(I’m delete-cRaZy. I keep a low inbox profile but that doesn’t mean that I don’t save emails.)
Largely, I manage by using different email addresses, which works great for me. I’m not a salesman, so I’m not constantly harassing people, jockeying for more incoming mail than the person next door. I’m a somewhat normal woman who does a shedload of online shopping, banking, social networking and such.
As always: I haven’t received a dime for reviewing neither services nor products, let alone my fantastic blogging.
Let’s go way back in time, to the mid-90s. I had one email address for maybe two or three years by that time. I can’t recall why I got a second email address. That one still exists. Why am I talking about ancient email addresses?
Because YOU may have one and let me tell you: it’s hacked or it’s going to be very soon.
Sure, if you’re on Facebook, your chances are far greater for getting hacked.
Sure, if you buy things online, subscribe to coupon or deals services, your chances are far greater for getting hacked.
Sure, if you can’t pass by a CHANCE TO WIN or a free newsletter, your chances are far greater for getting hacked.
That means YOU. And me.* That’s why I’m talking here.
One address is primarily for first-time shopping** or signing up for newsletters. I affectionately call it my SPAM address, as it gets the most SPAM — obviously — from using it for purchases, sweepstakes and newsletters! I’m obsessive about unsubscribing but that works 1/4 of the time, possibly less. I end up setting rules to send them to my trash once particular ‘froms’ become unbearable. This email addy can be ignored over the weekend, when travelling, etc.
I use Personality addresses for social networking. I RARELY sign into these social-networking addresses from a desktop. They ping my phone, which I can then delete via phone. I used them to register and later, as a notification service. For example, if I’m looking at WordPress, I don’t need to get that belated email a day later telling me somebody commented because I see their wee orange ‘comment’ notification in the upper right hand corner. BUT if I’m not in WordPress, it’s nice to get that notification via email — even if it’s a day late.
Then, there’s my Private Line. Remember (no, you don’t) when the telephone book (a book!) listed loads of numbers but you’d go to look up a specific person (Mr. Drees, my Science and Maths teacher) and it wasn’t listed? Unlisted numbers weren’t printed. You had to pay extra for that. Ma Bell knew privacy was worth something. I do, too.
Not into it? Okay, there’s also a service called Mailstrom. I liked the top two reviews on google (you can read them by googling ‘mailstrom reviews’) but it doesn’t apply thus far in life, as my method works for me.
Bear in mind: the longer anybody keeps an email address, the more likely you’ll get phished, then hacked, annoyed by millions of delivery failure notices (you’re a zombie, baby!) or the worst, your ID stolen.
A) change your passwords
B) change your passwords
C) change your passwords
* Yup. That first email address got hacked. It wasn’t just phished, which of course happened first. It was hacked and zombied. Back then, you couldn’t just delete the account. You had to send a SNAIL MAIL to cancel. That took about 2 months to turn around. What a fucking disaster. It’s so easy for you nowadays. Nevertheless, learn from me.
- Get a ‘dummy,’ shopping/ social address that you can deal with sorting/ sifting/ redirecting SPAM.
- Get an ‘unlisted,’ private address for banking — or possibly your very personal emails. Guard it like you would your social security number. Sure, it gets out there but you wouldn’t drop it to get Tide coupons.
** When and if I’ve deemed somebody ‘safe’ from sending me junk (including selling my address to others), I may switch them to my SpendsMeSomeMoney address. This is a Rare Occurrence. I prefer using my SPAM address.
You know me…I have literally dozens of emails. I always says it’s because I’m a Gemini; I’m not one person, I’m a whole bunch (kinda like that Sybil character from the 60′s). I have a spam address too, it’s the one I use to sign up for things or to buy things from places like Amazon. But I have at least one email for every one of my domains, and some domains I have multiples. And I have 14 domains at current count. Oh, and I have a yahoo account and two gmail accounts, and two work accounts that come through the University. Schnazzy.
The ONLY email accounts I see hacked often and consistently are yahoo accounts. I believe these are the least safe, mostly because people use ridiculous passwords. I am the only one I know who has never had her email hacked. Never had a pc or laptop of my own (that no one else used) get hacked either. I’m notorious for not running virus protection, either. But that’s because I’m a geek and I know a spammy/scammy/infected email when I see one and I never click links or attachments unless I’m absolutely sure of them, which isn’t often. Every email account I have gets some spam email; that’s just sort of a fact of life, but it’s easy to enable spam filters to catch most of it (not all). And NEVER EVER click that “unsubscribe” link in spammy emails. It does NOT work.
Oh, and I’m on facebook but that has never led to a hacking either…but I use an actual pop3 email (imap would work too) for facebook, NOT a yahoo or gmail account, which is likely to be hacked. Also, my fb password is very very unique and follows all the best practices of a strong password – at least one capital letter not at the beginning or the end, at least one “curse word” (upper case of the number row on the keyboard) also not at the end of the beginning, and numbers as well. The longer the password, the stronger it is. My fb password is more than 15 letters long.
Thanks for sharing you tech help, Sus.
Since I know you IRL, I can attest to your proficiency!
And you’re right, never bother with ‘unsubscribe’ to spammy emails (I don’t touch them except to send to bulk). I mean when you SUBSCRIBE to that newsletter and find it’s not that interesting, so you unsubscribe…and it never unsubscribes. I’m still getting Dell stuff that dealt with my REAL account. I don’t own a Dell anymore and they flat refuse to stop. I get they’re hoping I buy Dell again. Why would I EVER after shuffling thousands of emails to bulk (finally set a rule) but really, guys!