Hotmail Hates 'American'

NewsBusters ^ | Matthew Sheffield

[RatherBiased.com]

Patriotic American users of Microsoft's Hotmail service may be surprised when trying to obtain an email address. The company does not allow new users to sign up for a user name containing the word "american."

At first glance, it seemed that Hotmail is taking precaution to limit phishing attempts which often rely on official-sounding addresses to trick recipients into paying money to people posing as governmental entities. However, my quick check showed that names with "canadian," "francais," "german," "australian," "english," and "deutsch," are all allowed. User names with "america" are permitted, however. Names with "british," are not.

It seems that American and British are the only country adjectives not allowed, even "nigerian" is considered acceptable, ironic considering the plethora of email scammers out there posing as Nigerian government officials.

Is this a case of Microsoft just being lazy and not fighting scammers in other countries, going after the most commonly used phishers, or is something more nefarious at work? (HT: FR)

For humorless lefties out there, the headline is a joke. Don't take things so seriously.

[svcw]

BS I just got an email AmericaIlove.

[shuckmaster]

I tried it and got the following message...

"The e-mail address contains a word or phrase that is not allowed. Please type another e-mail address."

[ILS21R]

Interesting. Check out this link from the Detroit News.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/OPINION01/605240307&SearchID=73245543792416

[mysterio]

Does aM3r1CaN work?

[Vaquero]

They hate these cans too!

[tje]

well, the article states that while AmericaN (with an N) doesn't work, America (without an N) does.

[Senator Bedfellow]

well, the article states that while AmericaN (with an N) doesn't work, America (without an N) does.

How about "AmericaNumberOne"? ;)

[svcw]

oops

[FerdieMurphy]

The e-mail address muslimterroristhero@hotmail.com is available

Oh boy!

[FerdieMurphy]

The e-mail address islamofascistmurderer@hotmail.com is available.

[FerdieMurphy]

americanniceguy

The e-mail address contains a word or phrase that is not allowed. Please type another e-mail address.

[FerdieMurphy]

The e-mail address billclintonsnominalwife@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address hillaryrodhamclinton@hotmail.com is not available. Please try a different address.

[FerdieMurphy]

The e-mail address goebelswasnice@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address stalinwaskind@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address ilovecommunists@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address holocaustisalie@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address eliminatealljews@hotmail.com is available.

The e-mail address killingchristiansisnice@hotmail.com is available

The e-mail address blowupamerica@hotmail.com is available.

[Centurion2000]

Boy there's a blast from the past. When was the last time you saw oil for sale like that. When was the last time you saw a gas station attendent in all whites?

[FerdieMurphy]

Wow! Michiganders need to get up in arms over this crap!

-snip-

State bureaucrats want to do what Stalin, Osama could only dream about -snip- Censoring the word "America" from our own schools is something Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden would never have thought possible. Michigan has done it without a whimper.

-snip-

The Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[svcw]

Responce from MSN Hot Mail email names:

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Passport Network Technical Support.

Before anything else, I would like to apologize for the delay in answering your e-mail. We normally respond within one business day, but we have received an unusually large number of messages recently. We appreciate your patience as we handle every customer request as quickly as possible.

This is Veronica and from what I read in your message, you are experiencing an issue registering an account that has the word "American" on the Microsoft Passport Network. I know how important it is for you to have this issue resolved and I will assist you with your concern.

The reason why you are not allowed to use your preferred e-mail name is because it contains MSN Hotmail's reserved word.

Reserved words are names that are associated to a known organization, company, represent a known people, and connote sales and marketing. To resolve your issue, I suggest that you try registering for another e-mail name that does not contain ("American").

[longtermmemmory]

ameriCAN

[Zetman]

A friend just told me about this. Matthew Sheffield picked this up from my original post here on Free Republic on 5/23/06. Very cool!! Who needs the liberal news media to spread information??

Now it has "returned home" !!

:)

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1637322/posts