and I feel if I do nothing then I'm as wrong as the person posting it I agree and feel the same way. not sure if it's a prank spam or a virus spam or if it's someone being so stupid as to advertise illegal things on the net on a public site. I'm sure it is spam, and most all spammers are so stupid that they actually think that they are smart. Sadly, I've met a few people like that in real life too. Anywho, I see reporting spam or bad abuse on the any forums as something that we 'regulars' can all help with. Nobody likes spam trashing up their favorite forums. To report spam, just go to the bottom of any GW page and click on the Contact Us link found in the green bar. From the dropdown box choose Abuse or Violation. Then make your report. It is very helpful to GW if you tell them the offending member's name and also provide a copy of the URL for the offending post. It just takes a moment, and often a spammer has spammed several forums, so by reporting it, GW can clean up the other spams made by the same spammer. btw...I reported the spammer you are speaking of. I came across a spam of hers on another forum. A quick search of her name, shows she has spammed 3 forums so far, and if not stopped could spam a lot more of them. Sue...who has likely had too much coffee.

IF you don't use it I would totally disable the features for it in your windows live. I don't use the IM features or any of that stuff in my hotmail so it is all disabled and I do not take any requests period.

That's the whole point, not too many 86 y.o. are going to be able to handle the tech demands of a computer. Browsing the internet is no great thing anyway, unless you have a specific goal. I worked in a CCRC (continuing care retirement community) for 3 years, so I speak from not only personal, but professional experience. My father, an engineer (from Northeastern, not MIT), wanted to learn how to use a computer very much, and we tried setting him up several times, but even in his early 80's it was just too much for him. He had all his faculties up until his death at 91, it was just something that didn't make sense to him in some basic way, and he never could use one. For most elderly moms/dads or grandmothers/grandfathers who have never used a computer before, this would be ideal. All they really want to do is read letters and see family pictures. Since few of us send snail mail any more, this would allow them to stay in touch with children and grandchildren who are computer literate (that's us!) My kids would have loved to stay in touch with their grandfather with something like this, and I think he would have liked it too, having something in his hand to read and read again. He would have been able to carry them around the CCRC and show them to his friends, especially the pictures. I have coworkers, much younger than me, who, despite many attempts, still can't figure out how to reply to email, much less send one, and they use a computer every day. Think about how daunting it can be to learn some new technology, and imagine if you are 86 years old and trying to do it.

The only way Chili's has your addresses is if you (or someone) gave them to them. If it's a legitimate Chili's email you're perfectly safe to use their unsubscribe link. But I'm not sure it's actually coming from Chili's from the limited description given. Hijacked address lists and such are usually from people who refuse to secure their computers and it makes it tougher for everyone else. This is why I quit using any email account but the freebie webmails (unless of course for work accounts). Then it's a simple matter to close it and set up a new one when people expose me to the hassles. Computers, like cars and, well, people for that matter, require some basic maintenance and protection. Spammers are getting creative and make things look legitimate and people get fooled easily, which the scammers and spammers count on to profit. People buy or just plain send money to them. It's profitable, which is why they do it. If nobody sent them money, they wouldn't bother. Plus when people forward everything, they're asking for trouble. They give a list of addresses without using bcc and not only expose themselves but everyone in the list. Then a bunch of those people hit the forward button too, refuse to use bcc and expose that many more, and so on and so on. The forward button is the cause of a lot of problems for a lot of people. I seldom even open forwarded emails, especially from certain people. Some are only sending dumb jokes I've heard before, "warnings" that are hoaxes and political rhetoric and false anyway or are silly chain emails purporting that if you love God, you'll spam everyone you know plus 100 people.... If people can't take ten seconds to set up a new email, bcc it and clean off the extraneous characters they're rude and inconsiderate and I don't care to try to decipher the email >>>>>though ::>>:all >>>the >>>>>garbage. Are you running a good firewall? Have you run antivirus *and* anti-malware programs lately? Secured your browser? Now's a good time to do it if you haven't. Most will run in the background and many can be set up to run automatically so effort is minimal.