Spam

[Jon]

Bah!. So for the first time ever, obviously something got into my Hotmail account overnight. I woke up to a bunch of undeliverable e-mail notices in my inbox, as well as some Out-of-office replies. All of these were in response to some e-mail that got sent out with a lovely subject from my account. I think I've had that account for ~12 years. The main site is the only method I use to login, and I'm auto-logged in anyways, so I know it wouldn't have come from a phishing website. I haven't had a problem with anything on my laptop, and for good measure I just ran full Norton and Spybot scans. Nothing resulted. I'm a bit confused right now, but I did change my password, etc. just in case. Hrm, oh well.

[B-Lyn]

Yeah, changing the password is the best you can do - who knows how they hack into those things. I would just send an apology to anyone important, letting them know your account was hacked and sent an email that (obviously) wasn't from you.

While we're on the topic of spam - you know what's REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING? Text message spam. Especially when you don't have a texting plan, and it costs you 20 cents per text every time you get spammed. I was on the phone with my cell provider twice this weekend to get credits for spam texts. UGH.

[Jon]

Ugh, that sucks! I know, I absolutely hate text/pic/vid message spam. I have 500 texts/month that I rarely use, but I've been noticing a lot more picture and video messages from people - sometimes friends (like an e-mail forward), and sometimes spam. It gets severely annoying sometimes if you open it up but don't mean to.

[Christopher]

Yeah, changing your password is always a good idea. My email got hacked into last year, and sent out some spam to my contacts (including another of my own emails, which is how I knew about it). I changed my password and, as of yet, haven't had any further problems.

It's often not necessarily to do with your computer - just the internet.

Blakelyn, I don't think I've ever (thankfully) been sent text message spam - you get charged for it?

[B-Lyn]

Blakelyn, I don't think I've ever (thankfully) been sent text message spam - you get charged for it?

Yep, I get charged for every text sent/received, because I don't have unlimited texting on my calling plan. I use google voice for texting (which is free), and since I have an Android phone, it interfaces seamlessly. But if someone texts my verizon number, I get charged. I don't mind this if its a friend or relative, but if its spam, that is INCREDIBLY frustrating. You can ignore a phone call if you don't recognize a number, but there is no way to "ignore" a text.

[Christopher]

Blakelyn, I don't think I've ever (thankfully) been sent text message spam - you get charged for it?

Yep, I get charged for every text sent/received, because I don't have unlimited texting on my calling plan. I use google voice for texting (which is free), and since I have an Android phone, it interfaces seamlessly. But if someone texts my verizon number, I get charged. I don't mind this if its a friend or relative, but if its spam, that is INCREDIBLY frustrating. You can ignore a phone call if you don't recognize a number, but there is no way to "ignore" a text.

Wait wait wait. You get charged for every received text? That's so ridiculous...

[B-Lyn]

Wait wait wait. You get charged for every received text? That's so ridiculous...

I could choose to pay an extra $10/month, or whatever it is, to get unlimited texts. But since I can text for free using Google Voice, that would be a waste of my money.

[Christopher]

Wait wait wait. You get charged for every received text? That's so ridiculous...

I could choose to pay an extra $10/month, or whatever it is, to get unlimited texts. But since I can text for free using Google Voice, that would be a waste of my money.

I don't think I've ever heard of this before. unlimited texts to me means that you can send as many as you want. Regardless of however many texts you get each month inclusive in your bill, you never get charged to receive.

[B-Lyn]

Wait wait wait. You get charged for every received text? That's so ridiculous...

I could choose to pay an extra $10/month, or whatever it is, to get unlimited texts. But since I can text for free using Google Voice, that would be a waste of my money.

I don't think I've ever heard of this before. unlimited texts to me means that you can send as many as you want. Regardless of however many texts you get each month inclusive in your bill, you never get charged to receive.

That is so much more fair!

[ancazur]

Yeah I never did understand why we get charged for incoming texts. Like I have any control over that (though I recently switched to unlimited texting, so I shouldn't have that issue anymore).

In terms of passwords: I've started using more numbers/symbols in my passwords, which will hopefully decrease the ability to hack into accounts. I've had websites hacked before. Not a lot of fun. And kind of creepy, really, when you consider someone's potentially going through all your stuff.