Why I'm Finally ABNDONING Email - The last straw

Hi there

To me now email has just got beyond a joke - and the amount of JUNK / SCAMS on it is just BEYOND annoying.

I shall shortly be closing down any EMAIL accounts I have - friends etc can TEXT or we can use service like SKYPE. I don't really need email for business any more -- and for invoice recepits I've been going back more and more believe it or not to SNAIL MAIL - I don't have to have a receipt by return etc.

As a business tool email has got ridiculously time wasting anyway and going back to Snail Mail keeps a very appreciated facility alive - The Local Post Office - especially if you live in a small rural area.

For really urgent stuff believe it or not FAX still works - but what is really URGENT these days - - probably a rapacious Energy company wanting a bill payment !!.

Here's the Final straw -- Never ordered anything -- also who would send out an .arj file plus the phone nr is NOT a UK nr - the sender is purported to have a .co.uk email address so the phone and email doesn't match anyway.

If you get this type of stuff forward at once to the FBI / City of London Police or whoever the Fraud authority is in your jurisdiction and ALWAYS check your Bank balances DAILY.

DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT EITHER - even on a Virtual machine.

Cheers
jimbo

Sorry for ignorance, but what is a .arj file ?

paulsalter said:

Sorry for ignorance, but what is a .arj file ?

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An Archive type, like .rar or .zip. a very old format older than .zip and was used even before DOS.

Thanks

Another reason for using webmail, what's on internet (including e-mail), stays there until I decide to download. I have couple of e-mail accounts for "serious" use, just friends and business and couple of "Junk Accounts" which I use for casual mail and signing in on different sites or program downloads and registration. I call them "Disposable" and if junk mail starts to arrive in larger numbers I "Kill" them or just abandon them. One Hotmail account I use only for Microsoft and windows registration and use.

CountMike said:

Another reason for using webmail, what's on internet (including e-mail), stays there until I decide to download. I have couple of e-mail accounts for "serious" use, just friends and business and couple of "Junk Accounts" which I use for casual mail and signing in on different sites or program downloads and registration. I call them "Disposable" and if junk mail starts to arrive in larger numbers I "Kill" them or just abandon them. One Hotmail account I use only for Microsoft and windows registration and use.

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Hi there.

I think you've missed the point.

Those emails can still be read via webmail - if you OPEN / CLICK on the link is when you will get the problem -- this has absolutely NOTHING WHATEVER to do with the email client used whether it's Outlook, webmail or even a piece of string connecting two tin cans with through holes drilled in them. !!

It's the EMAIL concept and how useless (and in some cases dangerous too) it's become that I'm referring to.

Cheers
jimbo

Yeas, I get a point but I don't click on any that I don't know where and whom they are coming from specially not those in Trash. After looking at headings I just empty them out and it's again like they never existed without even a trace of them on my disk. Making a "White list" for addresses you are sure you want to receive mail from should keep your mail reasonably clean. In addition, some communication programs like G-Talk must have a valid e-mail address.

Hi there

The point of the post was to warn people about these sorts of Scams -- no AV software can protect against this stuff -- actually I'm surprised they (the scammers) wanted to use an ARJ file -- perhaps the format was so old that people would never of heard of it and would possibly miss any nasty .exe or script file embedded within it.

Anyway not all communication services require an email - and one can always use a totally rubbish one that never gets delivered to your machine !!! I couldn't be bothered if I have 43 million emails sitting on YAHOO or GOOGLE servers -- not my problem !!!!.

Cheers
jimbo

Stuff like that was happening even before e-mail. Remember getting Fax with bogus invoices and even snail-mail with some of them. Our company comptroller had heck of a time sorting them out. They were not as dangerous like this ones that can take whole system out or steal important data. You are experienced and know what to do but could just imagine somebody not knowing that stuff like that can be fooled easy enough.