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My gripe is about security, or rather the lack of any security on the Internet and the intransigence of Internet Service Providers.
Just lately I have been receiving a large number of unsolicited emails from various adult sites, drug sites selling Viagra, phishing sites from all the major banks and of course people wanting to launder money through my bank account.
Fed up with all of this unwanted spam...
Fed up with all of this unwanted spam, I asked my Internet service provider (AOL) to do something about the nuisance emails. Unfortunately they have not really offered a satisfactory solution to the problem and the only reply I have received was that I should put them on a blocked sender list."
Since I am getting at least half a dozen emails of this type a day, I would probably end up spending more time blocking unsolicited emails than actually using the Internet to surf.
I have asked AOL to change my username as it has obviously been compromised and they advised me that this would not be possible. I told them that I would prefer to cancel my account that case.
They are now refusing to cancel my account regardless of the fact that I have been a customer since 2003 and have said that the reason I cannot cancel is because I upgraded to a platinum account in April this year.
By: Bob
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I tried to post a comment on the Huff post this morning; only to find out that you can only post on there now if you have a farcebook account.
I filled in their "contact us" form to try and get some sense out of them, but all I got was a standard reply directing me back to the faq's and help pages. I was invited to reply to this; when I did I got the same standard reply again!
Have now removed my account.
05/04/14 grumpyoldwoman
I filled in their "contact us" form to try and get some sense out of them, but all I got was a standard reply directing me back to the faq's and help pages. I was invited to reply to this; when I did I got the same standard reply again!
Have now removed my account.
8
Blimey, why do you need the Huffington Post so badly, Craggy?
Clearly, if things are as you say they are, this forum (or whatever it is, I've never looked it up) is operating some on sort of hierarchical, bullying system and isn't worth even visiting. What you are experiencing is a form of bullying and let's face it, bullies are simple-minded creatures with huge shoulder-borne chips weighing their lives down, who wish to make your life as sad as theirs.
My advice, give the HP a complete miss from now on. If what you say is correct HP has allowed corruption to enter and thus, like politics and banking, has made itself null and void of value.
01/07/12 eyes_wide_open
Clearly, if things are as you say they are, this forum (or whatever it is, I've never looked it up) is operating some on sort of hierarchical, bullying system and isn't worth even visiting. What you are experiencing is a form of bullying and let's face it, bullies are simple-minded creatures with huge shoulder-borne chips weighing their lives down, who wish to make your life as sad as theirs.
My advice, give the HP a complete miss from now on. If what you say is correct HP has allowed corruption to enter and thus, like politics and banking, has made itself null and void of value.
0
After making my complaint to you this morning games with me stopped. Sadly this evening I am encountering the problem again. I cannot print the simplest of comments to one person. I have tried five times, rewording my remarks and each time it has been taken off. I don't know if the staff have changed for the evening, but I should assume so and they probably think they can continue as they did yesterday. It is quite upsetting and I wish it could be stopped. I need your help to do this please.
11/06/12 Pamela Craghill known as Craggy
-3
I have to say the word you made me take out is allowed on Huffington Post.
11/06/12 Pamela Craghill known as Craggy.
0
Pleas AOL can you hep me. I am having a very big problem with Huffington Post. They are taking off all my comments even though they are not offensive. Having said that they are allowing very offensive comment to be printed to me. Examples are people talking about sh"""ing, calling me an ignoramous and a crabby old colostomy bag. Just some comments that are offensive and allowed to be printed to me. I never use offensive words and just tell things nicely as I see them. So I am offended that these things can be printed to me, when I am not allowed the right to reply. Even when I am just making a comment on an article they will take my comment off. The moderators play childish games with people and others on the site have said how unfair they are. When I go on the AOL site there is never a problem. It is just the Huffington Post. Please help me.
11/06/12 Pamela Craghill known as Craggy
-7
The Internet is the modern Tower of Babel. God will ultimately strike it down. It is already full of Babble anyway.
19/07/11 Plain of Shinar
-16
Try using the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. It has quite good built in junk mail filtering that you can 'train' by marking mail as junk so that it will know in the future. You can also set up filters, e.g. to put any mail with a particular word in the address into the junk or waste folder. It is free & I'm sure a quick look on a search engine will bring up the website.
12/02/10 Guy
-14
I am a long-time AOL user and have few problems with spam -- just the occasional one. What I do have a problem with is telehone "spam" -- endless calls over many months, mainly from people acting on behalf of the Rogers company. They almost never leave a message on the voice mail. They must have spent hundreds of dollars harassing me.
