Span e-mail after posting?
 

I love this website and read and post on it regularly. It was a great help in planning our trip to Europe and I like to share what I can as well as plan for future trips.<BR><BR>However, it seems after I post, I get a lot of span in the way or either investment notices or ponography on my e-mail. I like to use my own e-mail address for many people have contacted me with quesitons, but hesitate doing so because of the span I seem to get as well.<BR><BR>Has anyone else been having this problem?<BR>I guess this is why some of us don't post our real e-mail addresses, though I'd like to. Although I just block the span out before opening, it still is somewhat annoying to think that people would abuse this great website.<BR><BR>Anyone else have this happen? Just curious.<BR><BR>

I have been posting here for a couple of years and never got any spam. But I have been blasted with the same sort of spam as you (no, I do not want to "add 3 inches..." or nudeteenagegirls), in addition to mortgage stuff, ever since I explored mortgage refinancing on the net. I suspect they are all related. Is it possible this spam is resulting from other net surfing you have done in investing, for example?

The place to post this correction is here on THIS posting. Not start a new one.<BR><BR>====================================== <BR><BR>I meant SPAM, not span....<BR> <BR>Author: Curious ([email protected])<BR>Date: 07/31/2002, 02:04 pm<BR>Message: (Need another cup of coffee!)<BR> <BR>

I guess there's no way of knowing where it's coming from, but I too have noticed a big increase in porn spam, and I'm considering changing my email address, but I suspect that may be a temporary solution.<BR>

<BR>There is indeed a correlation. This forum is a great feeding ground for spammers. Very simply, this is how it works:<BR><BR>A clever little program called a "spider" weaves its way through the Internet, following a multitude of links. It's taught to recognize and collect e-mail addresses as it finds them.<BR><BR>When you want to post your e-mail address, you should do so in a way that a reader can figure it out, but that the spiders can't identify. The easiest way to do this is to break up your e-mail address in parts For example:<BR><BR>dianeg @myprovidersISP .com<BR><BR>This foils the spammers. However, some readers may need to have it spelled out that they must stick all the elements of your e-mail address back together again ;-)<BR><BR>Unfortunately, the spiders can get your e-mail address from the most obscure webpages. Be wary of everywhere that you may post.<BR><BR>Also, don't respond to any of the spam, nor click on the unsubscribe links - they only serve to verify that they do have a "live" address and you get spammed all the more!<BR><BR>I hope this is a bit clearer for you.

Part Two:<BR><BR>Your e-mail address, once collected, is then put into lists and sold. Online marketers are getting quite sophiticated to the point of selling "specialist" lists. Ever notice how you get bunches of similar "offers"?<BR><BR>Be also wary of friends/relatives/co-workers who send forwarded jokes/etc. and keep an amazingly long list of e-mails collected within. Shame on them! -- not for the joke, but for being careless with the e-mail addresses.<BR><BR>Most reputable companies with an online presence will keep your e-mail address to themselves. However, some don't and will sell their lists. Check their privacy policy about this.<BR><BR>Also, although very rare, e-mail addresses can be collected illegally from system breaches/break-ins.<BR><BR>I do a lot of business online, participate in an number of boards and subscribe to many newsletters. From one obscure website's guestbook that I signed (no more than 200 or so users), I'm now on a West African money scam list - go figure! One travel agent, not sure which, is responsible for putting me on an Egyptian tourism oriented hit list.<BR><BR>The best solution that I have found is to use a ton of aliases. That way when one is "infected" by the spam plague, I block it and blacklist the source.<BR>

I really don't think this board has ANYthing to do woth getting spammed, because I have been posting for 3 years and I never get any spam about porn, sex, enlargements, or anything else like that. I do get some unsolicited stuff about finance and investing, but that's about it.

Thank you DianneG for your information and thank you xxx for telling me how to correct a mistake. One thing I want to add though, I haven't done any inquiries into refinancing or morgage loans etc. on the Internet, so I don't really think the porn people got my e-mail address from them, which is why I posted this to have people on this website be aware of this possibility.<BR><BR>

I have both Yahoo and Hotmail accounts. I find I receive 100% more spam emails to my Hotmail account even with the blocks on. I think Yahoo does a much better job..

Chris, you can put your filter on "exclusive" in Hotmail and all junk will go to junk folder. Works for me.

I occasionally get spam but I have a very hard rule that if I don't know the sender it gets deleted. And unless I'm expecting something, any subject that starts with FW: also gets deleted. I don't enable the preview pane on Outlook, either. If I get spam I Shift-delete and it stops quickly. The most common place for someone to get your email address for spam is from chat rooms. Never reply to spam, even if it says reply to take your name off the list unless. As DianeG said earlier, never reply to spam. If you have html messages enabled your address goes to the site where an embedded graphic is stored. (Sometimes only one white pixel.) Practice safe computing.<BR><BR>I don't get much spam and none that I can attribute to fodors. I think yahoo does a pretty good job of filtering.