How to stop offensive family emails?

Question

A close relative of mine has very strong political views. She routinely forwards me politically-charged emails that contain racist, paranoid, hateful propaganda. I'd love to just tell her not to send these notes, but I am certain being this direct would irreparably damage our already tenuous relationship. I know I should be able to just delete or filter these notes so certain words send these messages to my junk file. But a part of me feels like even accepting this crap without comment is agreeing with the sentiment. I admit these notes really bother me because I never knew she was so narrow-minded and hateful toward others. It makes me sad for her. I just want her to quit sending these forwards. Any suggestions? I'd love if there was a program that would just filter certain words and send the email back to her saying "this recipient doesn't accept emails containing profanity or demagoguery". That way I could get the point across, but blame my spam-ware!

Answer 1

Get an Auto Bot that you can flood her email ...

When you get one from her set up the autobot to take that email and send her 1000 copies of the very email she sent to you.



After a short while she'll leave you alone and move on to another.... or you could always try to infect her computer with a virus ... email virus....



Oh, and don't forget ... family rarely listen they just think they can get away with anything... so you might have to just grab a new email and not let her know....."Kill This One "

Answer 2

Hey Sophie. As u stated, "...accepting this crap w/o comment is agreeing w/the sentiment." If u don't TELL her how u feel, she will feel like u r agreeing w/her. I realize she's a relative & u don't want 2 irreparably damage yor relationship but what type of relationship do u really have if u can't express that her comments r offensive 2 u? U have every right 2 let ppl kno what u will & will NOT accept. Being a relative gives no 1 the right 2 spew hate & infect yor life (or inbox) w/their small minded views. A program sending the email back stating, "...doesn't accept emails containing profanity..." would only make her think that yor job or some new program simply doesn't allow her emails 2 go through. She would relate this 2 the program & not 2 u--UNLESS u TELL her! U could block her emails altogether & when she questions what happened, u can tell her how she makes u feel. Maybe yor telling her & letting her know that her racist, hateful views r offensive 2 u will help 2 open her eyes on how small minded she really is. Don't just feel sad 4 her (tho I can imagine how sad it is having a close relative w/these negative views), DO SOMETHING. Tell her it's wrong & u want NO part of it. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

I was really interested to read what others have to say in this matter since I have a similar situation that I haven't been able to resolve completely. Thankfully, it's not in laws who are causing me grief but it is a very good friend. I've worked into past conversations that chain emails and "humor" have no appeal to me (but didn't name him as an offending party). Thought he'd get the hint but he didn't. I tried the "I love to get personal messages from you, but please don't FWD me things - they hog up too much space at my mail account" and he STILL persisted. Finally, I was reduced to telling a lie. Because he is not tech savvy at all, I was able to bluff and say I'd been having weird glitches with my email account that I thought were started by someone who got my address off a long FWD header. As a consequence, I continued, I have set up filters so that any FWD message goes to spam and is deleted instantly. That worked somewhat, though I do still get messages that were clearly once a mass FWD but are now sent to me cut & pasted into a new email. Is there no way to stop these people? The emails aren't usually offensive in content, but I never find them funny or have interest in the subject. And they almost always include some enormous attachment. I really have considered telling him that I no longer have a home computer & that he can't send me such things at work because my emails there are monitored. (Sorry to not really answer the question you asked, but I wanted to give my experience & see if others had a fool proof solution.)

Answer 4

Grow a pair and just tell her