Did you even stop to thinkt hat maybe these are messages from those few friends who on random occasion show up to say hi? People from your past, trying to make up for lost time? People who truly care about you? People who think the best way to show how much they love you is to give you the gift of free low mortgage quotes?

"Gee, I haven't spoken with dear old Spatch in a while... I wnder what he's up to? Why, I'll bet things are going great for him these days! Big house, big car, big boat... I'll bet he'd like to know about the incredible low mortgage rates available to him! And what better way to break that layer of ice that has formed between us over the years?"

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IF THEY'RE LAUGHING TRYING TO SELL YOU A SECOND MORTGAGE, YOU DON'T NEED THEM, CAUSE THEY'RE NOT GOOD FRIENDS

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*sniff*

... So all those people I added to my contacts list? They... they're not my *real* friends?

I have no real friends :(

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come on mom, I'm not Bowser

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I have had the same problem with AOL for awhile, and unfortunately the only way to stop it that I've found is, like you said, to block all messages from anyone other than people on your buddy list.

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How about you block everyone on your list, but put as your autoresponse that if they don't think they should be blocked, to send you an e-mail at __________. Then you add 'em to your list if you know 'em.

- Dave S.

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Blocked people don't get an autoresponse, they just think you're not online; you wouldn't appear on their buddy list, and any IM they send would come back saying you weren't there.

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The other thing is that I don't wanna give 'em my email address to boot. I already get enough messages a day on my spamtrap.

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