If you are a Yahoo! Mail user, you might have noticed some Yahoo! Messenger add requests in your account. They appears right after you sign in. Yes, some of them may be genuine instant messaging (IM) add requests from friends or relatives. But majority of them are spam or unwanted requests from unknown users. Right? A typical IM spam message looks like this: “Hi! Please add me to your Yahoo! Messenger contact list so we can chat. Thanks!” Occasional spam messages are ignorable but too many of them are really annoying. Right? Want to get rid of those unwanted Yahoo Messenger add requests? Read on to find out how.
So, you want to remove IM’s from stupid spammers? The temporary and easy solution is to ‘Decline‘ a request manually. You can do so by selecting the Decline link in the message box. Once you press that link, a pop-up window will appear with an option to block all future chat messages from that user. Select that option (default) and press the Decline button. That user will be added to your Blocked Senders list. Close the confirmation info window. That’s it.
But repeating same process for too many spam instant messages is really annoying. So, I used the permanent solution. If you want to do the same, simply follow these steps:
- Go to Options link on the top left corner of your Yahoo! Mail account area.
- Select Messenger Options from the drop-down menu.
- The Messenger Options panel will appear. Go to Privacy section.
- There are two option. Select the first option which states “Block all users not in my contact list”.
- Press the OK button.
That’s it. From now on, users not on your Contact list will not be able to send you any instant messages. So, say goodbye to unwanted or spam Yahoo Messenger add requests.
But there is a catch here! In order to modify the above settings, you may need to use the new Yahoo! Mail. The Yahoo! Mail Classic version don’t have Messenger Options. If you are a Classic Mail user (like me), you need to temporarily upgrade to the New version. Once you have modified the settings, you can switch back to classic version. For that you can refer my earlier article on switching back to Yahoo! Mail classic.
annon on 18th Nov, 12 01:11am #
Thank you for sharing the way to block all. I will get many LIFE moments back not having to click that away everytime I log into email! And no more aggravation watching the Add Requests tab blink incessantly! Muchas Gracias!
Unhappy Yahoo user on 7th Jan, 13 02:01am #
Sorry but this is wrong, it does not work!!!
Sure, you can block spammers sending you messages. But you can’t block them from trying to add you!
So you still have to waste time declining the spammers add-contact request. You have to do this every single time a spammer adds you, which is often a couple of times a day in my experience.
I can’t believe after all these years Yahoo have still not bothered fixing this! I am a Yahoo Mail user, I don’t use Messenger. So why won’t they give me an option where I can block ANYBODY from attempting to add me?
Or at least block anybody who is not already in my contact list.
It’s madness they have not sorted this out yet.
Unhappy Yahoo user on 7th Jan, 13 03:01am #
You can see a lot of other people having the problem here:
http://help.yahoo.com/communities/index?page=forums&topic=21cddf40ffa54d0793dfdc0dc6a1effc
Sandy Official Reply on 7th Jan, 13 07:01am #
Thanks for your input. I wrote this article after using the settings myself. I haven’t received a single spam since the change!