Watch Out For Spammers

[Rick]

I have been informed we have a group or groups coming in here and stealing e-mail addesses that folks have put in their posts and then the group pushes you to join them at their site and then putting your e-mail addresses out to known spam companies.

We discourage anyone from posting their e-mail addresses normally for that reason.

You should always beware of people who do that type of e-mail theft and then spamming you pushing you to visit their site.

If they resort to those kinds of tactics, it speaks volumes about the type of folks they are.

Personally I hate spam!

[can it be luck?]

I made the mistake yesterday in posting my e-mail address not thinking. I've since taken it off. Do these people/groups steal addresses in order to spam/sell/junk mail things to you?

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http://groups.msn.com/canitbeluck

[taxmancommeth]

Can-It-Be-Luck

That is what they do. They get your e-mail and then spam the heck out of you... Of course if you have a good spam filter you get most blocked, but still a problem.

Rick & everyone - Also watch out for e-mails from your bank, e-Bay, paypal, all the webpages that can have access to your financial / SS# information.

Financial institutions & eBay/paypal will NEVER ask for your password information or any other information via e-mail.

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GET-ER-DONE

[Valv]

Newest trend with fake Ebay or PayPal email is to follow a link, due to security reason.
The link takes you to fake pages where you might get confused and leave important information.
It's tough to recognize if these email are legitimate, I can see many people falling for it.

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Val Vignati

www.kvesurplus.com
[email protected]

[wallyH]

Just remember that your bank or ebay or any of these other places will never ask for you to confirm your information by sending you an email. My wife got one of those the other day that purported to be from the bank we actually used. I went there just to see how good it was and IMO it was very very good. If I weren't all around paranoid, I might have given them my info.

Also, when posting email addresses, the people who are collecting these email addresses don't read these forums. They have programs that will farm the email addresses. So, instead of doing [email protected], mix it up with something like myEmailName (AT) somedomain.com. That way, humans reading it will still be able to interpret it but a program looking for the @ symbol will not.

Wally

[Rick]

There are actual humans coming in and harvesting those addresses you're talking about as well. They can get paid $5-$10 a piece for good ones like those. Then sell it to outdoors or mens sites who will spam you inviting you on and then they will sell your e-mail to other spammers.

This is why spam just keeps on going because plenty of folks reward spammers by using them.

As for me, if someone spams me I assume they are lowlifes and just plain delete their e-mail with absolutely no visit to encourage them. I don't let curiousity get the best of me.

[Animal]

The IT Dept. at my workplace has just issued a detailed memo regarding all the scams that are out there and what to watch for especially viruses attached to email. The boss followed that up with a memo stating that any spam or virus that can be traced to an employee using the company internet for personal reasons can result in immediate termination of employment. We can still use the company net for personal reasons, but we cannot signup for any newsletters, ebays, paypals, online banking, travel sites, etc. Seems the IT people are spending up to 80 hours a week purging spam and virus laden emails from the net and they have the best firewall money can buy. 80 hours at an average pay rate of $25 to $30 an hour is big bucks. I know lots of people, like my son for example, that have had to get their systems repaired by professionals because of viruses, uncontrollable pop-ups, and spam. The problem is making the net unusable for some people. So be very careful what you sign up for.

[This message has been edited by Animal (edited 08-16-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Animal (edited 08-16-2004).]

[Surface Tension]

I received a few very convincing looking emails directing me to a site to change my bank card pin. What a mistake that would have been.

[lots of luck]

Is it me or do you find the internet, especially email becoming more and more just a huge mess. For every bit of useful info there seems like 10x garbage.
Frustrating at times.

[Valv]

I have several email accounts, when I have to sign up for something that need email address I use one of the "garbage" ones, which are addresses that I never check, since I know I will get junk, spam, and viruses. Once in a while I delete everything in there, regardless.
You can do it too with a Yahoo or AOL, or MSN address. Many sites want to get your email address to access them (Star Tribune for example), give them the "garbage" one, of if you can use a fake address like [email protected] or [email protected], this helps a lot.

Viruses, use a good one, like Norton, and have it updated every 15 days.

My email address below has firewall, spam blocking, and 2 antiviruses (one local and one on server), I barely get any garbage, and I receive approx 250/300 messages /day.

I know, it's a war zone out there, but we cannot have them win this battle and end the online age, besides after few precautionary measures, everything runs flawlessly.

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Val Vignati

www.kvesurplus.com
[email protected]

[walleyehawk]

Another place to use caution is e-mails you send.

You send a joke or some funny picture to a buddy, he sends it to 10 others friends. Soon there are dozens of names or addresses and someone collects all the addresses and sells them to spammers.

I have been hit by about a dozen viruses lately because of the once I did this.

Thank goodness I have a good internet service that scans every message and they have caught them before they hit my firewall and antivirus software.

Its always something.