Author Topic: How the heck did spam get in my school email? (Read 5530 times)

Rhombicuboctahedron · « **on:** December 04, 2012, 10:30:07 pm »

This is my school email, given to me by the school a few years ago. I have given it to sites I need for school, as well as a few trustworthy sites (like apple and adobe)
Then today I found a reciept for a gift card, bought by someone else, for $500, along with some links and such
I Googled, and found that others got it too, so, of course, fake
Again, I don’t know very much about email, but I thought if you never give it away, you can’t get spam

shmibs · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2012, 10:53:46 pm »

your name could have been chosen at random rather than actually discovered somewhere. maybe they assumed that a school email address, because it is inherently "more important", would have a higher success rate of snagging people.

Rhombicuboctahedron · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2012, 10:55:07 pm »

But how did they get it?

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2012, 10:56:28 pm »

The companies most likely sold e-mail lists to other companies.

alberthrocks · « **Reply #4 on:** December 04, 2012, 11:00:27 pm »

Quote from: DJ_O on December 04, 2012, 10:56:28 pm

The companies most likely sold e-mail lists to other companies.

Ehh, probably not a legitimate university. I don't think they would bend that low.

More likely the email address is public somewhere (university directory), and either a bot was able to read it out or an individual just looked up a random EDU email. Also, if you've published any papers, your educational email address will likely be exposed as well.

Rhombicuboctahedron · « **Reply #5 on:** December 04, 2012, 11:40:54 pm »

Just remembered, you can find the emails of everyone in the school district by clicking send, so if it is possible for a bot to find that list, all it might take is one out of the 70,000 to accidentally give away their email to a bot.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #6 on:** December 05, 2012, 01:27:20 am »

Quote from: alberthrocks on December 04, 2012, 11:00:27 pm

Quote from: DJ_O on December 04, 2012, 10:56:28 pm
The companies most likely sold e-mail lists to other companies.
Ehh, probably not a legitimate university. I don't think they would bend that low.

More likely the email address is public somewhere (university directory), and either a bot was able to read it out or an individual just looked up a random EDU email. Also, if you've published any papers, your educational email address will likely be exposed as well.

Well, he said he also gave his e-mail to sites like Adobe as well, not just school sites. But yeah, maybe it was leaked somewhere like when clicking send. I remember my mom started getting spam after someone sent a chain letter to her and some friends, where every e-mail address was shown, then she started getting spam.

SpiroH · « **Reply #7 on:** December 05, 2012, 09:45:22 am »

well, all you need is to be a student (among perhaps thousands) at a university or a company to easily get hold of the community's mailing list and then if you've have a '$bound mindset' easily sell it for profit. So, it's not that hard for your e-mail to be easily leaked to the world. Take care with your emails.

Eeems · « **Reply #8 on:** December 05, 2012, 10:57:24 am »

This is why I have 6 emails ;P (soon to be 7. Just got to get the email server working for my domain)

Vijfhoek · « **Reply #9 on:** December 05, 2012, 11:00:25 am »

Gmail's spam filter works perfectly for me.

Eeems · « **Reply #10 on:** December 05, 2012, 11:01:49 am »

I've had some spam get through gmails filter before. It's quite good though.

Author Topic: How the heck did spam get in my school email? (Read 5530 times)

Rhombicuboctahedron

How the heck did spam get in my school email?

shmibs

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

Rhombicuboctahedron

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

DJ Omnimaga

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

alberthrocks

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

Rhombicuboctahedron

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

DJ Omnimaga

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

SpiroH

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

Eeems

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

Vijfhoek

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?

Eeems

Re: How the heck did spam get in my school email?