I am receiving spam due to my Fodor's mail address
May 12th, 2005, 07:07 AM
#1
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I am receiving spam due to my Fodor's mail address
The mail address that appears after my name is used exclusively on this site, and I am now receiving invitations from Nigerian "refugees" and Zimbabwean (sp?) farmers who have thousands of dollars to place in U.S. banks, or some such story. I am posting this in case you're wondering where such people might have found your address.
May 12th, 2005, 07:22 AM
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Spam is not necessarily being generated because you post on Fodors...it is because you have made your email address public on a web site.
Web spiders/crawlers are used by email marketing people to search for email addresses .
If spam is a problem for you, do NOT publish your email address on ANY internet site.
Web spiders/crawlers are used by email marketing people to search for email addresses .
If spam is a problem for you, do NOT publish your email address on ANY internet site.
May 12th, 2005, 07:45 AM
#4
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If you want to make your email available on a specific post, you can code it: jmkATmailDOTcopperDOTnet. From what I understand the web spiders don't recognize just plain text as an address--they're looking for the @s and the .s.
May 12th, 2005, 07:56 AM
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There are three ways you could now be the target of such spam... and posting your e-maila ddress is only one of them...
Have you EVER sent or received even one single piece of e-mail from this address? (and if the answer is no, then why does it matter that spam is now going into this e-mail box). If you have, then your e-mail address could be harvested from the e-mail ("files"
of any other person who ever sent to you... or received from you... an e-mail message.
And even an e-mail account that is NEVER used can be "harvested" if the "issuer" (in this case, the ISP, I assume) does not have the latest security on the mail server where your account resides.
But last of all... didn't you clarify, some months ago, that your name and address can NOT be considered to have appeared "exclusively on this site"?
From http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34551905
Author: Michael ([email protected])
Date: 01/12/2005, 01:03 pm
I just googled my address, which I had inadvertently used in Chowhound. It comes up. So Fodors is not the problem.
Best wishes,
Rex
Have you EVER sent or received even one single piece of e-mail from this address? (and if the answer is no, then why does it matter that spam is now going into this e-mail box). If you have, then your e-mail address could be harvested from the e-mail ("files"
of any other person who ever sent to you... or received from you... an e-mail message.And even an e-mail account that is NEVER used can be "harvested" if the "issuer" (in this case, the ISP, I assume) does not have the latest security on the mail server where your account resides.
But last of all... didn't you clarify, some months ago, that your name and address can NOT be considered to have appeared "exclusively on this site"?
From http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34551905
Author: Michael ([email protected])
Date: 01/12/2005, 01:03 pm
I just googled my address, which I had inadvertently used in Chowhound. It comes up. So Fodors is not the problem.
Best wishes,
Rex
May 12th, 2005, 07:58 AM
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Follow-up to Jocelyn... once your address has EVER appeared in pulbic.. or once you have ever received ANY spam at a given e-mail address, I don't think that "camouflaging" techniques do any good. Once any of "them" have it, it's just a matter of time until ALL of "them" have it.
May 12th, 2005, 08:05 AM
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Shame on Fodor's web team for exposing our e-mail addresses.
There is no reason why an e-mail address (such as the ones in our Author: lines) should be visible to spambots. Unless a page is part of a chain of hyperlinks (HREFs) that begins with the server's IP address, it simply doesn't exist for all intents and purposes.
For example: if I have a file called <b>foo.bar</b> in my IIS root directory (<i>i.e.</i> c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo.bar), that file is <u>invisible</u> to robots unless there is an HREF link to it somewhere on the web. Fodor's could easily index the forum threads with data structures that don't build these chains.
If Fodor's content conformed to this simple rule, our addresses would be available to one another, but not to spammers. Unless, of course, they hired someone to go through web content manually looking for e-mail addresses. But that's not economically feasible.
At the VERY least, they shouldn't publish a MAILTO tag, which is what even the most unsophisticated spiders look for. Smarter ones look for @ and , and some of them even look for <b>at</b> and <b>dotcom</b> and the like, so even disguising addresses that way isn't really safe.
