don't ask Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Am at the end of my tether now! :angry: I get best part of 100 spam/unsolicited rubbish messages per day.I will change my e-mail addy I think. The account with my ISP (Virgin) is registered in my name and hubby and son have e-mail addys connected to it.Can someone suggest the procedure I need to follow? Will I need to set up my new addy first then tell the ISP to close the old one and treat the new one as the main one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent Smith Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Hello don't ask,I am not totally sure on this one, but I think it will depend on your type of connection. If you have broadband or a dial-up service which you pay directly to Virgin for, then I don't think you will be able to just create a new account name. In this case I would suggest that you contact Virgin and explain the problem and see if they are willing to change your account for you.If on the other hand you have a "pay as you go" type connection, where the bills go directly on your phone bill, then the easiest option would be to simply create a whole new account with your ISP and start afresh.As a point of note, I would also create one or two Hotmail accounts purely for using when you have to give an email address when filling in online forms. This seems to be the biggest source for spam, so when the account becomes bombarded, you can simply forget about it and start another one. If you only use your main account for friends, you won't have to keep telling them about changes of address.Hope this helps. Mr. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent Smith Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 I should also ask, have you tried using any of the so called "mail-washers"?I have never used them myself, but a lot of people seem to find they help in situations like this.Mr. M.An Example Previous Post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don't ask Posted March 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Thanks Mr M.I am on dial up and pay directly to Virgin - I had been pondering the fact that the account was in my name, hence my query (just to make sure I was thinking in a sane manner :D )Looks like a phone call to Virgin then - now, where did I put that number?? :rolleyes: A couple of hotmail accounts? . . . . . hmmm, sounds like a good idea, thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent Smith Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 I think the biggest problem you will have, is that usually your "@xyz" part of the email address is the same as your account user name.As you can see, this makes it quite tough to change to a new email address without getting the ISP involved.Mr. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don't ask Posted March 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 I should also ask, have you tried using any of the so called "mail-washers"?I have never used them myself, but a lot of people seem to find they help in situations like this.Mr. M.Yes - I use Mailwasher - installed it about 3 weeks ago when I couldn't access my e-mails because the server was somewhat clogged (or something similar).I don't know if I'm using it correctly though :blink: - I still get the same amount of headers downloaded on a daily basis - only now they are marked with things like 'blacklisted' - 'spam' - ' possible spam' - 'friend' etc. Last week I didn't check e-mails for 3 days and had a list of 402 of them to wade through to make sure that something I wanted wasn't missed. That is why I think I should try and do something about my e-mail addy :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don't ask Posted March 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 I think the biggest problem you will have, is that usually your "@xyz" part of the email address is the same as your account user name.As you can see, this makes it quite tough to change to a new email address without getting the ISP involved.Mr. M.Yes - I thought something like that was the case ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Don't give up your email address. Fight the spammers or you'll always be on the run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don't ask Posted March 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Don't give up your email address. Fight the spammers or you'll always be on the run.Yes - I like that !!So - I open a couple of hotmail accounts and use them for re-registering at forums &etc? I'm off to have a think about the mechanics of it all now.Thanks very much guys :flowers: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 So - I open a couple of hotmail accounts and use them for re-registering at forums &etc?  Set up one at www.rock.com - you get a 5mb mailbox compared to Hotmail's 2mb ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expertec Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 With Lycos you get 10 MB B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmadw Posted March 7, 2004 Report Share Posted March 7, 2004 Lycos has some problems though, in that you can only download the free one to an Outlook Express account. If you want to use another email client you can't download them to read off line etc.I'd check with your ISP, as mine will let me have upto 5 addresses - so you might be able to have more.When you are setting up a new one, try to have something that isn't easily guessable by spammers. While they can, and do, harvest from mail lists etc, they also generate random addresses that are feasible. So, [email protected] is easy to guess, but [email protected] - if you happen to be proud of your daffs - is far less likely to get spammed. As a test a few years ago, I set myself up 3 accounts at Hotmail - with a guessable address, one I used for signing up for lists, and an unguessable one. The first two have been heavily spammed. The latter never ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 9, 2004 Report Share Posted March 9, 2004 I had reached the point of receiving over 100 spam per day. Fair enough I deleted them with Mailwasher, but it was a hassle. A five minute call to NTL was all it took to change the e-mail address. Go for something which does not make sense, this will be less likely to be found by auto diallers sending out spam. I have not had one such message in several weeks since changing the address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don't ask Posted March 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2004 Cheers for all the advice folks - sorry I've been a bit quiet - things got a bit busy.Will let you know what I decide when house exchange/completion/packing up and related things settle down a bit - (my brain is close to meltdown :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy-2004 Posted March 9, 2004 Report Share Posted March 9, 2004 hope it all goes well for ya! :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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