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Author Topic: How do they get email addresses  (Read 3822 times)

catengineman

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How do they get email addresses
« on: April 06, 2009, 11:32:06 pm »

Hi ALL,

I have a question to ask of the teci side on this forum. nothing to do with models but the internet.

I have a fotobucket account which is fine.

But lately I have been bombarded with emails from FLICKER.com. now this has been on two of my email addresses and also on my wife's email address
the ones affected are all "hotmail.co.uk or Live.co.uk" I dont remember going onto a Flicker site and I know I have NEVER signed up for an account, I do not use Facebook or Myspace (the wife does) and I think that those sites have flicker on them (not sure)
The mail is from " mum mum" and it asks to play games, another thing I do not do so how did flicker get MY email address's

Any ideas out there will be greatly appreciated.

R,
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OMK

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2009, 01:05:30 am »

Cat'
My mate had the exact same symptoms as yours. He reckons the only way for facebook/flicker to get hold of your email address is if someone gives it to them. His missus caught him playing the field last week, so he reckons it could be her way of revenge.

......not that I'm suggestiong you been up to any shenanigans, of course.  %)
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tigertiger

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2009, 02:59:58 am »

It could be that photbucket was hacked.

It could be that photobucket sold the list, which was then subsequently sold on again.

It could be that a spybot (piece of software like a virus), or webcrawler has visited your computer when you have been on-line. Seen that you use this type of service and accessed you mail address book.
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dreadnought72

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2009, 09:21:49 am »

What you'll often find is that spam email spoofs its sending address. It's the content ("click here to buy viagra", etc.) that the spammers want you to notice - they don't care that a reply sent to "their address" won't actually get to them.

Of course, all this spam would evaporate instantly if it cost a penny to send an email. Spammers wouldn't be buying 100 million email addresses (as they can and do) and sending unsolicited mail around the planet if a system like that was in operation.

Andy
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catengineman

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2009, 10:20:05 am »

Hi PMK nooooooo not been doing the shenanigans  ;)  ;)

I think I may have sussed it out, a relative I mail has had the very same mail.
my wife also mails this person and we received a "forwarded" mail from him which had ALL the people it had gone to there were loads! this mail had a flicker thing in it and the request to "get this its fun"
I delete them as I cant be bothered to go from link to link.

So if it is this way that they got my address does that mean I have to change addresses so I dont keep getting that mail. I have blocked the sender on my laptop but I cant block the wife (now Can I ?)
Here is where I show how daft I am, If I block the DOMAIN will that affect other people that want to send me mail.

R,
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dreadnought72

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2009, 10:49:00 am »

Hi there,

Back in the live-steam age of the internet, my work issued me with an email address, and put it online. Oh dear.

Five years on, I was getting perhaps fifty pieces of spam per day. An easy job to delete them. About five years after that I was getting four to five thousand spam emails a week. Using Outlook most of these were easily filtered straight to the bin, but it was annoying, so I changed my email address at work. Result - no spam for the first few years, and now only four or five a day.

I would recommend a regular change of address - but do remember to tell the people you'd want to hear from that you've done it!

Barring domains is a bit sledge-hammery, but it can work well, as long as you're sure there aren't legitimate people on that domain who you might want to hear from. Blocking a sender is less effective - as I mentioned, spammers spoof "sent from" addresses all the time, so it's an easy job for them to send you multiple copies from all sorts of apparent addresses.

Andy

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Martin (Admin)

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2009, 12:15:35 pm »

Just to reassure everyone on Mayhem, I NEVER give out anyone's email addresses under any circumstances.
Even when members ask for contacts I usually ask them to use the Forum PM (Messaging) system or I contact the end user and ask them to contact the enquirer.

Make sure your"Hide email address from public?" box is checked in Profile, Account Related Settings

Martin - Admin.
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Roger in France

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2009, 12:18:00 pm »

You also MUST HAVE a good firewall. In the last two minutes since I logged on to Mayhem I have had two warnings from my system, of blocked malware probes.

