Ira and everyone, thanks for the reassurance that I didn't unwittingly expose my good friend to spam!

I think we all agree that my friend would not be exposed to spam fronm visiting this website. But is it at all possible that her email address would be given to travel companies or others if she registers with Fodors? Just checking before I send this info to her.

There has been a definate increase in the amount of spam recently - my web account automatically dumps 99% of it in a junk mail folder - I used to get up to 30 a day and recently that has increased to around 100. A techie friend said he'd read an article saying that it was due to "Russion bot herders" - the mind boggles...

I know, Degas but I still want high-speed.

I've heard that another way to get a lot of spam is that the free greeting card sites sell the addresses. Don't know if this is true or not but it makes sense.

I checked the privacy agreement for Fodor's and discovered that my friend may have been deluged with spam because she inadvertently opted-in to receive unsolicited email:

"Fodors.com provides its users the opportunity to receive promotional information from it, its parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as third party vendors. Such vendors include businesses offering special travel services and discounts. In such instances, Fodor's will always provide an opt-in function when users submit personally identifiable information for such site activities as bulletin boards, newsletters, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, etc. You will not receive unsolicited emails from us or from third parties unless you specifically give us permission to do so via the opt-in function. You can tell us not to share this information at any time by clicking here."

Hi M,

>because she inadvertently opted-in to receive unsolicited emaillt;

That's why you are supposed to read the contract before signing it.

I never use my regular e-mail address to subscribe to websites or forums. I have a junk mail address for that - and I only ever log into that account if I need to click on a link to activate an account. That way I seem to avoid lots of spam.

cailin, thanks! I really like your idea. I'll suggest it to my friend and I think I'll even start doing this myself.

I post my e-mail address only on Fodor's (it's a secondary address) and immediately started receiving junk mail. My regular address, which is not posted on any public site, has not received any junk mail since I started using it 6 months ago.

>I post my e-mail address only on Fodor's...<

If you post your address on any forum it will start getting spam. It needs only one person to spot it.

Well yes, you DO need to check the "no thanks no spam" box when you sign up at various websites. The fault is your friend's, not Fodors.

And if you choose to show an email address, anyone can grab it. Can't blame Fodors for that either.

Yes, Ido get a lot of spam. No, I do not want to enlarge anything except my income...

What is considered ' a lot of SPAM' or junk emails?
Like Ira, I too have things like Norton, SpyDoctor, AVG, & Symantec.
My bulk folder receives anything between 5-20 emails a day and around 3-6 spam emails get through.

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty sure that my friend's increase in spam was because she inadvertently authorized it, not simply for visiting Fodors. Sometimes you click to authorize third party email and sometimes you click not to so it was an honest mistake. No need for any more comments. Just let this sink now, please.

Moolyn,

Do you really think that by asking us to "let it sink" taht it will?

I've had my business email address posted on my web site for 11 years and never received a single spam. It's cloaked by being encrypted in a Javascript applet. Spambots can't see it, but people can.

I think the idea that there are people manually scanning the web for addresses is nonsense.

And just exactly why are junk Emails named after a fine, tasty product (little tabasco, served with eggs and rice...100% Moke, mon) from those good folks at Hormel?

Jeffrey, I love Spam, I love eggs, I love rice and I love Tabasco sauce. Thanks for the great idea..from Hawaii I assume although never had that exact dish when I have been there. I will fix that one morning.

"What is dial up? Do they live in lower Romania? Fork over a few more bucks and get cable. If I can do it, anybody can."

This is pure technical imperialism, not all the world lives in areas where cable and/or DSL is available, not just in lower Romania, wherever that is, but in many rural areas so called first world countries and most of the developing world. So please spare a though for all us us who like to love in beautiful places but there is too low a population density to justify broadband commercially.

Spam is a major problem of the internet, since I stopped subscribing to an expensive anti-spam SW, my spam input is huge, but mostly its so easy to tell which mail is spam and hit delete en masse, so I can't say whether Fodors is responsible for leaks or not. However I have moticed about a month ago a huge resurgence of Spam, maybe there is new spamming sofware out there. Too bad you can't just put it in yor fireplace like junk mail. I would like to put spammers in the fireplace too.

Degas was just kidding about the dial-up.

After being beseiged by hundreds of complaints from angry residents of Lower Romania, I retract my statement about getting cable. Gee, who would have known they could read and write?