i dont know if this the same for any of you, but recently i’ve been getting a bit of curiouse spam mail of variouse people trying to get my Credit card # via though Ebay and Paypal-nither of which i’ve ever used. these emails saying that there is some type of error requiring me to ‘re-confirm’ my #
secondly (i found this one amusing)- someone useing a bctt.org email adress useing a co. name of ‘ATUKE & ASSOCIATES’ recentl sent me an email about a long lost kinship(unnamed-of course) of mine in S. Africa that has recently passed away and left a considerable amount of money (mysteriouly in USD)-- and this is the only public place that i have displayed this particular email adress.
so i thought it to my amusement- that i’d ask about here to see if anyone else got these same emails.
I have gotten a few of the ones that say they are from Nigeria, blah, blah, blah, but nothing exactly like you are describing. But I was getting a few of those before I joined up here.
i’m sure the forum gets hit by robots, as does virtually everything else. I get approx 10-30 spam messages a day in my junk folder, and an untold number that are filtered automatically and I never see
i-with a small bit of knowlage that i’ve accired of ‘hacking’ or the use of ‘bots’ to spam people and to scam, you normally need to find a source to get emails from- so the ‘spammer’ would of had to at least have the URL-i just think its a bit funny that one would be looking for ppl to scamm and would pick ppl off of a UP forum, but i guess anything is possible. they could of made somthing that automaticly picks off Email adresses on its lonesome, its been awhile since i touched this type of stuff
As a subscriber to this forum, you have the option to post your personal e-mail address. It shows up at the bottom of your posts as the email button.
Yes, robots do regularly go through all forums and newslists looking for anything in the correct format to be read as an email address. As well, they go through search engines like Google to get web page addresses, and then scan your personal web page looking for email addresses. One way to avoid getting on spammers’ junk mail lists is to not post your email address on your forum profile. Use PM instead. On your personal web page, change your email address to something that is human readable, like “bob dot smith at myisp dot com”.
I got a few warnings from what I thought was eBay telling me that someone had tried to access my account and that I should now access my account and change my password. The background of the email included the eBay logo, and it was all very convincing.
However, it was a hoax. Luckily, a member of this forum warned me in time. Apparently when eBay writes to you, they use your eBay logon name and the email address that you gave in your eBay account details. Therefore, flush any message addressed to Dear eBay account holder or similar generic titles.
By the way, I never got around to thanking those who gave me the heads-up. Well done, guys. It’s a testament to the workings of a good forum that it’s members help eachother avoid getting scammed.