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Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

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Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#161

Post by digisign »

I don't get a lot of spam but those that I do are to ye olde addresses. Think monster, orkut, and myspace. The vast majority come to a postgres mailing list address I sent one mail to, about ten years ago. A few to whois contacts on domains, before I signed up for the anonymous service. Guessing all those were allowed to be scraped by spammers.

I get a few others to an apartment building I once got on a mailing list to, and other random stuff like that. Probably folks that use Windows and got worms.

In short, I don't think anyone sold me out... but I could be wrong.

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#163

Post by digisign »

20after4 wrote: post #159
narag wrote: post #23

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My names…

Someone decided to start a weed business in Spokane Washington using my gmail address as their business email contact for all of the greenery suppliers. Now I get tons and tons of marijuana-related spam. I guess they are too stoned to tell the difference between 20 and twenty? I don't know.

A lawyer in Texas has the same initials as I. Their domain is the same as mine + "law" at the end. Guess how many of her clients forget the "law"?

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#164

Post by invaliduser »

narag wrote: post #23

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My names…

Same here. My name is very common and I have an email similar to John Smith , and I have around 10 people around the world named like me or similarly that use my email for everything. I receive, almost weekly, paid invoices, flight tickets, appointment reminders, a teen soccer club newsletter, new instagram accounts, etc anything you can imagine really.

A few years ago I tried to contact some of my other selfs to ask them to mind their email, but never got any response. I'm just ignoring them now or hitting the spam button (after all, the senders should have a process to check the address instead of taking erroneous email addresses written by hand on paper).

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#166

Post by raverbashing »

narag wrote: post #23

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My names…

> They allow the creation of accounts without verifying the email, then refuse to admit it's their problem and do something about it.

Add Discord to the list.

Use an account with an unverified mail? Fine by us!

Go and try to actually verify the mail? Alarm bells go off and the acct locks up (sorry, not sorry for the owner of that acct)

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#167

Post by rhn_mk1 »

Tepix wrote: post #131
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #122

Kickstarter regularly sells my address, even soon after changing it. I don't think any other entity did that, which is mildly surprising.

Are you sure it's not one of the campaigns you pledged for at Kickstarter? They most likely get access to your kickstarter email address.

I haven't pledged to anything since I changed the address.

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#168

Post by DavidSJ »

narag wrote: post #23

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My names…

This happens to me all the time. Perhaps the most amusing instance went as follows (quoted verbatim, with identifying information omitted):

This email is regarding: [].

Class: MATH 7 ADVANCED Prd: 2 Teacher: []

-----------------------------------------------

Good evening, please check [] for missing work, complete it and submit it. Let me know if you have questions or need any help or anything opened up or more tries. Remember the Ch. 3 test due today. Thank you, Mrs. []

I replied:

I think you've got the wrong email address.

Thanks, David

The teacher then replied:

My apologies. You are correct. Your son is crushing it :) and I failed to take him off the group email. Thank you so much for letting me know and keep up the great work! Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. Mrs. []

I then replied:

Thanks! Only one thing: I don't have a son.

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#169

Post by usrusr »

zaphoyd wrote: post #52

My wife and I have used a unique address for every company/service for 15 years or so (both online and physical stores). We’ve gotten less spam than I expected and from fewer sources. The big ones are dropbox (likely breach related), justworks, [email addresses listed in Whois records - note: Whois privacy features are absolutely worth it], and emails associated with open source projects and businesses that get liste…

Same observation, similar timeframe. A few that have likely been breaches, one or two failed web game businesses sold for scrap.

My motivation of keeping it up is mostly habit, I wouldn't want shop mails on one of my public addresses anyways. A nice benefit is that phishing mails arriving at the wrong address are even easier to not fall for (but a deeper phishing attempt, with targeting based on a breach or something like that might become easier to fall for)

Re: Ask HN: People who use different emails everywhere, who sold you to spammers?

#170

Post by Moru »

invaliduser wrote: post #164
narag wrote: post #23

I mostly use one single address, but I can tell you exactly where all the spam comes from: idiots whose name is the same as mine. They give my address as if it belonged to them. Probably they created addresses like narag33@server and they believe that it's narag@server instead. So not only I receive all the spam from dubious sites that they suscribed to, but also their legitimate mail from lists and friends. My names…

Same here. My name is very common and I have an email similar to John Smith , and I have around 10 people around the world named like me or similarly that use my email for everything. I receive, almost weekly, paid invoices, flight tickets, appointment reminders, a teen soccer club newsletter, new instagram accounts, etc anything you can imagine really. A few years ago I tried to contact some of my other selfs to ask…

My wife has had the same problem for a long time. What finaly got through was to contact one of the travel agencies to point out that she got plane tickets in someone elses name and to please talk to this woman that she has the wrong idea about her email adress. Has been quiet for a few years now.
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