bump

DA, no worries. Done the procrastinating thing myself before posting then find I am behind. Always better to have multiple answers as it helps give the original poster confidence perhaps. Fruitjarfla, I am not at all sure you are gaining anything by that action - assuming you rarely view the Spam box. Homebound was placed on alert as soon as the self addressed email arrived. Your method eliminates that advantage I would think.

I was just reading all of AOL Help on " image challenging". "Why do I have to take the image challenge multiple times? If youâÂÂre prompted to retake the image challenge multiple times a day and arenâÂÂt able to send emails even after you clear your cache and cookies, you might have a more serious issue: A worm or virus might have infected your computer. First, we recommend you perform some basic computer hygiene, starting with running a virus scan. For downloads of reliable antivirus software, visit AOL Internet Security Central. If the virus scan comes back clean but you still donâÂÂt pass the image challenge, check when your antivirus software was last updated. If it hasnâÂÂt been updated within the past 29 days, try updating the software again. If youâÂÂre not able to update the software, contact your softwareâÂÂs vendor for further support. Next, we strongly recommend you reset the password for your AOL account to maintain the privacy and security of your account. A virus isnâÂÂt the only reason you might have to take multiple image challenges. If you frequently send emails to a lot of people at the same time, you might be asked to pass the image challenge more than once. ItâÂÂs also possible AOL received spam complaints from people receiving your emails. (Maybe you sent one too many pictures of cute kittens?) We encourage you to send emails only to recipients who confirmed they want to receive your emails. You can do this by asking your recipients individually and confirming he or she would like to remain on your mailing list."

Gmail is also very good at identifying possible spam and sending it to the spam folder. I think my hotmail/outlook is too but I don't use it as much. I gotten the "I've hacked your computer and your webcam and will embarrass you if you don't pay" scams too. But I have no webcam, and haven't done anything too embarrassing in the last twenty years or so anyway... so.. have at it. Delete Forever... and forget. I usually don't get much spam, possibly less since the pandemic. Maybe more OS updates though. Folks maintaining my OS seem to have more free time to code. :-)