Help Me Defeat My Spam, Please!
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:24 am
I'm probably not the only person with this problem so I hope this thread is generally helpful to others. I'm worried that whatever means the spammers used to get my email address is gradually allowing them to gather more and more personal information about me.
I never had a problem with spam on my email until about 6 months ago. I don't know why it started. I have several email addresses that I use for various reasons but one main email that I use for important things like banking, paying bills and credit cards and buying things online. This is the only one where I suddenly began to get 20-50 spam emails every day. They all go into my spam folder automatically. I never click on them, of course, but I do keep a close eye on them and I delete them as quickly as possible.
About 80% of them are sex advertisements which assume I am a man. Some are just various tricks to try to get me to click on them. From the beginning they have frequently used the first part of my email address (before the @) as if it were my name. They would also mention my town but always confusing it with a similarly spelled town on the other side of my state. Then, after a while, they started using my real first name. Now, I have received 3 spam emails in the last few days which use both my first and last name in the title.
I occasionally go to an iffy site which lets you watch movies and TV shows for free (it's the only place where I can watch some foreign movies and TV shows that I like). I didn't have to register or give them any info about me. A lot of ads for games and things pop up, but they seemed harmless. A couple of days ago when I went there a scary-looking page popped-up telling me that I had won a free iPhone courtesy of my Internet Service Provider. The local ISP that I actually use was named. I closed it really fast! Then, the next day I received one of the spam emails with my full name in the title. I hovered over it to see what address it was sent from and part of the address said "telcom."
I'm afraid that someone is going to eventually be able to access my financial information and I don't know what to do. I've tried some free virus scans and they always say that my computer is clean. In the past, I've paid for some highly recommended virus protection but had problems with them slowing my computer to a crawl or being too complicated. I would pay for one again, though, if it would help.
Some of you seem to know a lot about computer problems of this sort so I'm hoping to get some advice on how to fix this problem and protect my computer. Thanks.
I never had a problem with spam on my email until about 6 months ago. I don't know why it started. I have several email addresses that I use for various reasons but one main email that I use for important things like banking, paying bills and credit cards and buying things online. This is the only one where I suddenly began to get 20-50 spam emails every day. They all go into my spam folder automatically. I never click on them, of course, but I do keep a close eye on them and I delete them as quickly as possible.
About 80% of them are sex advertisements which assume I am a man. Some are just various tricks to try to get me to click on them. From the beginning they have frequently used the first part of my email address (before the @) as if it were my name. They would also mention my town but always confusing it with a similarly spelled town on the other side of my state. Then, after a while, they started using my real first name. Now, I have received 3 spam emails in the last few days which use both my first and last name in the title.
I occasionally go to an iffy site which lets you watch movies and TV shows for free (it's the only place where I can watch some foreign movies and TV shows that I like). I didn't have to register or give them any info about me. A lot of ads for games and things pop up, but they seemed harmless. A couple of days ago when I went there a scary-looking page popped-up telling me that I had won a free iPhone courtesy of my Internet Service Provider. The local ISP that I actually use was named. I closed it really fast! Then, the next day I received one of the spam emails with my full name in the title. I hovered over it to see what address it was sent from and part of the address said "telcom."
I'm afraid that someone is going to eventually be able to access my financial information and I don't know what to do. I've tried some free virus scans and they always say that my computer is clean. In the past, I've paid for some highly recommended virus protection but had problems with them slowing my computer to a crawl or being too complicated. I would pay for one again, though, if it would help.
Some of you seem to know a lot about computer problems of this sort so I'm hoping to get some advice on how to fix this problem and protect my computer. Thanks.