20/11/09 Vic
-15
grumpyoldwoman
No, it is not just you - I am irritated by the increasing number of people who telephone me and ask 'security questions'.
I am ex-directory and registered with the Telephone Preference Service so I always ask the caller how they obtained my number, this usually results in the caller hanging up immediately. If they refuse to answer the question or give some feeble excuse like "you completed a survey form" (I never do) then I hang up.
If, on the rare occasion that the caller has obtained my number from a valid source e.g. a friend and it is company which is of interest to me I ask for their telephone number and call them, usually there is no problem with this and the telephone number is often a toll-free one.
09/10/09 Congo
No, it is not just you - I am irritated by the increasing number of people who telephone me and ask 'security questions'.
I am ex-directory and registered with the Telephone Preference Service so I always ask the caller how they obtained my number, this usually results in the caller hanging up immediately. If they refuse to answer the question or give some feeble excuse like "you completed a survey form" (I never do) then I hang up.
If, on the rare occasion that the caller has obtained my number from a valid source e.g. a friend and it is company which is of interest to me I ask for their telephone number and call them, usually there is no problem with this and the telephone number is often a toll-free one.
-13
This is more about telephone security, but it started with aol & I can't find a more appropriate gripe, so here goes.
I had a call a couple of days ago from someone claiming to be calling from aol. He then asked me to answer some security questions. I said " Hang on, you called me! Why do I have to give you my details?" He explained that they needed to verify that I was the account holder. Was I likely to be an intruder who'd temporarily stopped burgling my house to answer the phone? I refused as I didn't know if he really was from aol, and added that if it was sales call
I wasn't interested anyway.
I have emailed aol and they told me it's standard practice. I then called the data protection office who told me that alot of companies and banks do this now.
So... we are supposed to be security conscious and not give out pesonal details over the phone unless we know who we are talking to; but if someone claiming to be from our bank, isp, or any utility company calls us we are supposed to give them personal details. They apparently don't have to prove who they are.
Is this mad or is it me?
09/10/09 grumpyoldwoman
I had a call a couple of days ago from someone claiming to be calling from aol. He then asked me to answer some security questions. I said " Hang on, you called me! Why do I have to give you my details?" He explained that they needed to verify that I was the account holder. Was I likely to be an intruder who'd temporarily stopped burgling my house to answer the phone? I refused as I didn't know if he really was from aol, and added that if it was sales call
I wasn't interested anyway.
I have emailed aol and they told me it's standard practice. I then called the data protection office who told me that alot of companies and banks do this now.
So... we are supposed to be security conscious and not give out pesonal details over the phone unless we know who we are talking to; but if someone claiming to be from our bank, isp, or any utility company calls us we are supposed to give them personal details. They apparently don't have to prove who they are.
Is this mad or is it me?
-8
That's helpful, Terry.
"and where possible, stick to official websites."
What is an 'official website'? How does one recognise such an animal?
15/06/09 MikeP
"and where possible, stick to official websites."
What is an 'official website'? How does one recognise such an animal?
-23
I don't think the internet is safe. Ignore any emails whose sender you don't know, and where possible, stick to official websites.
15/06/09 Terry
-5
To update this I managed to get another service provider and waited 10 days for my line to be purged in order not to need a migration code(most isp's dont't tell you that the line legaly has to be cleared) and was useing it o.k.
The only thing is that Orange took a cacellation fee from my bank account using my debit card details without notifying me or gaining my permission.They used these details from a previous transaction.
So be very carefull with Orange as they tend to stick their fingers in the till in order to get money out of you.Also I judge an isp by their Technical support which in Oranges case is non existant.
24/08/08 bob
The only thing is that Orange took a cacellation fee from my bank account using my debit card details without notifying me or gaining my permission.They used these details from a previous transaction.
So be very carefull with Orange as they tend to stick their fingers in the till in order to get money out of you.Also I judge an isp by their Technical support which in Oranges case is non existant.
-13
After the initial 12 months and being coerced into another 12 months at a cheaperrate that was when things started going wrong.And Oranges so called support staff I found to be inept ill mannered and downright stupid.I had a friend who needed their help and she ended up in tears because of their ill mannered and forcefule aproch towards customer service.The sooner I can lose them the better.
23/07/08 bob
-13
Nixoff Swiftly