How Do These People Get My Email Addy?!

[Über~PhLuBB]

Well, it finally happened. After a year of having DSL, and using my ISP-provided E-Mail address, I got my first piece of SPAM.

Only my friends have my E-Mail. I do not use it to register on any websites (Except EBay and Half.com, but they have explicit anti-SPAM clauses), nor do I give it to anyone I don't know.

I'm sorry to say it, but I think "they" (SPAMmers) got it from this forum. I guess I just posted it one too many times.

Any comments from the mods? This is a serious pain, because I already know what's going to happen shortly. This one SPAMmer will sell it to someone else, who will sell it to 5 clients, etc. Pretty soon, it'll end up like a Hotmail address.

What can I do? I've already made my EMail non-public, and I don't plan to just give it out unless it's in a PM or EMail to someone from the forum.

[Oni]

I don't think that they got it from here.

Say it ain't so, Skip. Say it ain't so . .

[Kingslayer]

I have been getting a ton of spam all of a sudden too. But I dont think this is the origin. Most likely its the wife, she went to radio shack and I noticed my email address on the reciept and asked her why it was there and she said they asked for it.

God I hate it when she loses her common sense like that. I have told her and told her not to do that.

[Über~PhLuBB]

I don't have a wife, and nobody but people I trust have my EMail addy.

[Yodums]

Hehe I have your addy but I don't use it as it wouldn't make any sense I don't spend my online time trying to spam other accounts.

As I don't think this forum shows your email address it only has an email client to send it to the email but you just type in your topic and body.

My dad has a ISP email and he doesn't give it to anyone eles but with his work and stuff and he gets massive spam letters could be the ISP advertisement.

Yodums

[Jon]

Provided it to any online vendors?

[Yodums]

By the way if you signup at alot of places where it says type in your email.

Then they will actually subscribe you even though they say they don't as its like impossible to find that it is related to them.

[Über~PhLuBB]

There is a way to find out. If you make a web-mail address, and only give it to one company, then if you get SPAM, you know that one company gave your EMail out.

But I'm not about to try to find out who did it, there's nothing I can do if I did find out. The addy is out there in the SPAM world now, I might as well delete it and get a new one.

[PC]

There are lots of other ways, too. Your friend may have forwarded something to you along with other people and it spread that way.

Sometimes it just happens. I have an email (I work for an ISP) that I created, never gave it out to anyone, just as experiment, and I got SPAM after about 2 weeks. Started as one, then multiplied (probably didn't get a failure notice, so kept it as a good email addy).

I wonder if you could reply with a Mailer Daemon email and have it fool the SPAMbot into thinking it was a bad email addy.

Anyways, try spamcop.com to help remove the world of SPAM!

[KrzyPrk]

Originally posted by Über~PhLuBB
Well, it finally happened. After a year of having DSL, and using my ISP-provided E-Mail address, I got my first piece of SPAM.

Only my friends have my E-Mail. I do not use it to register on any websites (Except EBay and Half.com, but they have explicit anti-SPAM clauses), nor do I give it to anyone I don't know.

It could be that one of your friends added your e-mail addy to some website asking for a list of e-mail addys when registering or something.

[KrzyPrk]

oops..didnt read it thoroughly bout "but they have explicit anti-SPAM clauses)"

[Diggrr]

It's in your cookies file man. Any web site you visit can get it. And with the sagging economy, they think the answer is to hit more people more aggressively. Even a banner ad on someones site can remotely retrieve a cookie....the kind that rotate sponsors everytime you refresh.

I'm actually thinking about having my ISP drop my e-mail for a month till I come off these idiots' lists. I get 10-15 a day. I've had the same address for 8 years now and would hate to have to change it.

If only Windoze were smart enough to let me edit that cookie.dat file like win 95 did (or the first win98), but Billy doesn't want you to change it.

[stompah]

Originally posted by Diggrr
.

I'm actually thinking about having my ISP drop my e-mail for a month till I come off these idiots' lists. I get 10-15 a day. I've had the same address for 8 years now and would hate to have to change it.


That didnt work for one of my AOL accounts. Although I just put it on hiatus. Maybe I should leave it there till AOL drops it and then re-register it.