Comments for Please don't spam me!

Comment from Terry Hollett on 2008-09-17

2008-09-17T19:26:41Z

To Nick: I have a GMAIL account that I've never gave to anyone or even used but there are around 3000 spam emails in the Spam folder at my account at gmail.com. Its just the tricks of spammers and weakness' in the systems.

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Comment from Nick on 2008-09-17

2008-09-17T09:00:02Z

I'm confident you won't spam me Leo, however the fact is that I still get spam addressed to this disposable email address that I set up solely for your newsletter. What I don't understand is, since you are the only one I've told the address, and you don't pass it on, how come I'm getting spam, in particular from "4408 McLean Rd Haltom City TX 76117"? This gets filtered into my Trash folder, BTW!

I don't know.

But I agree it's odd, and unnerving for both of us.

Turns out I was at a conference that included someone from my email mailing list provider, and we checked everything out. Everything looks fine. If there were a true breach we'd expect to hear a rash of complaints, and I've seen 2.

So I'm not sure what to say.

While they're unlikely, I have taken your comment and turned it into an article detailing some of the ways that even playing by the rules your email address could still get stolen: Why am I getting spam on this email address I use only for one newsletter?

-Leo

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Comment from Rocco on 2008-09-16

2008-09-17T06:21:02Z

Get the "Mailwasher" program that will allow you to block and bounce any email you choose to.

http://www.mailwasher.com/

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Comment from Ray on 2008-09-16

2008-09-17T03:56:08Z

Ziggie -

I'm not sure what your getting at. I think your confusing forwarding rules in an e-mail client like Outlook with separate email accounts and forwarding rules set up on a server processing incoming e-mail; normally such a server wouldn't do anything with the data following the "To" tag in e-mail headers anyway. Also, the "To" tag isn't even required, I've received both spam and legitimate e-mails that don't contain the tag.

What is required is a destination e-mail address in the header. Without one, how would mail servers know where to send the e-mail? That's why the method I suggest works very well if you have your own domain and can generate as many e-mail accounts as you like.

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Comment from Ziggie on 2008-09-15

2008-09-15T12:44:47Z

Too many spammers are masking the To address anymore to make separate accounts forwarding to the primary account viable.

POP3 works still, but I imagine it won't be long til someone figures a way around that too.

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Comment from Ray on 2008-09-12

2008-09-13T03:46:15Z

This is another reason to get a domain through a hosting service like GoDaddy or Hostmonster. Not only can you keep e-mail addresses when changing ISPs, whenever you have to give out an e-mail address, you can create a new one on the fly and have it forward it's inbox to a primary address. If you start getting annoying e-mails, just delete the account and the forward. This is a useful variation on Leo's suggestion.

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Comment from Jason Zions on 2008-09-12

2008-09-12T22:31:26Z

Also, be really cautious about clicking the "Click here to remove yourself from our mailing list" link. Disreputable bulk emailers (honest, that's not an oxymoron) use that information to confirm that your email address is "live", i.e. connects to a real human being; they can sell your address to spammers for more money than an unvalidated email address.

Of course, you probably shouldn't ever click on any link in a spam email, but that's another story.

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Comment from Mark , Grater Washington D.C. area on 2008-09-12

2008-09-12T16:37:01Z

Not that I am a fan of Hotmail these days, but they have this nifty feature of being able to link multiple accounts. I have one that I use for important things, and then another account linked to it that I give out to questionable places. Easy access, but an account that I can cut loose if and when needed.

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A comment on: Please don't spam me!

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