Yahoo Mail – reduce the spam you get*

(*conditions apply)

Saw a new option in Yahoo Spam Protection settings which can prove to be very useful in combating with spam. It may have been there for a while, but I noticed it only yesterday so don’t hang me 🙂

Ever opened a message in the Bulk Mail folder that looked like it could be something useful that accidentally landed there instead of the Inbox? Well it happens to me quite often. Every once in a while, it turns out that it was spam indeed. No harm done apart from a few seconds wasted you might think. Right?

Wrong!

These messages often contain embedded images that load when you view the message. When you view this image you “ping” back to the spammer’s server. Some of the more intelligent spammers out there put in a “unique” id in the URL of the image which makes it possible for them to identify which email id just pinged them back. Hurray! We have an alive and kicking email id, go the spammers (it’s more precious to them than you’re thinking at this point). Let’s flood this id with more stuff.

So what I’m trying to say is that opening (some of the) spam with embedded HTML graphics can result in more spam being sent your way.

Now on to the actual tip.

1) Open Yahoo Mail (duh!)
2) Goto “Mail Options” (top right of your screen)
3) Goto “Spam Protection”
4) Towards the bottom see “Image Blocking”
5) Select “Block images in messages that SpamGuard thinks are spam”
6) “Save changes”

You’re good to go! You may not notice it, but this will reduce the “repeat” spam you get if you accidentally open spam with embedded HTML graphics in it.