Need another email address? Don't use Yahoo

I have a Yahoo email account that I used to use a lot. Now I check it occasionally. Based on what shows up in my inbox there, I would definitely not use Yahoo for my primary email now.

The problem is spam. Of course, every web-based email provider has to deal with spam. They do this via spam filters. What is supposed to happen is that an email comes in to the Yahoo server, and the server checks it for certain key words or phrases. If a word such as "free" or a phrase such as "make money" is detected, the spam filter is supposed to divert that email into your Spam folder instead of putting it in your inbox.

In the case of Yahoo, here are a few emails I have received that got into my inbox with no problem:

Sender: Investment Education
Subject: How to Generate Staggering Profits

Sender: Ref WAL-1098
Subject: WAL-MART five hundred dollar gift card inside

Sender: Laptop report
Subject: We will purchase and ship you a laptop you choose

Sender: First Premier Special Offer
Subject: Apply for a credit card today

Sender: Cheaper House Payments
Subject: Think you have a low house payment? Think again

Now obviously, anyone can look at these sender names or subject lines and know without a doubt they are all spam and scams. But for some reason, the Yahoo spam filter thinks these are perfectly legitimate emails from real senders.

So I complained to Yahoo. I forwarded several of these, along with the full email headers (as Yahoo requires with any spam complaint). Here is the response I got:

"We understand your frustration in receiving unsolicited email. While we investigate all reported violations against the Yahoo! Terms of Service (TOS), in this particular case the message you received was not sent by a Yahoo! Mail user. Yahoo has no control over activities outside its services and therefore we cannot take any action."

This of course is ridiculous. Yahoo can only filter out spam if it was sent from a Yahoo account? I don't know what Yahoo is thinking, but I do know that the Gmail spam filters work very well. Use Gmail for your email account. You can have as many different accounts as you want and they are all free.

This week's video - here's a report about an announcement from the Department of Transportation, regarding improved communications between drivers:


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