Junk Emails
Thread poster: Frank Zou
Frank Zou
Frank Zou  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 20:05
Member (2016)
Chinese to English
+ ...
May 30, 2017

Since I used Paypal, I've been receiving a lot of junk emails all trying to sell some products (for treating hair loss, toe fungus, etc.); especially when my Paypal account becomes active (money coming in or out), the emails become more frequent. Anyone has the same issue here?

 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 12:05
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
I doubt if PayPal are at fault May 30, 2017

I think it's probably more of a coincidence than anything else. I'm pretty confident that PayPal won't be leaking your email address or anything equally suicidal. They may have their faults but they do have regulations to abide by.

 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:05
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Well... May 30, 2017

I don’t use PayPal and yet each morning my inbox is flooded with lots of spam ranging from miracle diets, anti-ageing products and even cures for cancer or other serious illnesses to fellow freelancers who work in language combinations I don’t offer and don’t care to read my website or my profile…

 
John Fossey
John Fossey  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 08:05
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
Not PayPal May 30, 2017

As Sheila says, it's highly unlikely that it has anything to do with PayPal. Your email address is on your CV, in other words publicly visible to the bots that crawl the internet harvesting email addresses. I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be there, but basically if you have an email address you are going to get spam. I get dozens a day, but my email client (Thunderbird) is very good at recognizing them and popping them into the Junk folder, so I never even see them.

 
Robert Forstag
Robert Forstag  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:05
Spanish to English
+ ...
An ongoing annoyance! May 30, 2017

I sympathize with colleagues (and non-translators also) who constantly deal with this annoyance.

Either the spam filter on my Yahoo Mail is simply dreadful, or some spammers have come up with ways of penetrating filters despite their mails having been reported as "spam" dozens of times.

Very, very annoying.

I have wondered why free e-mail providers do not offer a "kill" button that would automatically upon request send e-mail from a particular address or wi
... See more
I sympathize with colleagues (and non-translators also) who constantly deal with this annoyance.

Either the spam filter on my Yahoo Mail is simply dreadful, or some spammers have come up with ways of penetrating filters despite their mails having been reported as "spam" dozens of times.

Very, very annoying.

I have wondered why free e-mail providers do not offer a "kill" button that would automatically upon request send e-mail from a particular address or with a particular message header to the trash folder (yes, "trash" and not "spam," for this is stuff that I don't even want to clutter my spam folder).

The only fail-safe solution I have seen to this are paid e-mail services that require anyone sending e-mail to you to enter a "captcha" and be recognized/approved by you. But the one offer of such a service that I saw cost $700/year. Seems steep.

When I see that an e-mail has come in, and especially when I am away from my computer and receive a visual or audio alert, or feel my cell vibrate in my pant pocket, I really want to think that there is a high probability that the e-mail I've received is something that will be important to me. Yet this is impossible given the spam that I receive. While we are talking about an annoyance rather than a hardship, it is not a trivial annoyance.

Has anyone discovered less expensive solutions for dealing with this than the one I've described?
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:05
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Spammers May 31, 2017

This is indeed annoying, though sometimes funny when sending an "offer" of a certain blue pill to a female.

As John said, your email address is on your business brochure (CV), do anybody can get it. Why don't you change your settings here on ProZ to making your business brochure available only to outsourcers? This might not solve your problem with those unsolicited and annoying emails, but it could help reduce their a
... See more
This is indeed annoying, though sometimes funny when sending an "offer" of a certain blue pill to a female.

As John said, your email address is on your business brochure (CV), do anybody can get it. Why don't you change your settings here on ProZ to making your business brochure available only to outsourcers? This might not solve your problem with those unsolicited and annoying emails, but it could help reduce their amount.

I don't think that PayPal is at fault, either. They surely would know better than to sell the emails of their customers to anyone.
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:05
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Get a Spamcop account May 31, 2017

I would encourage anyone receiving such spam email to get a Spamcop account (it is free) and to report junk emails. It is the only effective way of constraining spammers, basically by making ISPs aware of spammers using their services and helping them cancel the services to those spammers.

Reporting a spam email is as simple as copying and pasting the full email (with headers, etc.) to a form in Spamcop. They process email to discover where the email was truly sent from and help blo
... See more
I would encourage anyone receiving such spam email to get a Spamcop account (it is free) and to report junk emails. It is the only effective way of constraining spammers, basically by making ISPs aware of spammers using their services and helping them cancel the services to those spammers.

Reporting a spam email is as simple as copying and pasting the full email (with headers, etc.) to a form in Spamcop. They process email to discover where the email was truly sent from and help block that location.
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