HOTMAIL IS UP TO ITS DIRTY TRICKS AGAIN. Users weighed down under the virtual weight of incoming spam take the wise step of filtering out and burning those spams which invariably emanate from the increasingly-sophisticated spammers of the world.
Filtering out the incoming mails with the word 'debt' in the subject line works a treat for example, dumping a fair proportion of the spams wending their merry way into the size-limited inboxes of Hotmail users. Users determined, as we know, to keep using the service for free, as Microsoft promises they can

Adding filters for the words 'penis', 'enhance', 'babes', 'free sex', and 'viagra' can further cut down your spam intake to a more manageable level.

They had "almost 40" filters set up to weed out the junk from the legitimate. "This has been working GREAT at blocking HUGE amounts of spam," wrote Rob, "since nobody that actually _writes_ me ever uses those words in the subject."

Rob continues: "Anyways, today I went to my filter list to add a couple more words to the list, and I notice the GUI has changed a little bit... I went to "Add" a new filter, and I get a popup message-box, informing me that now, you gotta be a PAID MEMBER to set up more than 10 filters!"

"Now they're not even letting us fight spam OURSELVES without paying them," writes Rob. "That's a bummer, man..."

Now, we had ourselves previously set up a few filters that were working pretty effectively on out own Hotmail account, limiting the spam to around 20 messages per day (sheesh!). But to check out Rob?s claim we added a few more. And sure enough, he?s right. At 10 filters, up pops the message: "You have reached your filter limit. You must delete an existing one, or sign up for MSN Extra Storage to increase your filter limit."

We toyed with the idea of calling the UK?s handsome Mr Hotmail to offer him the opportunity of explaining the development, but lately he doesn?t return our calls. He has previously confessed, however, to be involved in "product development, enabling an increase in profitability."

Naturally, gradually tweaking the Hotmail service so that is becomes virtually unusable to free users is one way of (cough!) leveraging an increase in profitability.





Last edited by FreeUS at Oct 18 2002, 01:50 AM