I have had an awesome day. Many blessings from God.
Google gmail strikes again.
As they say "the straw that broke the camels back."
I tried to read my gmail messages.
They did not send a message or send a reset link to my phone.
They asked me to pick one of 3 (2 digit) numbers.
I had no "firetrucking" clue as to what they were asking for.
So I will now try to figure out all the people and businesses I gave my gmail address to.
And then give them my yahoo address.
Have a great evening.
Andy
I gave up on Yahoo due to the amount of spam. I found a security email out of Belgium called mailfence. I do not get spam. Love it.
I agree with you, gmail is a horrible email service, but you have to have an account if you have an android phone.
Thanks for the info, Jim!
Is that a "free" service like Gmail?
... or is a fee payment required?
Yes it is free to a point, 500 MB of emails and 500 MB of documents are free.
You have to sign into the site with your browser. If you want to use an mail client like Thunderbird or Evolution you have to pay, so it is limited unless you pay. It might not be for everyone depending how much you use email, but it works well for me. I don't get any spam on it. My email needs are small.
Cryptography is done by your browser. You are protected by Belgian law. No third-party access to your data.
Another one like that is Proton. Proton mail also gives you 1 gig of Cloud storage for free which I do use. You can also share files from there like Dropbox. They also give you an alias you can use if you need to do a one time sign-in on a site but have to put in your email address to access it. That one is out of Switzerland and they have way better privacy laws than most countries.
$0.00 /month No credit card required
Proton uses open source, independently audited end-to-end encryption and zero-access encryption to secure your emails. This protects against data breaches and ensures no one (not even Proton) can access your inbox. Only you can read your messages.
Proton is incorporated and headquartered in Switzerland. This means all your data is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws and Swiss neutrality.
If it interests you, From Reddit:
Totally depends. I have over 1500 mails stored, which use around 110 MB.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/ybf6sj/how_far_does_500_mb_actually_get_you/
Thank you very much, again, for that!
I really don't like leaving my personal stuff in the Cloud, preferring to keep it on my desktop with my Thunderbird (current client).
Have you come across an alternative to Mailfence that would allow IMAP/POP3 (preferrably POP3) ?
------ edit ------
Got my own answer: Proton does support IMAP /SMTP but not POP3, directly, according to this page. Looks promising!
Thanks for all the details. 
I agree with you on not keeping personal stuff on the Cloud, but I like it for file sharing. I also like the email alias.
I use Thunderbird in combination with Yahoo Mail and GMail. I do not have to pay for anything. Ok, I do not send / receive a lot of mails.
And I have local folders where I move the mails received / sent from these accounts => meaning, my Yahoo Mail / GMail accounts are kept almost empty, all the time.
You have to configure Thunderbird to use OAuth2 for Yahoo Mail / GMail.
Pn both gmail and Yahoo is was plagued by spam.
You are right. I made a purchase using my debit card.
The vendor knows your phone number and email address because banks share it without asking permission.
It kinda ticks me off.
How do you feel?
Andy