# Would I be foolish (stupid) to answer spam e-mails?



## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

They just cry out for smart-ass remarks!

And I really have such great retorts for them, that sometimes I feel a compulsion...! ...and also compelled to correct their grammar/spelling.

But will that result in my satisfaction *and *a flurry of even more spam e-mails?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

As I understand it, once they feel you to nibble on their bait, they set the hook. In other words, should you choose to respond to a spam email, prepare for heavy incoming traffic! Ninety-nine percent of the time I just delete spam emails.


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## Apatheticviews (Mar 21, 2010)

By responding to a spam email, they can sell your name to a "confirmed Email list" igniting more spam emails.

That's why I maintain a few email accounts, one which which I use for primarily "business" and "silly" matters. Silly stuff is anything that requires an email, but which I want to provide as little actual personal data as possible.

On average, I get about 150~ spam emails per 3 days in that account vs 30~ in the business one over the same amount of time.


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## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

What Apatheticviews said. When you respond, you confirm that they've "hit" a real address and then you just invite even more crap.

I have a piece of software called "Mailwasher" https://www.mailwasher.net/ , which was recommended by my ISP. A single account version is free. A small fee gets you the ability to check all of your multiple e-mail addresses simultaneously, and is recommended if you have multiple e-mail accounts (I have one for personal friends and my wife has her own, and we have another for everything else). It simultaneously downloads the headers for all your e-mail in seconds, then marks everything it thinks is spam for deletion. You can then agree, or uncheck anything you want to keep; and, if you like, mark stuff as "friend" for the future. When you hit "process", it deletes all the spam from the server without even downloading it, and when you open your e-mail, only the un-deleted stuff is left. If you screw up and delete something you should have kept, you can recover, too.


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

Andy,

What everyone else said, particularly as regards calling attention to your address.

My email service has a good filter. It catches anywhere from ten to 20 emails a day from senders whom I don't know. I can check "suspect email" in less than a minute, forward items to the main mailbox either with or without adding the sender to my "allowed sender" list, and delete the rest.

I rarely, if ever, open, let alone respond to spam. I did, however, recently open a message from a friend who'd been dead for three or four years. It seems he was stuck in London with no money. I forwarded the message to a mutual friend who replied that he had thought the deceased was in Nigeria. (It did not occur to either of us to suggest he'd gone to heaven.)

Regards,
Gurdon


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

Keep in mind that for most, maybe all spam, you should not even use the link to unsubscribe from their mailing list. Using that link only confirms that your email address is valid. You may get taken off the one list (if you're lucky) but you'll get added to dozens more since you've just told them that your email address is real.

If you know something is spam, it's best not to open it at all, not even in preview. Email messages can contain images, tiny invisible images (because it's a one pixel by one pixel image of a white dot), and these images can have code hidden inside them that when they get displayed, they send a message back to the spammer that lets the spammer know the email was just viewed by a person, which indicates it's a valid email address and can now be attacked with more spam.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I just delete spam,there is no reason to answer these people,They're just fools.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

If spam is posted here on the board, harrassing them can be fun.

In your e-mail, just delete.


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## Orsini (Apr 24, 2007)

Never answer these. At best, it just comforms your email. 

Watch out for your junk email settngs, too. I always had to look in my junk emai folder for some of those good job leads..


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## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

I know you all are right, but it sure would have been fun! :icon_smile:

THANKS!


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Sometimes these people can scam you if you don't read carefully.


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Andy said:


> I know you all are right, but it sure would have been fun! :icon_smile:
> 
> THANKS!


Andy

I have two billion US $ that I got off a Nigerian General last week and I am willing to share it with you all I require is your account details and pin number so I can launder the money through an OS account.:icon_smile_big:

ajo

ps you don't need any Viagra do you?


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## godeacs (Nov 28, 2009)

Just write the reply and then hit cancel instead of send... psychological satisfaction without being signed up for 10x more spam.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

godeacs said:


> Just write the reply and then hit cancel instead of send... psychological satisfaction without being signed up for 10x more spam.


What good would that do?


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## RayMort (Apr 11, 2011)

Andy said:


> They just cry out for smart-ass remarks!
> 
> And I really have such great retorts for them, that sometimes I feel a compulsion...! ...and also compelled to correct their grammar/spelling.
> 
> But will that result in my satisfaction *and *a flurry of even more spam e-mails?


I wouldn't risk it, but that's a good idea for a thread - "What I Would Say To Email Spammers" - I'd like to see what you do have to say.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Some of these Nigerian emails could be real,some of them might come back with an answer and some might not even answer you at all.


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