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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?

#251

Post by 2000UltraDeluxe »

cookiengineer wrote: post #148

In Germany there are lots of freemail providers. Some of them sell all the contact data to spammers: - web.de - gmx.de/net/com I reproduced this with a new domain, a nowhere occuring email on an email server that does not list its accounts via imap, and a single email from those services to the new email was enough to receive spam afterwards; even when the email wasn't listed anywhere on the web. On a couple other ad…

I've had a GMX address as backup for over a decade. No spam issues whatsoever.

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

#253

Post by rubidium »

n-i-m-a wrote: post #250
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…

Similar scenario for me... countless accounts throughout various services, newsletter subscriptions, paid services/subscriptions, tickets, loan requests and confirmations, house deeds & ... I have tried finding the numerous people throughout the world with the same name and surname as me and notifying them and asking them kindly to update their contacts or to stop using mine (name.surname@gmail scenario), some work,…

I have a statistically very uncommon name (there’s like 3 other people with my name who have showed up on the internet) and I’ve still run into this because I use first name.surname@gmail.com.

I can’t imagine what it’s like for whoever uses the same naming convention for a super common name.

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

#254

Post by richardw »

andrewfong wrote: post #85

U.S. political campaigns are by far the worst offender. If you give your real email and phone number to one candidate, twenty unrelated candidates will contact you next cycle.

I get this stuff from US politicians and I don’t live in the US. Random drive by mails with hysterical instructions to save us from the Dems/Republicans. I thought it was all incredibly targeted by now, but there’s obviously some terrible list management going on. At least no robocalls.

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

#255

Post by jon-wood »

nicolas_t wrote: post #243
brenainn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. But in the last few years I started getting hotel reservations, golf course membershi…

I have a similar experience, I received emails from his families with children photos, emails from his certification, notices about his internship, etc.. I sent a few emails to his family explaining this, they told me that I was wrong. I gave up and just ignore all of those emails. It's on gmail and I don't use gmail for important things anyway...

> they told me that I was wrong

What a bizarre response... somebody who isn't the person you intended to email has replied to you from the address you sent the message to. What could possibly make someone think that the person replying is the one who was wrong?

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

#256

Post by Litost »

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…

I also use unique email addresses per service and most of my spam seems to originate from breaches or websites that have since died. My ISP also uses SpamAssassin so at lot of it gets filtered before it gets to me, so the amount I get isn't in any way overwhelming, esp. given the amount of places I've signed up to.

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

#257

Post by croon »

vfistri2 wrote: post #231
croon wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. I had a similar experience, funnily enough golf course memberships too. Doing minim…

it has gotten so bad in usa, with creep calling. Seems whenever somebody is not happy with something their immediate response is you are a creep. I find those kind of people disturbing.

You might even call it creep creep. (Sorry, couldn't resist)

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

#258

Post by julianz »

croon wrote: post #209
brenainn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. But in the last few years I started getting hotel reservations, golf course membershi…

> I was getting some dude's email for about 7 years. Started with newsletters and discussion threads for a journalism guild and a teacher's union. I found that amusing and left it, but one day emailed whoever was in charge and let them know I'm not the intended recipient. Stopped for a while and then it started again and I ignored it. I had a similar experience, funnily enough golf course memberships too. Doing minim…

I waited until my Gmail doppelganger ordered a pizza, then from the phone and address details in that email I was able to text him and say I hoped he enjoyed the pizza, that his house looked nice from Street View, and please stop using my email address. He did.

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

#259

Post by chris72205 »

Most of the spam I receive these days comes from DNS registry contact info. I always select the domain privacy option when possible, but certain TLDs like .us do not allow this option.

I’ve been using unique addresses for almost everything for several years now and I don’t get nearly as much spam as I anticipated when I first set it up. There’s one app I used years ago with a custom address and still get consistent spam from different people… I always wonder if the data was sold or stolen.

It is a bit humorous when a sales person asks for an email address and I give them something like theircompanyname@mydomain.com and they’re unsure if I’m openly blowing them off or that’s my actual address.

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

#260

Post by gadders »

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…

I have firstname.lastname@gmail.com and my name seems to be the same as a beef farmer in Australia. It was mildly amusing to get Aberdeen Angus bull semen auction details, but when I started getting his loan details from a bank I had to reply and tell them.
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