Old School Spam

Following up on my previous spam rant…

It’s not just for in-boxes. spam is with us just about everywhere. We don’t think of it as such, but there it is – get rich quick schemes, quackery, and graspable straws for the hopeless. This is the same thing I see in late-night cable TV advertisements and used to see in the backs of magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics (back when we got those.)

I wonder if there is a fundamental difference in our mental processes when filtering physical spam such as shown in these signs, and in filtering all of the online stuff. I’ve seen people who would never consider calling any of these phone numbers, yet still click on the “You might be a winner!” e-mails and pop-ups. I guess it’s the ease of use and relative anonymity that makes the online version more successful.

As far as e-mail spam is concerned, I’m just about fed up with our current spam filter. Here’s the situation…

1. I’m expecting an important e-mail, which doesn’t arrive.
2. Sender informs me that e-mail has been sent.
3. I check my spam filter, and there’s the missing e-mail.
4. I click on the button to release the e-mail back into my in-box.

I looks as though no matter what, I’ve got to wade through junk e-mail to get to my important message. I can have the peace of mind of a (relatively) spam-free inbox, but the frustrations of not getting everything. Or I can get my e-mails in a timely fashion, but get flooded with junk which must be deleted.

The second method would work for me. It certainly would be cheaper as far as my school district is concerned. However, I’ve a pretty good internal filter, so I know what to delete. Unfortunately, some on our network don’t. Our junk mail filters protect us (and our network) from those that don’t have as good of an internal filter, and who click, then spread viruses, spyware, etc.

[tags]spam, signs, junk[/tags]