GreekChat.com Forums - Yahoo mail and that stupid virus

smiley21 - in my yahoo account, i have a regular mail box and a bulk mail box. all of the junk mail always shows up in the bulk mail box. so whenever new mail comes in that box, i empty without giving it a look.
Smiley, it is unusual but sometimes messages that you *do* want (ie non-SPAM) get delivered to the Bulk Mail box by mistake. You can then click when you open the message "This is not spam" so Yahoo can improve their bulk mail filter for next time. They'd get there because they were automated messages for example but not spam and so they seemed to be spam to the bulk filter. :). As an example, I once got the 'new reply to thread' GreekChat notification email in there :) I haven't had it land there since so I guess Yahoo improved the filter! Consequently, it's always an idea to have a momentary glance before deleting. Sometimes even I don't bother of course, particularly if there's a load of emails in the folder - figuring I'll live if one was important!

chideltjen - i have been getting about 30 emails a day in that yahoo account and it's all virus related. I am already sick of it. Is there any way to up your bulk mail's sensitivity? I get majority of the emails in bulk, but some still make it to my inbox.
Jen, no. You can upgrade to the paid Yahoo Mail Plus service, which you pay monthly/yearly for. It - supposedly - has a better & more powerful bulk filter. But since we're students screw that :). Instead, it's a matter of (for any that make it to your inbox) either not opening them (if it's obvious they're spam) and clicking on the checkbox to the left of the email in the Inbox list and then selecting "This is Spam" from the pull down menu which reads "mark as unread' as the first item and clicking "ok". Or, if you have opened the mail [and discovered it's spam] then clicking on "This is Spam" which is in the header of the mail; so that it gets sent to Yahoo to help them improve the bulk mail filter. The idea being to have the effect of helping them get it to the bulk mail box first time, the next time. Hmm... upon reflection I guess you can try going to Mail Options, clicking 'Filters', and setting it up so that if the "To/cc: header" doesn't contain your email addy then send directly to the Trash, or, if the subject/body contains, say a word always in the virus emails but you're sure'll never be in a legitimate email then also send to the Trash folder etc. Anything currently in the Trash still takes up space - but - the Trash folder is periodically emptied by Yahoo plus you can enter it manually if you see there's stuff in it.

alphagam-alum: I have also been overloaded with these emails in my yahoo account. All the return address are @whatever.edu--- my inbox in constantly overflowing and I have run out of room numerous times in the past 2 days.
Hmm... well if it always comes from the same domain eg. random&changes_everytime_bit_here@this_part_stayst hesame.edu then you can click on "Mail Options", next click "Block Addresses" and enter the domain to block. So none of those mails will be allowed to ever reach you; this is presuming you're SURE legitimate mails won't come from that domain to you. Blocking email adresses isn't always useful as spammers tend to put a random word before the @ sign and changing it for each spam. Blocking a domain is obviously slightly more useful :-).

Justamom: I think you asked about how come Yahoo haven't sent out a customer notice. They have in the Tip of the Day which appears on the front page of Yahoo Mail, put a virus warning; they did that with another one a few weeks back. That's pretty unusual for them :-).

CatStarESP4: Lately, I have been getting email from an unidentified person, only the domain identified. I have had those deleted since I don't know who it is from. Is it possible that somebody has been sending a virus? Very concerned about this! Well Miss big sig :p, Without seeing the mails I can't tell, but it could be spam or have a virus attached. If there's no attachment... there wouldn't be a virus attached :-) As for whether one opens a Yahoo mail which says it has an attachment and you glance then at the filename and you THEN think it may be the virus (e.g because it ends in .pif or .src) , unless you save the attachment or run it, then it is not too likely to get to cause harm to your PC :-). It can't leap out ;). N.B it's a bit different in Outlook and other programs because they ARE downloading the messages to your PC for you to read them; with Yahoo they remain on the server. I'm not sure what you mean by an unidentified person? Whether that means the sender is unidentified@domain.com literally or just that you don't know (recognise) the sender name. If you mean the address is literally unidentified@whatever.com then delete it as no-one legitimate would deliberately set up their email address to be unidentified@whatever.com unless they had a starring role in Dumb and Dumberer.

... The final standard rules for spam apply. Never ever never click the "unsubscribe" or "remove me" links on a definite spam email, it only confirms that yours is a valid address and so your address is more likely to end up on the "Premium verified" - more expensive email lists, that are sold to scum. Sorry spammers ;). If it's obviously spam, don't bother opening it e.g. if the subject line is "Increase your girth" or "Bigger breasts no consultation neeeded!" etc.
It's also an idea to go into Yahoo Mail options, click General Preferences and select the "Block HTML graphics in email messages from being downloaded.". Yeah you miss out on some legitimate pretty graphics maybe but you also avoid - if it is spam - the graphics being secret numbered graphics which when downloaded for your message send a note to the spammer to say that *your* address downloaded them thus telling them your email address is "live".

I've no idea whatsoever if any of this post was any use. But I'm gonna click send now anyway. :)

Richard.

edited for spelling.