There is no reason why an e-mail address (such as the ones in our Author: lines) should be visible to spambots. Unless a page is part of a chain of hyperlinks (HREFs) that begins with the server's IP address, it simply doesn't exist for all intents and purposes.
For example: if I have a file called <b>foo.bar</b> in my IIS root directory (<i>i.e.</i> c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo.bar), that file is <u>invisible</u> to robots unless there is an HREF link to it somewhere on the web. Fodor's could easily index the forum threads with data structures that don't build these chains.
If Fodor's content conformed to this simple rule, our addresses would be available to one another, but not to spammers. Unless, of course, they hired someone to go through web content manually looking for e-mail addresses. But that's not economically feasible.
At the VERY least, they shouldn't publish a MAILTO tag, which is what even the most unsophisticated spiders look for. Smarter ones look for @ and , and some of them even look for <b>at</b> and <b>dotcom</b> and the like, so even disguising addresses that way isn't really safe.
May 12th, 2005, 08:12 AM
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The only "problem" with this "problem" seems to be that Fodors apparently doesn't <b> warn you </b> when it says you can post your e-mail address if you want to that such posting(s) may lead to the spam, etc.
And no amount of "apologizing" on behalf of Fodors is going to rectify that.
And no amount of "apologizing" on behalf of Fodors is going to rectify that.
May 12th, 2005, 08:36 AM
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I don't get much spam at all. I think it's because of all the firewall and blockers etc. If I DO get spam it goes to my junk mail box and I never open anything in that mail box. Anything that is not listed in my address book goes to my junk mail folder. Having said that, I try to be as careful as I can because these days there is just NO guarantee that you can keep everything out of your computer. I frequently get attachments from my neice and nephew..sending me some joke or another..I never open them. Maybe you can get some other type of security program that will help block some of these things. I also have never seen the ads on my Foder's page that many were complaining about a couple of weeks ago.
May 12th, 2005, 08:56 AM
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http://www.fodors.com/about/privacy/
I get plenty of spam on hotmail, it all goes to the Junk Mailbox so it doesn't bother me too much.
You can also google your screen name and find it on the internet, so as others say, you cannot post your email address anywhere and feel secure..
I get plenty of spam on hotmail, it all goes to the Junk Mailbox so it doesn't bother me too much.
You can also google your screen name and find it on the internet, so as others say, you cannot post your email address anywhere and feel secure..
May 12th, 2005, 10:20 AM
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The problem with "friends and family" is that no one seems to know how to cloak e-mail addresses in a broadcast. So you get a joke from your Uncle Frank that has 45 addresses in the CC: field, and he got it from Cousin Stuart, who put 38 addresses in the CC: field, and so on and on. If just one person forwards the joke to a spammer, everyone whose address is in the body of the message will get harvested.
The solution is to exhort your friends and family to put broadcast addresses in the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field. The mail still goes through, but the addressees don't know who else got it.
This is Internet 101, signing off.
The solution is to exhort your friends and family to put broadcast addresses in the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field. The mail still goes through, but the addressees don't know who else got it.
This is Internet 101, signing off.
May 12th, 2005, 12:07 PM
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I've always wished some hacker would write a diabolical virus that would go into my friends' and acquantances' computers who send me all those stupid group emails (jokes, etc) and remove my email address from their address books!
May 12th, 2005, 01:22 PM
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I have never had my e-mail posted on Fodors but I get about 5 spams a day.
I agree with Robespierre. When people send me emails that they have sent to others and everyones email address is shown I get very very irritated. I have gently suggested to people to use the BCC, it seems like such a simple and considerate thing to do. I don't seem to make much of an impression though as it constantly happens. Guess I have been to "gentle" with my requests, LOL.
I agree with Robespierre. When people send me emails that they have sent to others and everyones email address is shown I get very very irritated. I have gently suggested to people to use the BCC, it seems like such a simple and considerate thing to do. I don't seem to make much of an impression though as it constantly happens. Guess I have been to "gentle" with my requests, LOL.
