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| Beloved, no more, I've curtailed the flood of hucksters preying on me. |
A PSA for the internet wary
Goodbye to so many amazing opportunities, from ‘finance
project’ to ‘wool blanket offer’ to ‘unclaimed funds’ to all those ‘bigger is
better’ and ‘I’m yours’ messengers who think ‘Rae’ is a man with an embarrassment
for a penis. I will bravely go forth on my own.
Good riddance to the ‘urgent upgrade’ and ‘deactivation
alert’ and “LAST WARNING” and “YOUR VERIZON ACCOUNT CANCELLED” and “GET BACK TO
ME” imperatives. Some of you are getting hard to distinguish from the real
thing. I’ll risk it.
There will be no more cuddly babes and libido assists
awaiting my perusal in my email inbox, no more teary grandmothers with a bad
case of cancer and a check they need cashed, and no more inheritances from London
I must claim with a good faith check of $3,000.
I am done with Verizon. I’ve spent the last year weaning myself
off my primary email program. The cracks through which all manner of lurker and
thief and huckster have brazenly gained access to my inbox have widened
unchecked.
I was drowning in spam. It was taking me hours every week to
dredge and purge.
Last weekend was the last straw. I had a spam emergency and
made a panicked appointment at the Apple Genius Bar on 14th Street
in NYC. Scores of emails with the same subject, “DISABLING YOUR ACCOUNT” poured
into my Mail inbox throughout the early morning. I couldn’t delete fast enough
and flagging as ‘junk’ didn’t curtail the flood. My computer was jammed up with
junk and helpless to resist.
Two young genius guys got interested and tried tracking the
email address, which, by the way, was blank when I clicked on it. No return
email address? How did they pull that off? The problem solvers at Apple found a
website and verified the phishing expedition, which used multiple email
addresses with multiple digits. “Can’t trace it,” they said. And because the
scammers use so many addresses (just like robo-callers do), it was impossible
to stay ahead of the flood simply by deleting.
Verizon must bear a large part of the blame. Over a year ago
Verizon stopped trying to fix my email when suddenly I, and other Verizon email
subscribers, could no longer send and receive email. For some reason, I began
receiving email through Verizon (once my primary email program) but I still
couldn’t send via Verizon. They’ve done a poor job of staying in front of the
problem by updating their spam filter blocks. Workers overseas hung up on me
when I asked for help with spam and outgoing email. Managers said, “I can’t
help you.” Letters and emails to Verizon central were ignored. I emailed everyone
still using my Verizon address and asked them to stop many months ago but that
move did not resolve the spam issue.
Email is not a priority for Verizon. I was spending hours of
scarce time cleaning out my inbox every week. Finally I gave up and spent three
days calling or writing all my vendors that supply content via Verizon, like
the NY Times and the American Society of Journalists and Authors and Smitten
Kitchen (FeedBlitz). I’ve discovered, alas, that even when you change your
email address, the auto forwarding mechanisms that periodicals use do not get
the message. More work to come.
My Apple management email app, “Mail,” is now all business. My
business. My writing business and my marketing business operate much more
efficiently now that the mega-clutter has swept out to sea. Opportunities for
babes and inheritances and enhanced organs, what few remain, go straight to
junk. As for all those orders I was getting for wrenches, die-cut tools and light
bulbs, I do hope the companies find the vendors they’re looking for.
Now I’ll have to turn my attention to those 18,000 photographs
clogging up the works.
P.S. I found a great
UMass Boston website that provides information on Phishing and guidelines for
internet safety.
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