Topic: Email Advice (Read 4201 times)

Lynette · « **on:** August 26, 2008, 08:44:55 PM »

For a while I needed a different email account and I set up one on Yahoo. It has served the purpose I needed it for and now I want to get rid of it. Every day I get fifty to one hundered spam messages and I'm tired of emptying the spam. How do I get rid of this email account? Please be mindful that I'm not very computer savvy. (It took me two hours to set up the account so I want insturctions from you as if I'm looking at a computer for the first time.)

Thanks to whoever is brave enough to guide me through this.

Lynette

dhparker · « **Reply #1 on:** August 27, 2008, 07:51:24 AM »

Lynette, go to this page: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/acct/howto/acct_23.html Down near the bottom of that page, there's a paragraph that starts out: "To remove your entire account... and a link to click on. You'll have to sign in (if you aren't already), then it'll take you to the page where you can get rid of it. They keep trying to talk you out of it, but the actual place to "Terminate this account" is at the very bottom.

Hope that helps!

Elena · « **Reply #2 on:** August 27, 2008, 11:30:16 AM »

Lynette,
As Donna says Yahoo is very agressive about trying to keep you from getting out. Take it slow, read it carefully, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine at hand isn't a bad idea.

I was invited to join a Yahoo group recently and by reading pages and pages of small print on their so-called Privacy notice I discovered several interesting things. The major one is that they will not share your email address with anyone they don't want to. This translates to anyone who will pay them can get not only your Yahoo email address, but also any information they have collected about you.

I had the same problem with Yahoo several years ago, only when I finally got out of their hot little fists ALL the spam amazingly disappeared. Meaning? It was all being generated from within the Yahoo system!!!!!!! Dirty pool!!!!!

Lynette · « **Reply #3 on:** August 27, 2008, 03:10:05 PM »

Thanks Donna and Elena.

One more question. If I cancel my Yahoo account will it affect the yahoo groops I belong to such as Sisters in Crime, Cozy Writers and a couple of other writing groups? I really don't want to be deleted from them. Of course to get rid of the email, I'll do it and rejoin the ones I want to belong to.

Lynette

Elena · « **Reply #4 on:** August 27, 2008, 03:50:14 PM »

Lynette,
Sounds like good plans A and B. You should be ok with at least one of them. But, you might need a C - which, if you cannot get on without joining up again, email the person in the group in charge of maintenance and ask them if they will authorize you. Yahoo doesn't make it easy to join a group without playing their game, but I am on a local Sherlock Holmes list without being part of Yahoo, via that route.
Good luck,
Elena

Kathy Wendorff · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2008, 08:06:29 AM »

Lynette, can you simply "abandon" the Yahoo email account? Tell everyone you care about your current email address -- this probably includes changing the default email address for your Yahoo groups -- then ignore the Yahoo email, never check it, and let the spam pile up. Yahoo will automatically inactivate the email address after 6 months or so (I forget exactly) but keep your Yahoo account as a whole active.

I know this because I have a couple of Yahoo identities (one for groups, a couple of family ones for sharing info via Briefcase) but rarely if ever use the email portion of the accounts, and that's what happened with me.

I have always found Yahoo groups easy to use (and FREE!) and have never had any trouble with spam. I do know certain features of Yahoo groups are available only to Yahoo members. And if you do inactivate the Yahoo identity you signed up under, be sure to check with all moderators beforehand, let them know what you're doing, and get an alternate email address where you can reach them. Because once Yahoo gets bollixed up, it apparently can be a real bear to untangle.

Good luck!

Kathy W.

CathyJ · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2008, 11:26:45 AM »

I have a couple of Yahoo identities, too (one home, one work), and don't use Yahoo e-mail. You can set up a Yahoo identity to send mail to any preferred address, not just a Yahoo address (one of mine goes to an ATT address, the other one goes to an EDU address).

With the Yahoo identity, you can still sign in to Yahoo groups and have access to all the group stuff. I think you can use the Yahoo identity you already have and just edit it to use a different preferred e-mail address to send the group mail to.

Cathy J.