WHAT'S YOUR BEEF???
To see last month's What's Your Beef???, click here.

Let this be a place where your local mmiworld webmaster vents his frustrations for the whole world to see.  Believe it or not, the whole world does read this page.  I received an email from a fellow in Addis Ababa, (that's in Ethiopia by the way) who responded to last month's What's Your Beef??? and said that traffic there was 20 times worse than in Seattle.  OK, so I didn't have it that bad.  Fortunately, I have since moved on to sunnier climates and happier spaces.  Well, here's my beef anyway...

Spam:  Eat it or Delete it?

OK, I just heard on the Travel Channel that Minnesota is the Spam capital of the world.  Hmmm, funny thing, because the place in the world that consumes the highest amount of Spam per capita is Hawaii.  You can get Spam anywhere in Hawaii.  On all the menus at all the restaurants and local eateries, you can order Spam.  Order it as a burger, order it as a steak.  Heck, you can even get Spam at your local 7-11 on rice like sushi.  I have no idea what is in Spam and eat pretty much anything anyway so I'm not knocking it.  Besides, this month's What's Your Beef??? isn't about that kind of Spam.  It's about the kind of spam that I get in my email inboxes every day.  I have about 11 email addresses.  On average, I would say I am receiving about 100 unsolicited spam emails on average per day.  That's no exaggeration!  It is completely out of control.

IT'S SICKENING--Some mornings I wake up and go to my computer and am shocked to see explicit photos of some pretty sick stuff.  I've received emails showing stuff that is downright illegal.  I'm not the type of person that caters to or "opts-in" or "subscribes" to any website or email lists, especially like these.  I've replied a thousand times asking to be removed.  They always say I have received this email because I "subscribed" or "opted-in" to receive their pathetic drool.  There are these spammers out of China who got a hold of several of my email addresses and refuse to remove my email from their list.  I've requested to be removed hundreds of times via email, through their site, etc.  They say they will remove my email address but never do.  I also receive ALOT of spam email that doesn't even provide a way to delete yourself from the list.  Frankly, I no longer have the time to try to get myself off of these lists.  I don't know what else to do.  I don't want to have to change any of my email addresses as I like the ones I have and need them.  So, my question is.

WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT SPAM?--If you have any suggestions that really are working for you, please reply and let me know.  I will be happy to post any solutions or email responses right here for others to see.  Please help.  My delete key is about worn out from eating (I mean deleting)all this spam.

RESPONSE FROM ONE OF OUR READERS--David Schwartz writes, "Greetings: I have heard on consumer shows and at work that when you ask to remove yourself from a list that even if they do stop that mailing to you that they have numerous others that they happily send you.  Someone they mail will like their product, the odds are in their favor.  They may not have even known if your address was still valid, but by submitting your request all you may have done is confirm for them that indeed yours is an active address for them to saturate with junk mail and/or sell it to others to over use.  I have in fact subscribed to some services related to cars, sporting teams, and financial services.  When I have requested to sever my ties with any of those I'd subscribed to they honored my request and no extra mailings from similar organizations came.  They are honest, I was sure of that before I signed up.  The guys that are filling your inbox are not.  What do you do?  I've been reducing my inbox by asking only those that are told to me by my Yahoo e-mail heading are not spam to remove me from their mail list(s).  If it is spam, I ask Yahoo to block that address which deletes the mailing at the same time.  Of course I empty the trash soon after too.  Yahoo will block up to 100 addresses free.  After that I find myself deleting the blocks of those mailings that are the oldest so that I have the opportunity to block those guys that are mailing me currently.  Nothing is failsafe but I have reduced the mayhem some.  Dave"

Thanks Dave!  We'll take your advice!  If anyone else has some ideas, let us know!  Simply EMAIL your response with the subject "What's Your Beef???" and we will post your response.  DON'T use the subject "SPAM" because I will delete it, not eat it, and surely won't read it.

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