Roger in France
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catengineman

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2009, 04:13:31 pm »

I dont seem to have any problems with the sites I view AND NEVER from mayhem (Browne points awarded) {-)

I think from further investigations it came from an email that was sent by a known person so therefore was allowed to pass into the in-box rather than the trash/junk or in my case the "holding tank"

I have Kaspersky (full version up to date) and the only part I have not switched on is the parental control (no children and I am the only user of this machine)

I can go onto one of the other email addresses but that would cause grief to my small but perfectly formed brain  %%

I have deleted the bad mail and also done the same to my wife's (dont tell her I know all her passwords) Oh and found cookies with the name flicker.com and flixter.com so they went to the bin as well.
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johno 52-11

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2009, 04:56:55 pm »

There are a number of ways that email addresses can be obtained some have already been mentioned like company’s selling them on if you have not clicked on the right tick box to say you do not want them too.

There are a couple of ways used by spammers to compile lists of addresses that can be used for sending spam.

Spidering a website. This is a tool that will go through every page on a website and look for email addresses and then store them in a list it also creates a complete copy of the website which can be used offline.

Email address harvesting. This is where a spammer will use a database of first names and surnames and then try sending an email to every combination of first and surname. The ones that he gets a failure message for are invalid addresses but the ones he does not get a failure for are valid.

 
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catengineman

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2009, 05:16:50 pm »

Thanks Guy's  :-)) 

I tried to be carefull with my mail address and only put it where I thought it would be safe but from what I read it's not safe anywhere!

Oh well I will keep checking my holding tank and delete anything I think is not wanted.

R,
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portside II

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2009, 07:26:38 pm »

Wow thats an eye opener , just one thing why do i sometimes get e-mails from myself when i have not sent them .
Had the pc scanned and it's clean , it's got me beat.
daz
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tigertiger

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2009, 02:49:50 am »

Possibly got an email from yourself when somebody elses address book with you in it, has been compromised. Then the adresses in that mailbox are used

This mailbox has in fact sent emails to everyone in the address book. This is what happens sometimes when you open a dodgy mail, you activate a bit of malware. It then sends the SPAM on to others.

If you have ever sent an email to yourself, I do as a way of storing documents, you will be in your own address book.
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TCC

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2009, 04:12:41 am »

His missus caught him playing the field last week,

Let me guess: 'Ladies Day' and 'TV coverage'?  :-)
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dreadnought72

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2009, 09:11:42 am »

One thing I have found useful:

I own a domain with a number of email accounts. When I'm asked for an email address on a site that I really do not need to hear from again (software manufacturers, driver download sites, etc.), I use a made-up account name (such as "spammenot@...") and use the real domain name. The real accounts ("andy@...") are used for real customers. Any arriving "non real" email is promptly filtered and dumped, saving me time and hassle.

Andy
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OMK

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2009, 10:06:38 am »

"Let me guess: 'Ladies Day' and 'TV coverage'?"

Good guess, but nah, more closer to home.
Try 'Wife's best friend' and 'local gossip coverage'.  ;)
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catengineman

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #16 on: April 08, 2009, 11:22:13 am »

Ooh,
Try 'Wife's best friend' and 'local gossip coverage'.  ;)

Been there done that won a divorce  :(( lost a house and some  <:(

Hey Ho life goes on!  New wife New house No best friend  :D

R
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #17 on: April 08, 2009, 12:42:37 pm »

BBC - Spam overwhelms e-mail messages 97%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7988579.stm
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johno 52-11

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #18 on: April 08, 2009, 05:43:20 pm »

The reason you can get email which looks like it came from yourself is that the SMTP protocol that is what makes email work is over 25 years old and designed before SPAM was ever thought off. What you can do if you know how to manipulate this is spoof the sender of the email. This can be done both manually and automatically by a program.
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PT Sideshow

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Re: How do they get email addresses
« Reply #19 on: April 08, 2009, 06:19:46 pm »

To all of the above I will add that the ever present goolge has more ways of collecting addy's I have a pop up blocker and whether you know it or not google is probably paying the site to log your info what you are looking at and what you are buying etc.
All the search engines also have a ton of scripts, cookies etc that mine info. Then add that the disgruntled employees that copy and sell the lists when they leave.
Yahoo and google are thicker than thieves. Since both flicker and the bucket both have pay for play premium accounts they want your business when you get tired of the limits on the free service. The scripts blocker sometimes has more scripts that it is blocking than content of the site.
The all time high number was 103 scripts blocked on a site that really didn't have the content they claimed they did.

What you have to remember is if somebody is offering to let you use their bandwidth, you still are paying for it you way or another! O0  %%
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