So, I log into my mom's aol again this morning. No new emails, but she apparently got another one of those spam "we are going to deactivate your aol account in 4 hours emails" yesterday afternoon.......and I see in her sent emails, she replied to it "please do not deactivate me, I did not request this". Ahhhhh.. I've told her in two phone conversations, just days ago that this is a spam email trying to hack her computer. Do not open them! I also told her just don't open any emails that look suspicious and if you do, do not click on anything in them. So, I just emailed her. Hi Mom, just following up on our talk the other day about the spam emails. If you are still getting them, don't even open them. But if you do open them do not click on anything in them NOR try to reply to the emails. That is how they get your information or put a virus on your computer. Geez........I can't monitor her emails all day. But, especially since I specifically told her to ignore these "we are deactivating your AOL account" emails. It's not like it's some new topic of emails she's now getting and thinks they are legit. You'd think AOL would have enough technology to block spam related to it's own email. They say they do block most spam before it even gets to email box. Obviously, not.
I'm not really sure what to do. I can try to delete as many as I can, as often as I can, and at least try to protect her that way. She does ignore most of the obvious spam but it's the trickier ones, that pretend to be from a business she uses, that she gets tricked with (of course). I'll just keep doing my best to monitor her email account and delete what I can. It will be easiest on the long weekends she spends at her boyfriends. I can delete them, without her getting to them first.
I don't like feeling like I am prying into her life (and I'm not opening emails I know are legit to her) but she's obviously not getting what I am telling her ignoring these emails. I also sent her an email that another common spam email is from her bank (she uses BofA). I told her never to access her bank account online via a link from an email. Hopefully she remembers this, especially!
How about going into her aol settings and blocking certain words? "Deactivate" might be a good one to start with.
ReplyDeleteI'll look into that. I went into settings this morning to see what I could do, but didn't see much I could do with it.
Deleteahh, I found that! I was in aol settings earlier, not email settings. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteGlad you found it. I've had to do that with a lot of words (Canadian Viagra-just to name one!) and it has helped with blocking the spam.
DeleteAlso try going to the spam email that she opened and marking it as spam. You might have to first mark it as new or something first and then as spam. Maybe she needs a post it note on her computer monitor to remind her. Good luck.
ReplyDeletethank you. I did do that, too, as well as with a bunch of other spam emails. Hopefully that will help aol learn it's spam and cut down on it for her, some.
DeleteI have gmail (google mail). I get NO spam. Maybe you could get your mother to change her email address to a gmail account. Every one I know with a gmail account gets no spam.
ReplyDeleteat this point I'm not sure she'd learn how to access a new account. She knows how to get to aol, because she's been doing it so long now, but anything new is hard for her. Now that I took a bunch of those spam emails and reported to aol as spam, she getting a bunch now automatically going into her spam, rather than regular in box. I'm hoping she'll see a decrease now.
DeleteIn here there is a big problem of an organized crime ring calling especially old and/or gullible people saying that their accounts have been used for terrorist activities and that they must withdraw all the money in their bank accounts and give it to the police. In the background they have sirens, police radio noises and what not. Some people say that they even use some hypnosis techniques. We have always told mom to hang up the phone as soon as she finds out that the caller is not someone she knows. Does she listen? No. She wants to outsmart scammers so, she talks. She does not have a whole lot of money but the loss of that money would have an impact. My sister has legal access to her account and she transferred mom's money to an account in her name. Therefore, mom no longer has access to her money without my sister's knowledge. Every month, sis reports to her as to how much is in her savings account, whether she wants to add on to it or withdraw some money. This works for us. Thankfully, she does not use social media or e-mail or online shopping.
ReplyDeleteoh no! I think my mom is pretty good about not answering her phone if she doesn't recognize the number, since she has caller id.
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