day basis and in all that time I have not received even one spam email in either.

Mike

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:06 am

///shrug///

Maybe your ISP has introduced spam washing on their end and you don't know it, as most of the better ones are these days. It's not only a relief for you... the customer, but a relief on their resources also.

Hard question to answer...as you say you don't use any sofware spam filters on your end, you use OE which AFAIK has yet to have a spam filter built in..unlike full Outlook which does, so what's left? Either you're somewhat careful with handing out your e-mail address (smart), or your e-mail host washes the mail before it hits your mailbox.

butchiedog · Post by **butchiedog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:52 pm

Again; Like I said in my first post; "but this has worked for the last 10 years or so"

I keep pretty up to date with what my ISP is doing and they do offer free anti-spam, anti-virus and firewall software, but I don't put too much faith in any of that free stuff, so I buy and use my own software. I have anti-virus and a firewall, but no anti-spam software installed on my system. I may just be lucky, because I'm not aware that I'm being all so careful as you mentioned.

Anyway; I just asked a bunch of folks on an ebay chat board about this and they all say that the only spam they get is on their main, (first) OE email account, but their kids etc. who have the secondary accounts do not receive any spam emails at all and I would think that they would be the least careful with their email addresses etc.

Mike

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:12 pm

The 10 years ago thing about spam...spam wasn't really a big thing 10 years ago. Outlook Express under Internet Exploader 3.02....or Nutscrape 4...I don't recall dealing with much spam back then in the first place.

Agree, I don't put any faith in the freebie software that ISPs offer.

Watch, now that you cursed it...you'll get flooded!

butchiedog · Post by **butchiedog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:10 pm

That was only 1995 and I got some spam in those days. Not a lot, like people get today, but some none the less.

The point is I still don't get spam today and I'm not using any anti-spam software. I suppose that anyone with OE could set up a second account and see for themselves if they cared to.

Mike