Spam E-Mail Storage...

[Fozzer]

Here's a quick question for you, Chums...

Our E-Mail messages, the proper ones, and all the zillions of Spam ones (many Mega-Bytes) in the Junk Folder....

Where are they actually stored before/after we log-on, examine the Folders, and carry out the necessary operations....

....On our E-Mail Providers Computer....or our own computer?

I always make a point of deleting all my Spam Mail regularly (every three minutes!) for fear it may be clogging up my Mail Providers Hard Drive... ...!

Am I wasting my time?... ...!

F.....always wanting to be nice to my Mail Provider... ... ...!

[Hagar]

I suppose it would depend on your ISP & which sort of E-mail account you have.  I don't know much about this sort of thing but I imagine the messages cannot be stored on your computer until you open them. With online mailboxes like Hotmail & Yahoo I think everything is stored at the ISP end unless you save it to your HD.

I don't use Outlook Express & don't think I have a Junk folder. I rarely get any spam at all these days. If the odd one gets through it's easy enough to recognise & I always delete it immediately without opening it.

PS. I do have a Spam folder. It had 11 unopened messages in it. I promptly deleted them.

[Fozzer]

My E-Mail arrives in my Firefox Browser via Orange E-Mail Service.

I wondered if we don't open/delete our E-Mail regularly and process it, it would gradually fill up our Mail Servers Hard Drive over time, unless, of course, it is automatically deleted by them every Month/Year/Decade/Century... .... ....!

Why do I worry about such things?... .... ....!

F.... ...!

[Hagar]

My E-Mail arrives in my Firefox Browser via Orange E-Mail Service.

I wondered if we don't open/delete our E-Mail regularly and process it, it would gradually fill up our Mail Servers Hard Drive over time, unless, of course, it is automatically deleted by them every Month/Year/Decade/Century... .... ....!

If you access it from your Firefox browser I suspect it's a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail. These usually have an allowance of so many e-mails in a given period. Once you reach the limit you have to delete existing messages before you can receive any more. In my experience this type of mailbox seems very susceptible to spam.

Why do I worry about such things?... .... ....!

I have no idea.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

They are likely stored on your E-Mail sevices' servers (Hotmail,Yahoo, Google, etc.). They are cached, I believe, so you don't actually load them to your HDD. You access them via your encrypted account. That account can be accessed by pretty much any browser, with you supplying the proper credentials of course.