useless ads

Can you elaborate? Are these emails from ATT?  What's the context here (especially "Check your private messages")?

If email you can try to block email address in the webmail by using address blocking or filter settings.  Or maybe repeated flagging them as "spam" will train the spam filters.

All the notes were from ATT. Some were offering to fix problems, some were odd "Hello, how are you" from whom? ATT some e-note I guess. Some were just flat ads for more equipment or programming updates. Either way, I'm in my 70's and busy online for things I want to do, not to browse around and fill up the day. I'm hoping you'll chuckle and not reply. At the moment, since all this was a few weeks ago, I haven't received anything lately. It's my curmudgeon side expressing itself.

It sounds like spam or phishing emails.  Look at the From address.  Is it a .edu or something other than att.net?  If so it not ATT.  If they continue the only thing I could suggest is to set up a email filter.

Assuming you are using the webmail, mouse over the gear in the upper right, click Settings in the drop down menu, and then when the Settings pane appears click Filters.  In that you can define what to look for in an email and what mail box to move it too if it's a match.  For example move it to the trash.

Alternatively every time you receive one of these emails mark it as spam from the toolbar and hope that, in time, the spam filters will get trained to recognize it as spam.