Dear FBI

Posted: Saturday, June 20, 2009 by Travis Cody in
26

I belong to a Yahoo group with my Soul Patrol pals. We've kept our group together for more than three years now. Some of us blog, and some of us chat, and some of us post more to the group than others. But we all check in now and again and keep in touch.

All due to a gray haired soul man we met in January 2006.



Why do I tell you that?

Because someone has decided that since I belong to one Yahoo group, that I want to belong to 100 other Yahoo groups. I keep getting emails from assorted unknown individuals. They aren't standard spam emails so they aren't getting caught in my spam filter. And I can't figure out how to unsubscribe to them.

So I mark them as spam without opening them and then empty my spam filter periodically.

But I am getting a bit irritated with the subject matter.

See, the emails I'm getting from all these people are from Yahoo groups that spread pornography. And from some of the messages in the subject box, it's pretty nasty stuff too.

So Mr Federal Agent, please take into consideration the fact that I didn't ask for any of it, or search any of it out.

I really did not ask for any of those emails that have "barely legal" in the subject line. And I really did not ask for any of the ones that talk about what certain gals enjoy down on the farm. I didn't ask for any of them.

Please don't arrest me.

Sincerely,
Travis

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous says:
    20 June, 2009 01:05

    I was in Yahoo groups as well and the spam is just ridiculous there. I left. Please don't arrest me - Priceless :) Have a great weekend :)

  1. Akelamalu says:
    20 June, 2009 03:27

    That's a great post Trav - If only we could rid ourselves of ALL spam - well except the edible sort - I'm having some of that for lunch today. ;)

  1. katherine. says:
    20 June, 2009 06:52

    does everyone in the Soul Patrol get them too?

    Expedia is another spam-conduit...sheesh!

  1. Charles Gramlich says:
    20 June, 2009 08:18

    I'm in a yahoo group and do get some of this. I really hate folks who waste my damn time with this kind of crap.

  1. Anonymous says:
    20 June, 2009 08:46

    I hate spam. Delete. Delete. Delete. What a pain.

  1. Travis Cody says:
    20 June, 2009 08:52

    Thom: I heard on the news that some guy was charged because he had child pornography on his computer. I assume that means he had a bunch of pictures and stuff, but I don't want to get in trouble for spam I can't get rid of!

    Akelamalu: I guess some of the basic advertising stuff is ok. But this is a bit much.

    Katherine: You know, I haven't asked.

    Charles: I might try to cancel and then rejoin my group and see if that works to get rid of it.

    Barb: Yeah, I just delete it. But what if it latches on and never goes away in my computer?

  1. Anndi says:
    20 June, 2009 09:46

    Spam... yeah... any unsolicited junk is spam... hate it.

  1. Jeni says:
    20 June, 2009 09:47

    I belong to two yahoo writing groups and thus far -knock on wood -I've not had a problem with spam through yahoo, etc. But, I do get, fairly regularly too -like one or two a week -of those lovely e-mails telling me how I have so much money I am entitled to if I help this poor person, usually from some third-world country in Africa, to launder this money for them.

    One of the contributors on one of the writer's groups recently posted an e-mail address where you are supposed to forward any type of SPAM to, fo them to apparently use the address to try to track down these idiots. I haven't seen that it has eliminated any SPAM for me as yet, but who knows, maybe one of these days they'll track these people down and put them out of business. If You don't already have this e-mail addy, here it is:
    spam@uce.gov

    I figure anything to try to stop this crapola is worth a try.

  1. Mike Golch says:
    20 June, 2009 10:51

    what's dehind door #3? why it officer O'Mally of the blog police,You'r busted! I hope that you are having a great day Trav!

  1. maryt/theteach says:
    20 June, 2009 13:47

    Hey Travis, you should get i n touch with Yahoo directly, don't you think? If you every want to become President or a Supreme Court judge they could confiscate your emails and end up telling everyone about all that porn...Remember Judge Bork? Ha! Maybe I shouldn't laugh...:(

  1. DrillerAA says:
    20 June, 2009 16:50

    You have my sympathy. Maybe that's why I don't belong to groups.
    However, any group that is based on Taylor Hicks has got to be a good group.

