Hi..........Just too let you know that I am not computer or internet knowledgeable. I have a hotmail account and got onto the network. I do not do facebook or anything like that, and I don't want to. I am tired of receiveing Windows Live Messenger invitations from men who read my profile, and even though I have stated that I am married, they send me invitations. I also keep getting messages that someone in a far off country wants my bank info to mail me money. I just want to get off this network. How do I do this? I would appreciate any help I can get. Thanks

I have already done this. Everything but my name is private. It is also supposedly, only available to my contacts. I only have one contact. I started by stressing "husband" in my profile, but these invitations keep coming. What is wrong with some men? Are they that desparate? Thanks for your help. I don't even want to be on windows messenger, only did it to help my young daughter find someone. If anyone else could help, I would really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Sus2009ie

I have already done this. Everything but my name is private. It is also supposedly, only available to my contacts. I only have one contact. I started by stressing "husband" in my profile, but these invitations keep coming. What is wrong with some men? Are they that desparate? Thanks for your help. I don't even want to be on windows messenger, only did it to help my young daughter find someone. If anyone else could help, I would really appreciate it.

You can change your options to deny IM access to anyone, or at the very least, restrict who can contact you --- many people restrict access to those names already in their personal phonebook. But in regard to emails, unfortunately, there's not much else you can do. Some of these emails are just sent by guys (or gals) wanting a connection. . . with anybody (usually for sex, but could be anything), and others are generic invitations and solicitation emails that go out to many thousands of people, not just you. You have to think of them as a kind of spam. Chances are you're not being targeted 'personally,' but these kinds of emails are being sent to tons of women in your demographic.

And the emails seeking your banking information are most likely the kind of scam emails that are generically referred to as the "advanced payment frauds" or the "Nigerian 419 Fraud Scams," where someone sends you an email with some made-up story about someone having money that can be made available to you, and all you have to do is... blah blah blah. (One of the options is to provide you banking information --- others are different.)

I've gotten lots of these, and when I got my first one, years ago, I thought it was real --- and frankly, was disappointed when it wasn't. Now it's become pretty commonplace, and I've since learned that the best advice is not to respond at all, because then they know they have reached a live email address. You can certainly report them to various scam/fraud monitoring agencies -- although, honestly, I don't know how much good that actually does.

And if you want to commiserate with other fraud or scam victims you can go to some of the forums that are available. A particularly complete one is Quatloos: Quatloos! • Index page

also dont put your full name in the "from" portion of the account information
use suzieQ or something.. its amazing how many jokes i get that have not been
sent as a "BCC" blind carbon copy and your name is there for all to see as the
the joke gets passed around.