The Grumpy Old Blog

Hotmail still steadfastly seems to refuse to do anything about the scam emails that perpetuate through their email system. It would be so  simple to bar emails that include the tired old phrases "Dear beneficiary", "Friend in Christ", "Nigerian oil minister", "viagra", "PPI", "tax refund", "bank notification", "account suspension" and "lottery win", to name but a few of the phrases these wastrels use. Just stop them even entering the system in the first place. So simple to even tag and reject the fake email addresses that these scammers use. It is rather incredible that these emails continue to circulate. And more so, that, as users become ever more adept, incorporating emails into their daily lives as a matter of course, that they can be taken in by these scams. That the chief executive of a bank, or the continental representative of the FBI would use a free Yahoo account, let alone write to ...

A sensible question asked by any sensible email account holder. Why do complete strangers from the other side of the world send you nonsense you don't want at a time when you're not the least bit interested in it? Generally to try and make money from you - illegally. Research has shown that it is now nigh on impossible to calculate the number of Nigerian Oil Ministers, their surviving relatives, their lawyers or the sheer volume of millions of dollars on offer via the now infamous Nigerian 419 advance fee fraud - where you receive a charming "Dear Beneficiary" email from a grand sounding person at an impressive address and via an impressive but fake email address. Those of you who receive these emails into you Outlook programme via Microsoft Connector will immediately notice that while the email purports to come from some grand-sounding group of financial lawyers, the return email address is usually a free account - yahoo.com.jp or similar. And some of the sca...