Seems I wrote too soon.
It was exactly one year ago that I wrote about junk mail. In that column I noted that although spam was running rampant on e-mail addresses with .com and .org suffixes, those of us with .co.il or .org.il suffixes seemed blessedly free of that same spam. It didn't, however, take long for that to change. I now filter spam out of my inbox before downloading it - often as much as twenty messages a day. I'm offered free trips around the world, a free cell phone, lots of money, an opportunity to earn an online degree, and numerous ointments that should make viagra seem tame. I've also gotten more than my fair share of versions of the Nigerian sting scam.
During my three days without e-mail, half of the messages that accumulated on the server, waiting for me to download them, were total spam. About fifteen more were messages that not only could wait, but didn't merit more than a quick perusal. That left about ten that might accurately be considered important, and only about two of those were messages that it would have been desirable for me to have dealt with when they arrived. Though I often remark that I can't live without my e-mail, these three days weren't a case in point.
Go to: 72 hours offline.