  1. Mimi Lenox says:
    20 June, 2009 19:04

    Something in my gut always told me to stay away from Yahoo groups.
    How awful to put up with this. But I've been getting some weird stuff from Facebook too. I hate it! I just delete.

    THIS is the "bad side" of the internet.

  1. Durward Discussion says:
    20 June, 2009 19:30

    Get Rid of Yahoo Spam. Not sure if this set of instructions will help, but it is a place to start. Here is another site

    If those don't work, let me know and I'll scrounge some more. Can't have you landing behind bars.

  1. laughingwolf says:
    20 June, 2009 19:50

    i agree trav... only way i know is to stop using yahoo, since they could care less about anything you tell them grrrrrrrrr

  1. ClancyPants says:
    20 June, 2009 20:23

    I HATE those! I don't have a clue how I ended up getting things like that but I eventually had to change my email address. I know how frustrating that is... I feel your pain. :(

  1. Marilyn says:
    20 June, 2009 21:56

    I don't think they can get you in trouble for unsolicited spam that you didn't request. The guys who get in trouble for this are the ones that actively post it someplace or the ones that have huge caches of the stuff stored up on their hard drives.

    Still, it is a nuisance, and if there is anything illegal in the spam the culprits should be caught.

  1. Unknown says:
    21 June, 2009 05:19

    Well said, Trav!

  1. Dianne says:
    21 June, 2009 14:01

    I'll vouch for you, but then again I have an FBI file - not for porn though

  1. Liz Hill says:
    21 June, 2009 14:05

    My spam filter catches most everything. It's funny--Brad does not belong to any yahoo groups but gets more of that same spam crap in half a day than I get in three or four days.

  1. Unknown says:
    21 June, 2009 18:32

    Ugh...I hate spam! No, I don't want to make my penis bigger. In fact, I don't want a penis! (Or at least, not one on me!) And I don't care about barely legal Lolitas - honest!

  1. Durward Discussion says:
    21 June, 2009 19:29

    Since you have such a sad shortage of dancers in your life, I wanted to let you know about a British professional ballroom show available on You Tube.

    Strictly Come Dancing They are on week four but you can catch up. I know you can.

  1. Marsha says:
    22 June, 2009 06:10

    Should we start collecting for bail money???

  1. Vinny "Bond" Marini says:
    22 June, 2009 07:31

    I deal with spam everyday too...

    Frustrating indeed.

  1. Travis Cody says:
    22 June, 2009 17:23

    Ann: Normally I just delete it and it doesn't bug me that much. I don't care for spam pornography.

    Jeni: I'll give it a try. Thanks!

    Mike: HA!

    Mary: No kidding! Good thing I don't ever plan to run for public office.

    Driller: Indeed! Taylor brings out the good stuff.

    Mimi: It is. But people are welcome to their own interests as long as it's not against the law. And as long as they don't inflict it on me when I don't want it.

    Jamie: Thanks for the link. I'll try it.

    Laughingwolf: I've thought about deleting my membership in the group and then signing up again. But it'll still be the same email address.

    Clancy: I don't want to change my email address, but if I can't get away from it I just might have to do it.

    Marilyn: See that's what concerns me. I've heard of this stuff getting imprinted into your internet search history. I try to clear that history as often as I can.

    Nick: Imagine what happens when I check my emails at work! I can't delete that stuff fast enough!

    Dianne: Hmmmmm...you rabble rouser you!

    Turn: I didn't used to get much of it. But I'm thinking it's a combination of TOOSP and my email address getting attached to something by accident. And now it's public and sucked into the spam hole.

    Dana: LOL! Dana just made a smutty funny!

    Jamie: Ooooooooooh! TopChamp tells me about this show. Thanks for the tip...I didn't realize it had started.

    Marsha: You might need to!

    V: Especially the kind I'm getting.

  1. Desert Songbird says:
    23 June, 2009 18:54

    I've never belonged to a Yahoo group, but I used to read a message board over on Google, and it drove me nuts the amount of trolls who posted there. I finally quit. All of the serious posters left, and there was no quality content anymore. I guess the trolls won.

  1. Julie says:
    23 June, 2009 21:27

    Oh my....I thought your final line was "Please don't erect me."

    I think perhaps it's bedtime.

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