concerned about privacy on our forum junk mail

[philanddeb818]

I really do not spend much time on Internet with exception of this forum and our sponsors. Since I have been here, I have been receiving 20 odd junk mails daily, selling everything from Christian dating, weight loss programs, false lottery wins, Oprah Winfrey information, ebay success, on-line education, and personal addressed loan office for mortgage and more.

I am concerned that our forum is being watched by marketing firms. Has anyone else been having this sort of spam?

Yours truly,

Phil and Deb

 

[coultrain]

no i have not got a spam of any thing like that here, on my email adress i have gotten some but not on this forum.

 

[Syn]

I've gotten a lot of lottery stuff lately. Turn your email to private if possible.

 

[laurie]

So far they seemed to have missed me

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

That has nothing to do with this forum.

 

[philanddeb818]

That has nothing to do with this forum.

Introductions and off topic subjects? Nope, I posted in the right place. Thanks.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Introductions and off topic subjects? Nope, I posted in the right place. Thanks.

THE JUNK MAIL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS FORUM!!!!!.... Thats what I meant.

I never said it was posted in the wrong place. I have been here for quite awhile and have never received any junk mail .

 

[chambabysitter1]

Public email's dont seem to be readily available unless you post them publicly.

Junk mail gets sent out a ton of ways these days. Have you:

1. Bought anything off the internet?

2. Registered for a website?

3. Haven't done a proper malware scan?

4. Been in a chain email (those stupid coworker forwards)

There are literally tons of way to get your email sent out, and only mods seem to have direct visual access to registered email accounts.
If you don't spend much time on the internet or computer, the lack of experience could easily lead you astray.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I receive no junk mail as a result of participating on this forum.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Public email's dont seem to be readily available unless you post them publicly.

Junk mail gets sent out a ton of ways these days. Have you:

1. Bought anything off the internet?

2. Registered for a website?

3. Haven't done a proper malware scan?

There are literally tons of way to get your email sent out, and only mods seem to have direct visual access to registered email accounts.

You did a much better job of explaining than I did. Very helpful as usual.

 

[chambabysitter1]

You did a much better job of explaining than I did. Very helpful as usual.

Thanks, I may not have much chameleon experience, but computer nerd for life, right here.

On the more detailed note, phil if you ever write down your email address on a public forum or in an email, it's a good idea to put spacers or periods in it.
So instead of [email protected] it would be, phil.AT.chameleonisland.DOT.gov, or [email protected]

Obviously if you register with an email like this, it will not work. But spiders (internet robots, no joke) crawl the internet for email addresses, and just add them to their lists. They find them by formatting, so as long as something is ___@___.com, the robot knows to steal it.

This is just one of a huge amount of ways your email ends up in a junk email list. It happens to us all, junk mail. It is pretty much apart of the internet age at this point, all you can do is use a good filter.

 

[Ryan Jarosek]

Thanks, I may not have much chameleon experience, but computer nerd for life, right here.

I am a computer nerd as well. I'm a Security Engineer and have to deal with this type of stuff on a regular basis. Good to know who the other nerds are. Especially SBCK nerds.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Other Possibility.....

There is another possibility. Someone who has you in their email contact list could have had their computer hijacked. This happens a lot. The hijacked contact list is used to send spam emails to everyone on the list. Crooks use this method to gain valid email addresses for their spam. The spam, looking like it is coming from various sources, is used to lure people into buying something and using a credit card, etc. It used to be that about 10 spammers where responsible for the majority of the spam emails out there. Not sure if this is still true. But you get the idea. Your increased spam could be due to something that happened to a friend and have nothing to do with anything you actually did.

 

[Pure]

Phil set up an email account that is to be used for nothing other than registering on websites ect. Just any time you have to give out an email addy to any one other than a friend use this account.

I have one that recieves about 2000 spam messages a day. The account is almost as old as the internet. LOL. I just log in once a month to keep it active.

 

[philanddeb818]

THE JUNK MAIL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS FORUM!!!!!.... Thats what I meant.

I never said it was posted in the wrong place. I have been here for quite awhile and have never received any junk mail .

Thank you!!!! Sorry I missread your post!!!!!

 

[philanddeb818]

There is another possibility. Someone who has you in their email contact list could have had their computer hijacked. This happens a lot. The hijacked contact list is used to send spam emails to everyone on the list. Crooks use this method to gain valid email addresses for their spam. The spam, looking like it is coming from various sources, is used to lure people into buying something and using a credit card, etc. It used to be that about 10 spammers where responsible for the majority of the spam emails out there. Not sure if this is still true. But you get the idea. Your increased spam could be due to something that happened to a friend and have nothing to do with anything you actually did.

INTERESTING! Thanks for your thoughts. You could well be right! It's odd, we send it to junk and the next day I get more with a whole new variety of spam.

Cheers and thanks