Source Of Junk E-mails? (1 Viewer)

James

I'm losing it!

• Oct 13, 2003

• #1

Recently I have been getting lots of junk e-mails, mostly from America. Can these in any way be connected to Birdforum as they started just after I joined. This is NOT an accusation against Birdforum please let me stress this. Can anyone on the forum get our e-mail address and use it or can anyone outside "tap in" to our membership?

I recently posted a piece on house swapping and within a week I have two junk e-mails about property exchange! Coincidence? Has anyone else had the same problems or coincidences?

James

 

Doug

Well-known member

• Oct 13, 2003

• #2

HI James

I joined BF last year and whether it was coincidence I don't know but I straight away saw an increase in junk mail volume.

These junk mailers use spider technology to trawl sites for email addresses so if they have got ours from BF I don't think there is anything that could be done by BF to stop this

I just installed a spam filter and this works excellently

 

digi-birder

Well-known member

• Oct 13, 2003

• #3

I haven't had any more junk emails than usual since joining BF, despite my BF email address being in my signature.

Even if your email is enabled in your profile, people can only send an email via the forum and cannot see the actual address, until you reply to it.

Maybe Steve or Ollie can expand on this, as they know how the site works better than I do.

 

Steve

Member

Staff member

• Oct 13, 2003

• #4

No Spider, spam bot , or Human being has access to E mails, they are stored in admin C panels which are protected by all manner of security devices, including codes that only a human can key in
because spiders and Bots cant copy code.

we do however have google and yahoo search engine bots on the site all the time, but they only surf the forums and gallery, not admin panels. I assure you that any spam is not generated through or via BF.

 

Andrew Rowlands

Well-known member

• Oct 13, 2003

• #5

To add to Steves comments:

a lot of spam is targetted by spyware and cookies within your own PC. Once they have your address they pass it on.

Try Ad-Aware, BHO Cop or PestPatrol; they will give you an idea of whether you have been compromised from within.

Use a spam filter to cleanup before it hits your machine.

If you use Usenet or similar give your address in the form of me(at)myisp(dot)com.

Use a 'throwaway' email address eg Hotmail for mails to unknown sources.

Never unsubscribe from junkmailings.

Try this site: http://spam.abuse.net

Cheers,

Andy.

 

James

I'm losing it!

• Oct 13, 2003

• #6

Many thanks for advice folks - it's difficult to keep up with the rate of change in computers and all the ways one needs to protect oneself!

James

 

KC Foggin

Very, very long time member

Supporter

• Oct 13, 2003

• #7

I cannot agree with your thoughts here. I use a completely different email address for the forum and I have had no increase in spam or junk mail at the email address I am using.

 

Alastair Rae

London birder

• Oct 13, 2003

• #8

EBay is a big culprit. Have you signed up there recently?

 

walwyn

Well-known member

• Oct 14, 2003

• #9

I've had no spam on the email address I used to signup here.