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Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: e-mail spam (Read 9019 times) previous topic - next topic
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e-mail spam

Does this forum sell the e-mail addresses it insists on?????

Since joining, my previously spam-free account has been bombarded with stuff from on-line casinos, fake weight-loss scammers and "bank security checks" for accounts I don't have.    All US-based.

Anyone else noticed this?

e-mail spam

Reply #1 –
Quote
4. The Hydrogenaudio community requires that all members provide a valid email address. This email address will only be used for user account validation and activities directly related to the features of this community, and will never be given to any third party.

e-mail spam

Reply #2 –
No, you're the only one to have "noticed" this. (or at least I haven't...)

I suggest an ABX on email accounts, while you're at it, and we're talking about TOSs

e-mail spam

Reply #3 –
Quote from: meninblack on
Does this forum sell the e-mail addresses it insists on?????

Since joining, my previously spam-free account has been bombarded with stuff from on-line casinos, fake weight-loss scammers and "bank security checks" for accounts I don't have.    All US-based.

Anyone else noticed this?


Nope.  And I'm not John C. Dvorak, either. 

e-mail spam

Reply #4 –
Quote from: meninblack on
Does this forum sell the e-mail addresses it insists on?????

Since joining, my previously spam-free account has been bombarded with stuff from on-line casinos, fake weight-loss scammers and "bank security checks" for accounts I don't have.    All US-based.

Anyone else noticed this?


Welcome to the world of spam. 

I used to get about 200+ spam emails a day until I changed my host provider. I really don't think HA has anything to do with your problem, most likely some other site...

/Mike

e-mail spam

Reply #5 –
I am sure its not due to HA. I have not noticed any spam due to HA. In fact, the only spam I receive is in my second email ID which was not the ID used for registering at HA. Were there any other forums or any other site you gave your email ID to around the same time as joining HA? You may need to check that and also if your mail provider is responsible.

writemars
Reason is immortal, all else mortal
- Pythagoras

e-mail spam

Reply #6 –
I have this email accont used only for Hydrogenaudio, and it is fully spam free.
Never recevied emails not related to the forum.
Possibilities:
You have used your email for some other site
You posted your email somewhere and a bbot was able to find it
Someone spotted your account and used for some nasty site
Your provider is responsable for the spam
Your pc was infected from some spyware.
...

e-mail spam

Reply #7 –
Quote from: linus on
You posted your email somewhere and a bbot was able to find it

This may also apply to HydrogenAudio if you ever posted your email address in the open, i.e not obfuscated such as myemail [at] server [dot] net.

Slightly OT: I think we must every now and then post a fake thread containing garbage email addresses. I read somewhere about this. Garbage email addresses will reduce the value of a spam-provider database. That site (where I read about that anti-spam strategy) even provides a garbage address generator.

If every publicly-available forum will start doing this, then we stand a chance against the spambots.

e-mail spam

Reply #8 –
Quote from: pepoluan on
This may also apply to HydrogenAudio if you ever posted your email address in the open, i.e not obfuscated such as myemail [at] server [dot] net.
You know, I wonder if spambot crawlers are getting smart enough to pick up on that kind of simple obfuscation. I do see people who do more difficult stuff, but that makes it more difficult for people you want to send you mail. I really like link encryption, but you can't input javascript on a forum. Maybe a phpbb module could be made that made addresses in phpbb email tags encrypted...

Quote
Slightly OT: I think we must every now and then post a fake thread containing garbage email addresses. I read somewhere about this. Garbage email addresses will reduce the value of a spam-provider database. That site (where I read about that anti-spam strategy) even provides a garbage address generator.

If every publicly-available forum will start doing this, then we stand a chance against the spambots.
Heh, that's clever, but it doesn't really accomplish anything. Probably most databases are already much less than 50% live addresses. Spam lords have bandwidth to spare, they don't care if most of it bounces. Plus a lot of spam these days is being sent from bot nets of trojaned personal computers. Stolen bandwidth is free. The only spam solution is going to be something that changes the way email works.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure some spam senders are already doing this themselves. The last gmail account I created started getting spam before I had done anything with it. The only thing I can think of is that they are sending mail to randomly generated strings at the big mail domains like gmail and yahoo. Meninblack, this could be what happened to you. If you got one spam with a "bug" image, that would tell them that your address was a live one.

e-mail spam

Reply #9 –
on some other boards i noticed that the forum software was infected with trojans and spam-bots
but i don't think that ha is to blame because the admins really care, at least i hope so

e-mail spam

Reply #10 –
A trojan is quite possibly how your address came to be on a spam list. A friend recently confessed to me that she had clicked on one of those "Windows Error" style pop-ups and that it had resulted in a trojan infecting her computer and uploading her address book. That coincided with me getting a huge rise in spam.

Then there's "friends" who stick your address in to a website to send you an e-card, or to invite you to join their social network...

e-mail spam

Reply #11 –
I sometimes recieve a spam email when I recieve an HA.org New Topic Notification, they arrive together at the same time always. I'm using Gmail.
we was young an' full of beans

e-mail spam

Reply #12 –
Of course, if your email address is nice and short, spammers will have no trouble making a guess. I have a friend who uses an address like josephinejosephinejosephine@example.com; she says she hardly gets any spam.

(note: not her real address.)

edit: edited. RFC 2606

e-mail spam

Reply #14 –
Quote from: southisup on
A friend recently confessed to me that she had clicked on one of those "Windows Error" style pop-ups and that it had resulted in a trojan infecting her computer and uploading her address book. That coincided with me getting a huge rise in spam.


I never thought about his 
Most of these popups can be closed easily, however, some of them are really sneaky. Recently, there was one on imageshack.com. It went through the popup blocker of Internet Explorer 6. The design was the exact copy of a Windows window, and the "close" button was fake. Or there was a script associated with the close() action.
The only way to get rid of it would have been to ctrl-alt-del Internet Explorer. Which closes all navigation windows.

e-mail spam

Reply #15 –
If it has a script associated with close, do this: Esc - Alt+F4 - if IE pops again really quickly press Esc.

That will prevent the script from running

e-mail spam

Reply #16 –
Quote from: pepoluan on
If it has a script associated with close, do this: Esc - Alt+F4 - if IE pops again really quickly press Esc.

Why not give a try to the new Opera 9 - it is fast, relatively secure and extremely handy browser.
 

e-mail spam

Reply #17 –
Yep, anything but IE. I myself like Firefox better than Opera, but like I just said, anything but IE.

Nope, it's not me personally against Microsoft, but hey, IE's have too many system hooks that can (and do) compromise your system good. The downside of the browser war...