As of late it seems my inbox is being flooded with credit card, bad debt offers, and credit repair stuff and I'm trying to pinpoint what 'system' released this info. Do you all know if the list of emails for this board is sold to outside groups?
Re: email addresses sold? Hello rthomas, Absolutely not. We have never shared our membership database with another party, nor would we ever consider doing so without first obtaining proper authorization from our members. Sincerely, pbm
Re: email addresses sold? rthomas, I am suffering fron the same thing. It started when I started my "credit report corrections". I also wondered if they got the info from Credit Net. I'm glad it's not coming from Credit Net. It might be from Credit Watch, EXP, TU, Pro Se, or one of the other places we all visit. I would love to find the guilty party. PBM could we move this thread to the Credit Talk board? I'm sure others are having the same problem and someone might be able to help. Thanks, JohnM
I have the same problem but it could be from a variety of places. Like Equifax, Experian, TU and others. I visit so many websites including collection websites. Also, I'm quite sure most places use the "cookies" to see where you are going. I don't know if they can your email address from "cookies". But nothing would surprise me these days. I am not a computer "techie" so much of this info. is from what I believe is going on. I have a hotmail address, I believe microsoft sells your email address too because I get so much crap in my inbox it's not funny.
I don't think it's this board, because I haven't gotten any as of yet. I did get a whole bunch on foreclosures this week, but I know which site those came from. I unsubscribed to them all, what a pain. But, I've been spam free for a few days! Tracy
Somebody said you get NEW mail when you "UN-SUBSCRIBE" because they "CONFIRMED" that the e-mail address is a good one... I just hit delete...
Really? I never thought of that. But, this site sent 20 things in 2 days--but after I unsubscribed, I haven't gotten anything else. I have Road Runner, and I really like it because I get almost NO spam, compared to when I had AOL. I'll have to keep that in mind though, maybe I'll just delete from now on. I'm glad it worked for me this time, at least. It was getting obnoxious!!
For me, I think my junk credit mail is coming from supplying ELOAN with my email address only because it is the only place I put my work email in when requesting a score and since then I have been getting junk credit email at work. Just a thought...
I have AOL among others...I have a sub-account (e-mail address). I get e-mail at it all the time...I NEVER have used that address in any way (except once on this board an e-mail to a member)...not written on this board ever...I guess it would be available on AOL... There maybe a list of all AOL E-MAIL addresses...AOL may SELL IT...or maybe you can cut and paste it...
I think that sometimes the spammers just try different combinations of potential e-mail addresses to send their stuff. I receive a lot of the above mentioned spam at my hotmail acct and I hardly give out that address. Also, if you sign up for a contest or freebie, etc. I think that the company can sell or rent your e-mail to other companies that have nothing to do w/ the orginal offer. And if they're good, the msg will bypass the spam control settings b/c it looks like a legit e-mail.
I think sites sell email addresses of their visitors, to their advertisors, as a kind of marketing tool. I always put in fake addresses now. My husband changes a letter, or number, in his name, to see if we get things in the mail under that name. He will transpose letters all the time. The only problem is, he forgets who he did it too! LOL =)
FLUFFY SMITH 1287 JONES ROAD BEVERY HILLS CA This is your CAT...see what JUNK you get...(US MAIL TOO)
Yes they can get your e-mail address from the cookies. As PBM mentioned, one reason I love this board is that they don't sell your e-maill addy.
Definitely, they can get your email addy. We have an account through RCN here in Chicago and my bf is getting all kinds of spam to xxxx@enteract.com...I looked up enteract.com and lo and behold, it's RCN. I called & asked if they were selling our addy and they said no, people can buy access to databases of email addresses. Scary......we aren't as anonymous as we think....
If you want to get an eye-opener re cookies, on your IE Browser (V5.5 or lower) go to Tools=>Internet Options=>Security. Scroll down to "Cookies" and Check the "Prompt" box. On IE 6.0, it's at Tools=>Inernet Options=> Privacy/ . You'll be amazed at how often you are being hit with cookies.
Somebody said that the "COOKIES" need to be DELETED...(I was having "SPACE" problems)... You can also DELETE tempory internet files and cache... I'm AMAZED how many COOKIES are there (when I DELETE them)...
techman, I didn't know that you can get email addys via cookies, I knew about IP logging but not email extraction via cookies. How do they do that ? Can't I set a sercurity option in IE to stop that? Thanks, John
Cookies are not all bad. (Pecan Sandies, for example. Sorry.) Seriously, cookies get a bad rap, but their PURPOSE is not to invade our privacy. For example, have you noticed that when you visit Creditnet it automatically marks which messages you've already read, which ones you haven't, etc.? The reason is because this board stores cookies on your computer with that data so that when you re-visit the board you know which threads need reading. Other examples: Amazon.com uses cookies to store information on your computer that can steer you to items of interest. Many other sites do the same. Other sites greet you by name and use cookies to store that on your computer. (Other sites store information about you on THEIR computer, but that's called a database rather than "cookies.") In this respect, cookies stored on your own computer actually respect your privacy more than does the practice of storing information about you on somebody else's computer which can be hacked, stolen, etc. Finally, to answer the question regarding whether cookies can be used to snatch your email address from your computer, the answer is no. On the other hand, JAVASCRIPT and JAVA and ACTIVE-X (Microsoft's Java-like web spiffer-upper) can all be used to steal the email address you store in your browser preferences. Unfortunately (or fortunately), those things all do great things for us on the web as well. So, for example, if you visit a financial site and use the mortgage calculator, you're probably using JavaScript, among other examples. So while disabling everything may protect your "privacy" (which used to refer only to our own nakedness, lol), it will also make for a much less gratifying internet experience. Choices, choices. Doc
