Has your MSE forum email address been spammed.

pelago

I recently received a junk email. This is nothing unusual in itself, but it was sent to an email address that I only ever used when registering for these forums a couple of years ago. (I have dozens of email addresses, and I make a new one for each site that I register for. That way, if I start getting spam on that address, I can delete that single address without affecting other emails).

Has the MoneySavingExpert forums sold, given away, or lost its email address list? Has anyone else received spam that they can be sure is sent to an address that has only been used for registering on these forums?


Insert By Martin

We would never, and have never sold any email addresses to any one. MSE doesn't data mine and our list is private and never given out (either forum or main email list).

Yet we have had reports from a few (see below) of peoples email that they used uniquely to register for the forum receiving similar spam. We're trying to track down what's happened.

So if its happened to you (specifically for emails you have NEVER used anywhere else, never posted on the forum, and only used to register in the forum) please would you email us at

spamreport @moneysavingexpert.com with the date and e-mail address that received the spam, your Forum username and if you wouldn't mind, your ESP and registrar of your domain if it's a personal one. So we can try and check it out.

savemoney

NO spammers send millions of emails and use software to send it out or someone pc which can send all computations of a email address

example

johnsmith@myisp.net
johnsmith1@myisp.net
johnsmith2@myisp.net

pelago

I suppose that is possible, but the email address I chose to use for the registration for this site is not as guessable as that.

tyllwyd

I do a similar thing when I do online shopping, and recently started getting spam on a couple of shop-specific emails that I hadn't used for a few years.

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

pelago wrote: »

I suppose that is possible, but the email address I chose to use for the registration for this site is not as guessable as that.

Hi pelago

Just to confirm we would NEVER sell, give away, nor (I sincerely hope) lose our email list. It is held securely in the strictest confidence.

However I will certainly make the technical team aware of your post so we can double check everything our end to ensure there is nothing out of the ordinary going on.

superscaper

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Hi pelago

Just to confirm we would NEVER sell, give away, nor (I sincerely hope) lose our email list. It is held securely in the strictest confidence.

However I will certainly make the technical team away of your post so we can double check everything our end to ensure there is nothing out of the ordinary going on.

Always possible, I do the same thing as the OP, except I now have in the region of 350+ unique emails for one domain. I've definitely recieved spam to one in the past that was an address given to a company (not MSE) that didn't intentionally give away emails. I informed them of my unique email system and told them of the spam I received and after investigation they found their emailing system on one of their servers had been compromised and had a malicious script installed.

Not saying it's happened here, but it's not impossible and I fully commend the OP's system use of email.

savemoney

I have a email address which I got from my isp I rarely give it out I have several gmail/hotmail account for specific reasons, shopping, sites I dont trust

Yet I get spam addressed to my isp email addy

which [EMAIL="ismyusername@myisp.co.uk"]ismyusername@myisp.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Only one account I dont get spam is because its a really awkward one to recall with a name that doesn't make sense

pelago wrote: »

I suppose that is possible, but the email address I chose to use for the registration for this site is not as guessable as that.

moonrakerz

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

Hi pelago

Just to confirm we would NEVER sell, give away, nor (I sincerely hope) lose our email list. It is held securely in the strictest confidence.

However I will certainly make the technical team away of your post so we can double check everything our end to ensure there is nothing out of the ordinary going on.

I have had the same thing, my e-mail address is pretty unusual too, but "a million monkeys on a million typewriters.......... "
Today's effort purported to come from "Sigma Realty Group". If you look on their site they obviously use their domain for e-mail - mine asks me to reply to a ymail address.

I had a similar occurrence with Cunard about 12 months ago, I got in touch with them and explained the problem. They were fairly dismissive but said they would investigate and call me back. They didn't so I rang them again about 10 days later - this time they said they had had "problems" in this area but didn't elaborate.
Someone had hacked in ??

spud17

Interesting, probably not connected, but one of my Gmail addresses, used for MSE, amongst others, has not had a single spam email in 2 years, until 6 weeks ago.
I'm careful about addresses and the only other place in the last 6 months that I've used it, is with Natwest.

I now have dodgy looking lottery emails with Toyota in the title, and they all come from yahoo.com, and one claiming to be a reply to an advert on a dating site.

The address is an amalgam of my first name and uncommon surname, and not easily guessable.

Note I have not opened any, merely hovered over them and deciphered headings.

pelago

moonrakerz wrote: »

I have had the same thing, my e-mail address is pretty unusual too, but "a million monkeys on a million typewriters.......... "
Today's effort purported to come from "Sigma Realty Group". If you look on their site they obviously use their domain for e-mail - mine asks me to reply to a ymail address.

The email I got today to my only-ever-given-to-MSE email address was also from an @ymail address, advertising "Sigma Realty Group", interestingly.

moonrakerz

pelago wrote: »

The email I got today to my only-ever-given-to-MSE email address was also from an @ymail address, advertising "Sigma Realty Group", interestingly.

Mmmmm, interesting - the plot thickens ! They are either VERY good at guessing unusual e-mail addresses or they got them from the same source !

Additional Later Thought:

According to the stats, 127 people have now viewed this thread; of these 2, who use a traceable method for e-mails, have received junk from the same source. The overwhelming majority of people using this site will use conventional addressing, so if they get junk from Sigma Realty Group they would have no idea of how this company might have got hold of their e-mail address.
How many have ??