what is this please "chain mail"

titewad_2

Can someone please help me out with this,My daughter keeps getting unsolicited chat on msn from strangers.She asked one of the people where they got her address from, and they told her this chain mail thing gives out all details of correspondence between whoever has been on msn.She has been getting suggestive comments and bad language from boys/men much older than her.She is eleven and I want her to be safe chatting to her mates,not some creep or pervert

kingpuck

When you say "chat" do you mean on msn messenger? Being on a mailing list is one thing but accepting and allowing them to chat on msn messenger is totally different.

If this is the case you should go through each contact and block them, that way they can't send her any more messages.

As for the mailing list, there are many ways you can end up on one of these and it's quite hard to get the address off it once your on.

If it is not too much hassle I would suggest just creating a new email address.

Darksun

Chain mails are emails you get, which encorage you to send a copy to everyone you know. Most email clients quote the email with all previous senders of the email, and all the people it's been sent to. Anyone can then harvest the list of emails for whatever purposes they like.

Read the FAQ at Break the Chain for more info.

As stated, with MSN Messenger you can block contacts, which means they can't send you messages. Usually, a box will pop up if someone tries to add your address to their list - giving you the chance to allow or block messages from. As a rule, if you don't know the address and you arn't expecting anyone to add you, choose to block them.

titewad_2

yes it's on msn,They have added her as a contact and she has accepted/allowed them to chatbefore realising it isn't who she thought..It seems that these strangers are using addresses or login's, very similar to those of her genuine friends and she's allowing because she thinks it is them.Not too sure if that comes across as clear as I meant it to.

Darksun

I think it may be worth contacting MSNs abuse team about this, explain how the people are impersonating other users and using this to harrass people.

tomstickland

Change email address. Add a 2 to the end so it's similar, for example.

kingpuck

titewad wrote:

yes it's on msn,They have added her as a contact and she has accepted/allowed them to chatbefore realising it isn't who she thought..It seems that these strangers are using addresses or login's, very similar to those of her genuine friends and she's allowing because she thinks it is them.Not too sure if that comes across as clear as I meant it to.

Block them all.

Might be best to create another hotmail address and use that as her msn login, then she can invite the specific people she chats to and no-one else and just use the other address for her emails.

albertross_2

Try running this..

http://www.grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm

It might not help if it is def msn messenger, but may stop some unsolicited messages popping up.