Monday, December 15, 2003 9:04 PM
Hotmail spam

What's going on with hotmail? I used to get a couple dozen spam messages a day on my hotmail account, but now all of a sudden I have only 2 spam messages over a three day timespan.

Since my account is setup to not delete spam but move it to the junk folder first, this must mean either hotmail has started disregarding that setting for the most blatant spam, or penis enlargements are this year's tickle-me-elmo and the spammers are all sold-out for the season...

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Comments

You're welcome. BTW, I ordered two, so I can sell you one at a discount.

Posted by Jeff Key at December 16, 2003 12:13 AM

Several weeks ago, I read something on the Microsoft Watch feeds about a new front page for Hotmail, combined with a much more effective spam filtering solution.

I can't for the life of me now find the link, however, a quick google search yielded this article from The Regiser.

Posted by Matt Berther at December 16, 2003 12:33 AM

Jeff: if you ordered two, you must have been pretty desperate and therefore probably need them more than I.
Since I wouldn't want to rob your wife/girlfriend/significant other/hand of their holiday cheer, I'll let you keep 'em...

Posted by Luke Hutteman at December 16, 2003 1:19 AM

Hotmail recently got upgraded. Some appearance tweaks that're kinda obvious, but other enhancements in spam prevention were part of it as well.

Posted by Cal at December 16, 2003 1:45 AM

Probably because all your spam is coming to me now. I used to get 6 or seven a day, now its more like 100 per day. I don't know whats happened it suddenly increased in the space of a week. I tried putting a spam filter on but when it started deleting important messages I had to disable it.

Posted by Nonny at December 16, 2003 6:23 AM

I've noticed a definite drop in spam to my Hotmail account too - a mere 2 messages in nearly a week compared to at least a dozen a day. Your theory about them deleting the most blatant spam sounds like a good one, and certainly a kick in the butt for the spammers who've just lost a very large and gullable audience.

Posted by Neil T. at December 16, 2003 8:24 AM

Same thing over here ! I don't have spam anymore ! Woohoo :) It even makes a weird sensation !

Posted by Julien CHEYSSIAL at December 16, 2003 9:41 AM

People who continue to use Hotmail and Yahoo are simply spam masochists. There are many ways to get email, and why anyone would tolerate the two worst email spam magnets is beyond comprehension. Yahoo particularly is a fine source of spam origination as well. I know you guys are smart enough to move your email business to anywhere but the twin spam cities.

Posted by Dave Cotovsky at December 18, 2003 11:57 PM

Dave: my hotmail account's main purpose is to be a spam magnet. If I need to sign up somewhere online and I don't trust them not to spam me, I use my hotmail account instead of my real one.

This way, if I ever need a Paris Hilton video, penis enlargement, university diploma or millions of dollars from Nigeria, it's all in one convenient location. Oh and a nice side effect is that my real email account stays relatively spam-free as well...

Posted by Luke Hutteman at December 19, 2003 11:49 AM

Ironic, but not getting spam is kinda a turn-on...

Posted by Tracy at December 21, 2003 6:23 PM

This drop-off in spam isn't limited to Hotmail. I also noticed a significant drop in spam after I'd left for a week's vacation in early December. Not insignificant, either--like 90% of my spam has disappeared by my estimate.

Posted by Michael Slater at December 27, 2003 9:06 AM

Hotmail sucks... I *STILL* get the bogus "MS Security Advisory" virus emails... its ironic

unfortunately every night SOMEBODY fills up my small 2MB hotmail account with multiple 144KB emails (the MS Security Advisory spoof virus)

every...
freakin..
night!

Posted by Eric Newton at December 29, 2003 12:43 AM

Hey, you should check out my new email service. Lots of people who hate hotmail (and their crappy new designs that are less and less user friendly) are joining up. It's just as powerful. And since I'm new there's no spam and lots of good names you couldn't even dream of getting at hotmail or yahoo.

I'm giving the people an option.

http://www.mariamail.com/

Check it out, if you want. Let me know what you think.

Posted by Wesley at January 13, 2004 9:07 PM

Since this is the net, why does it matter how often an application hits a server? I don't understand why you're so concerned about bandwidth. It's not like an intentional denial of service attack.

Ken

Posted by Ken Evoy at January 16, 2004 1:34 AM
This discussion has been closed. If you wish to contact me about this post, you can do so by email.