Silence and then Spam

[DwainGS]

I'm not getting anything from Sailnet now, but it seems that a) someone has kept my email address in their address book and is infected with a virus harvester or b) Sailnet has somehow allowed their user list to be compromised. In the last three days, I've received over 30 spam emails to my sailnet address - and its the ONLY place I use that address.

dwain
M26D "Calypso"
Tradewinds YC, Carlyle, IL

stlbuccdriver-calypsosailnet@yahoo.com (fairly unique address I'd say).

[administrator]

Our list has not been comprimised.

I would suggest that you consider checking any source or service that you have subscribed to recently. And of course I assume you are well aware that simply by posting your email address in a forum (such as your post above) that you will have now become a target for spammers since they have web spiders that routinely spider web page content looking for email addresses (such as your address posted above).

We routinely warn people NOT to post their email addresses online anywhere on the web - especially forums.

[hellosailor]

Dwain, you made a MAJOR MISTAKE in posting that email address on ANY public forum.

The facts of life are that there are folks who will pay good money for valid email addresses, and folks who make good money sending out mass spam (think ten million emails per day), and somewhere out there, someone is busy logging into every web forum you can think of, scanning for "@" signs and collecting email addresses to sell.

Bottom line? It doesn't matter how trustworthy the web forum is, if it is open to the public, any email address posted or available on it, WILL BE SPAMMED. Any forum that "requires" an email address, i.e. signs all of your posts with it? MUST be used with a throw-away address, that you can and will change once it gets on the spam lists.

Change your email account, that address will be buried with spam forever now. They just never stop.

[Tradewinds Calypso]

its already gone. part of why I did it was to identify for anyone else who may have it in their list to check...I use very specific email addresses for different servers and never post the email address until AFTER its compromised.

dwain

[Tradewinds Calypso]

to the adminstrator: I haven't subscribed to any other service, list or forum with the email address I listed, nor have used it for anything else.

dwain