Hotmail.com Hotmail is a ripoff Internet
Wow, your first email address with Hotmail. You think that only your friends will be able to email you. You don't give your NEW Hotmail address to ANYONE other than your friends. Everything is running smooth until the day you get that first unexplained email. Then you see your first nude female, then you see for the first time a picture of oral sex. Then you notice that all the 'from' email addresses are from people like i_am_so_hot@hotmail.com . You wonder how this can be?
The answer is simple. Hotmail sells your email address. It is the only way to explain how a 13 year old in the late 1990's could be approved for a new car loan, a credit card, and a home loan.
The next time you get a spam email. Write the company that is giving you the car loan, the credit card, and the home loan. They will tell you one thing. That they bought the email address from the Microsoft Corperation.(That is the company that ownes Hotmail.)
Forget about support. I have sent them over 10 emails asking why my account had been deactivated. After a month, they just simply said that my account had too many 'blocked senders' on my list. During the time I was locked out of my account, the email kept rolling in like hotcakes. Instead of stopping the emails when my account got full, they decided to bill me 1 dollar per megabite that my account was over it's quota.
If you type in @hotmail.com, it is never added to the blocked list, as is the case for:
bigfoot.net;
pr2.cc.102.com;
msn.com;
microsoft.com; and
passport.com.
There is no such thing as a free email address with hotmail. They only give you 2MB's of space. For some people that is fine, but others get twice that a day in Spam. By the time you add all your costs while checking you hotmail, it is not free. There are better free email companys out there. Just be shure to do your homework before you signup.
Ray - JR. RIP-OFF REPORTER
Rison, Arkansas
7 Updates & Rebuttals
Bonnie
Redmond,Oregon,
Hotmail........
#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, July 18, 2002
My name is Bonnie Gates. I have worked as a Customer Service agent for Microsoft's Hotmail Website. While there have been some 'bugs' in the Hotmail system, your personal information is safe.
It is true that Hotmail sells email addresses to the highest bidder. This has kept the service free.
The types of company's that receive the email list is not our top priority. We were instructed only to provide the list and ask no questions.
About 50% of the websites receiving these lists were the adult style websites. You agree for your website to be sold at the bottom of the Terms and Conditions page. The text is the same white color as the background of the page, thus many people never know it exists.
Thank You,
Bonnie
Ex-Microsoft Employee
Ray
rison,Arkansas,
Read my complaint carefully
#8Consumer Suggestion
Tue, July 09, 2002
First, I don't have anything to hide. Secondly, Tell me where a teenager will be able to pay to get an email address?
I have a paid email address now. I pay about 20.00 a month for it. And, I never receive spam.
I am not stupid. I know how to set my inbox to exclusive. It does not work.
Terry
Torrance,California,
Spoofing return addresses
#8Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 08, 2002
Just because the "from" or "return" email address says "hotmail.com", it doesn't mean that it actually came from hotmail. It's easy to make the return address show whatever you want. To see where it REALLY came from, you have to trace the IP addresses. There are several FREE web sites that provide this service. I use www.spamcop.net.
As far as Microsoft selling your email address, I doubt that also. It would be a PR nightmare for MS if they did that. I've had hotmail for several years now, and I don't get that much spam. On the other hand, I signed up with a new ISP, and I gave the address out to NOBODY (since I planned on using hotmail.) I immediately started receiving spam. So I just let it clog up their servers, and never read mail in that account.
Terry
Torrance,California,
Spoofing return addresses
#8Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 08, 2002
Just because the "from" or "return" email address says "hotmail.com", it doesn't mean that it actually came from hotmail. It's easy to make the return address show whatever you want. To see where it REALLY came from, you have to trace the IP addresses. There are several FREE web sites that provide this service. I use www.spamcop.net.
As far as Microsoft selling your email address, I doubt that also. It would be a PR nightmare for MS if they did that. I've had hotmail for several years now, and I don't get that much spam. On the other hand, I signed up with a new ISP, and I gave the address out to NOBODY (since I planned on using hotmail.) I immediately started receiving spam. So I just let it clog up their servers, and never read mail in that account.
Terry
Torrance,California,
Spoofing return addresses
#8Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 08, 2002
Just because the "from" or "return" email address says "hotmail.com", it doesn't mean that it actually came from hotmail. It's easy to make the return address show whatever you want. To see where it REALLY came from, you have to trace the IP addresses. There are several FREE web sites that provide this service. I use www.spamcop.net.
As far as Microsoft selling your email address, I doubt that also. It would be a PR nightmare for MS if they did that. I've had hotmail for several years now, and I don't get that much spam. On the other hand, I signed up with a new ISP, and I gave the address out to NOBODY (since I planned on using hotmail.) I immediately started receiving spam. So I just let it clog up their servers, and never read mail in that account.
Terry
Torrance,California,
Spoofing return addresses
#8Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 08, 2002
Just because the "from" or "return" email address says "hotmail.com", it doesn't mean that it actually came from hotmail. It's easy to make the return address show whatever you want. To see where it REALLY came from, you have to trace the IP addresses. There are several FREE web sites that provide this service. I use www.spamcop.net.
As far as Microsoft selling your email address, I doubt that also. It would be a PR nightmare for MS if they did that. I've had hotmail for several years now, and I don't get that much spam. On the other hand, I signed up with a new ISP, and I gave the address out to NOBODY (since I planned on using hotmail.) I immediately started receiving spam. So I just let it clog up their servers, and never read mail in that account.
anti
nyc,New York,
How to use hotmail/the peril of free e-mails
#8Consumer Suggestion
Mon, July 08, 2002
First of all, do not use it as your primary e-mail. Do not use any free e-mail as your primary e-mail. Free e-mail providers are not charities, providing free services. They live from advertisement (selling your e-mail address) or from convincing you to expand your storage space fro fee.
Because most of the spams came from free, untracktable e-mails, many companies, colleges etc. block all the e-mails from yahoo.com, hotmail.com domains, without checking senders, subjects antyhing.
The psychological blacklash. People who get every day dozens of spams from free e-mails, either delete them without reading or become suspicious. Why this guy has free e-mail? What does he want to hide? Why is he so cheap not to pay for an e-mail? These second thoughts could be devastating for exmaple when you send a job application from your hotmail.
The last but most important problem: the unreliability. Mail servers are down, e-mails loss in much highre rate than with paid services.
IF you use hotmail, there are a couple of things that could help.
1.On your hotmail page click:
Options
Personal profile
UNCHECK the three options: Share my e-mail address; Share my first and last names; Share my other registration information
2. On your hotmail page click:
Options
Junk mail filter
Choose the EXCLUSIVE option. It means that e-mail from addresses appearing in your Contacts or your Safe List will be delivered to your Inbox. All other mail will be delivered to your Junk Mail Folder.
Mails in Junk Mail Folder do not count toward your allowed store space, and the folder autodeletes every letter after 7 days.
Usually IPS/free e-mail providers do not let their own address be blocked. I mean the operators of the sites want to communicate with you in some way.
Meanwhile MSN sells e-mail addresses (and yes, they are not so eager to advertise the opt out option), to assume that they sell it to sex sites or they are the responsible for the "University Diplomas"- type spams, seems a little far reach for me.
Get a not free primary e-mail. If you do your homework, you will notice there are countless complaints against any free e-mail service.