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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?

#361

Post by a2128 »

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 once was on the other side of this. While opening a new bank account, I dictated my email (name.lastname.123@server) to the representative, she entered it and later printed out the agreement. I read the agreement and noticed she entered my email wrong (name.lastname@server). It can be easy to forget the numbers while saying the email out loud, or while entering an email someone else said out loud.

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

#362

Post by 0des »

dylan604 wrote: post #62
mynegation wrote: post #39

Ah, finally, my time to shine. Amazingly - not too many, given that I use hundreds of unique emails. Tbh this confuses the hell out of people when I give a CSR at AcmeBoutique the address AcmeBoutique@myowndomain.com The offenders that I remember: - Men’s Health magazine - local gym - online flower shop - agency that at the time handled visa applications for a local Indian consulate - couple of infoproducts from Prod…

A small biz owner that I used to contract with was having a disagreement with American Airlines over the phone because when he was asked to provide his email, he gave an obviously adversarial email taking advantage of his catch-all. I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but it was obvious they did not believe that the email was legit. I don't remember the exact address provided, but something along the…

buy him a beer for me next time you see him. he has gained an acolyte.

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

#363

Post by hedora »

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…

My name is something reasonably rare. There's one other person with the same name in the same industry niche. Occasionally we even have the same giant employer. Every once in a while some fraud detector or email auto complete gets us confused and hilarity ensues.

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

#364

Post by lormayna »

I have lastname.surname@gmail.com and it was used from a person with my name to register on electronic online shops, religious activity and also porn site access.

Few months ago, I used an alias to post on the monthly "Who want to be hired" here in HN and I am full of spam: a "company" is following up on me every week about "Project for estimate".

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

#365

Post by tristor »

The absolute worst offenders are political campaigns, PACs, parties, and candidates. I believe because they're exempted from robocall and spam legislation so feel they have carte blanche. I've donated to local candidates from several different parties, and subsequently my addresses ended up in lists with national organizations and their associated PACs. I get what I would call "extremist" content endorsed and sent by both major parties in the US (DNC and RNC) about their opposition, often on the same day about the same issue, although begging for money.

The worst part though is they also SPIM me, I predominantly get text message spam from these campaigns. The Democratic party is the worst here. I volunteered to man the phones one year for a candidate during the primaries, and now they are CONSTANTLY texting me to try to get money or otherwise support candidates on the national stage, most of whom I despise. The Republicans send me postal mail and email, but no text messages or IMs.

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

#366

Post by doyouevensunbro »

zrail wrote: post #357
gwbas1c wrote: post #331

The absolute worst offender are political activists: (In the US) I attended my town's meeting for a political party in 2016. I put my name and email on the list with an email address that I made up on the spot. It continues to get HAMMERED by every up-and-coming politician in the state who's trying to make a name for themselves. A few years ago I attended Senator Ed Markey's roadshow for the Green New Deal. I again u…

> The absolute worst offender are political activists: (In the US) The alias I used for one of the big donation platforms has apparently been given to every single person running for any political office in the state along with many out of state. It gets dozens of emails a day, most of which automatically end up in spam.

Same here. Ends up making me regret donating at all, which someone has to realize would be the end result, right?

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

#367

Post by [deleted] »

lormayna wrote: post #364

I have lastname.surname@gmail.com and it was used from a person with my name to register on electronic online shops, religious activity and also porn site access. Few months ago, I used an alias to post on the monthly "Who want to be hired" here in HN and I am full of spam: a "company" is following up on me every week about "Project for estimate".

[deleted]

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

#368

Post by hamburglar »

derN3rd wrote: post #232
hamburglar wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not wildly unpopular with me. I’ve canceled multiple Netflix accounts using my $firstInitial$lastName@gmail account. My excuse if they ever challenged me would be to say I thought it was fraudulent because I didn’t set it up and I didn’t want my email to be the only contact method. Edit: there is one boost mobile customer who has done this to me and I can’t figure out the exact address they used (the thing where you…

If you still get emails from them you can open the email source on GMail and see where the email was originally sent to (the full address) with all dots and +x addition in it.

Have tried that. The address in the smtp headers only has the raw address (no dots), and yet boost still claims no such account exists.

Obviously, inquiries to boost mobile support haven’t been helpful either. It’s a mystery.

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

#369

Post by Anechoic »

tristor wrote: post #365

The absolute worst offenders are political campaigns, PACs, parties, and candidates. I believe because they're exempted from robocall and spam legislation so feel they have carte blanche. I've donated to local candidates from several different parties, and subsequently my addresses ended up in lists with national organizations and their associated PACs. I get what I would call "extremist" content endorsed and sent by…

The Democratic party is the worst here. [...] The Republicans send me postal mail and email, but no text messages or IMs.

YMMV, I get it far more from Republicans than Democrats. However it may be due in part to a GOP donor with a name similar to mine that lives in a state I haven't stepped foot in for over a decade.

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

#370

Post by smhenderson »

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.

This is my biggest issue with what you're talking about. I get annoyed at the clueless users who happen to share my initials and last name but I can forgive them for their ignorance.

But, IMHO, any company, in 2022, that uses email for authentication, or for any type of business/financial exchange of information, that doesn't bother to do a simple validation of "do you really own this email?" should not be allowed to continue to operate!

I sadly learned long ago that expressing this opinion to their support or security contacts is useless.

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