Time for new email?

[JohnE]

So I am now getting spam into my yahoo account from my own address. How does this happen, and should I establish a new account with another provider?
I do just delete them, btw.

[narlus]

sounds like a spoofer.

do you want a gmail account?

[binary visions]

You don't need to invite for Gmail anymore.

I got forged headers a lot with my Yahoo address. Actually, I find my Yahoo account to be appallingly bad for spam and I literally have only used it twice, ever.

Sign up for Gmail and be happy :thumb:

Also, a good way to avoid spam is to have an email account you only use for shopping online. JohnE_accounts@gmail.com or something, and use that to sign up for accounts online. That keeps all the spam out of your personal account and you can set up filters to forward emails along if you don't want to check two accounts.

[berkshire_rider]

Gmail actually does a great job of filtering spam into the spam folder. I only see maybe 1 spam email a month sneak into my inbox.

If you are confident that everything in your spam folder is indeed spam you can setup a filter so that gmail auto-deletes the spam for you each day as it arrives. (By default it moves spam email into the spam folder and you have to manually delete it or leave it there for 30 days until they delete it for you).

login to gmail > settings > filters

In the "Has the words" section enter "is:spam"
Go to the next step. Check the "Delete it" checkbox.
Save.

:thumb:

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>
I got forged headers a lot with my Yahoo address. Actually, I find my Yahoo account to be appallingly bad for spam and I literally have only used it twice, ever.
Really? I've been using a Yahoo account for probably a decade now and just about everything Spam goes into my junk mail folder.

The advice to set up another account for ordering stuff is a good one. :thumb:

[JohnE]

I guess I mis-spoke...
I am getting spam that I did not initiate (Cut rate viagra, Rolex watch, get laid tonight) in my yahoo bulk file box, with my address (Showing me as the sender!) on it. Does this mean my account has been compromised, and people in my mailbox are getting crap showing its from me?
(I dont market viagra, or Rolex watches, btw!)

[binary visions]

Does this mean my account has been compromised, and people in my mailbox are getting crap showing its from me?
No and maybe, respectively.

Nobody is sending mail from your account. Email headers are not verified in any way, they're just plaintext fields that the email client fills out when it sends a message. So someone just stuck your email address in the "From" field and sent it.

The maybe part is that MOST of this spam that seems to originate from your own address is a spam bot sending EVERYONE a piece of spam that looks like it's coming from their own address. It's an attempt to defeat the spam filters, since a lot of people/programs have filters set up that explicitly add themselves to a safe list. It's not impossible, though, that other people are getting spam with your name on it. Doesn't really matter either way, though.

[JohnE]

So good idea to set up a new account (G mail) or waste of energy?

[binary visions]

If you don't like digging through the spam looking for good emails, or the spam filter at Yahoo is letting things into your inbox, then it's a good idea.

If it's all filtered into your bulk mail and you don't mind that, then it's a waste of energy.

[Kornphlake]

The only email I have that has been around more than a year is my yahoo account. It's the address that all my friends and family use because it's the only one that doesn't get shut down when I change my ISP or when my ISP goofs up my account and I have to re-register an address. At this point I am getting some junk mail, a lot is from my wife signing up to get free email offers for every thing under the sun, some is just spam, for the most part I just deal with it though, every 6 months or so I'll unsubscribe from the JC Penny's mailing list, the Crate and Barrel mailing list, the local flower club's mailing list etc and it's pretty effective. I never even look in the bulk mail folder, if something get's lost in there I'm sure it wasn't that important to begin with.

I deal with a little junk mail just because there' s no way I could get everyone to update their address books, it's just easier to deal with a little garbage than to miss all the emails that are directed to an account I quit checking.

[Pat...]

I really like gmail. I think i've seen maybe 5 total spam emails that the filter didn't catch. I really like the way google formats the replies.