When I went on my posting sabbatical last summer, on the day I signed off I listed my email address in case any of my thousands of followers wished to contact me. Naive and trusting person that I was, it never occurred to me that this was not a good step to take.
Soon I began to get solicitations from stores, fake invoices that I had ordered various goods, and very explicit come-ons from various sites featuring scantily-clad women who told me they were just waiting for me.
I had enough sense not to click on the prostitutes, but I kept unsubscribing the various companies. This seemed to result in other companies sending me ads.
When I took my computer in for service last week, it was explained to me that when I unsubscribe, that shows that a living person is there, and companies will sell that email address to other companies. As for the prostitutes, I had been doing the right thing–delete without opening.
To end this silliness, I could get a new email address while keeping the old address. I would then let people who email me know the new address. At some point I could then delete the old address. This seems like too much trouble, and it doesn’t take all that long to hit the delete key.
Remember when the internet was supposed to be this wonderful tool for communicating and would tie the world together?
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