InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[EconEli]

Jim, it might not be someone who hates you. In fact,

most virus programs are sent by friends who have you on their email list -- when they get infected, the virus will often be the type that will self-replicate and send itself to people on that persons email list. The more people who have you as a friend, the more likely you are to have a virus passed on to you. The best way to handle this is to scan every email that has an attachment, and run a system check for viruses once per week.

As for sex links, any time you sign up to a public for-fee service like this expect your porn-mail to increase exponentially. Porn sites pay people to troll these types of places -- after all, you are Internet savvy and willing to pay for access to a "hobby" site: in short, the perfect candidate for porn. The best way to handle this is to just delete the mail without reading it (or if you have AOL press the "block and delete" (or whatever it is called) button which permanently filters that sender).

Of course there is always the darker possibility -- many for-fee sites have been known to give out their member-list for what Internet sites always are in need of: cold hard cash. They have even been known to do it when their official policy is that they won't.