Spam from MoneySavingExpert

orie0505

I've just received the spam email below, sent to an address I created uniquely for use with MoneySavingExpert (DELETED). Has anyone else received spam like this? If so, it seems like MSE has a security breach.

Tim

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From: evris <evris@passaris.com>
To: tyler.glessing <DELETED>

Our business occupation covers looking for non-staff workers for various companies and firms. Now we carry on cooperation with a work-giver who proposes several work positions of partial and full employment in the United Kingdom.

We advise you to apply for the vacant position in case you may work at least 3 hours per day and you are responsible. Another demand is your dwelling-place in the UK.

If you become interested, consider the following to learn more about this possibility:

scotsjobs.info

Former_MSE_Webmaster

Hi orie0505,

We've had a look into this and can find no record of recent breaches.

Can I refer you to this post please. It is most likely that if your e-mail address was harvested from the Forum, it would've happened during this time.

orie0505

Thanks for the response. This is the first time I've received spam to this unique MSE address, but I suppose it could have been harvested back in 2009.

withabix

You will probably get a lot more now that you have posted your email address.....

MSE_Martin

withabix wrote: »

You will probably get a lot ore now that you have posted your email address.....

Quite - and if you've ever posted your email address on this forum (or any other) that is Im afraid without doubt the cause. Email senders harvest forums for adddresses.

I've deleted yours from your post to help

orie0505

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Quite - and if you've ever posted your email address on this forum (or any other) that is Im afraid without doubt the cause. Email senders harvest forums for adddresses.

I've deleted yours from your post to help

Nice try, but I'm afraid the cause is without doubt a security breach with your servers.

Clue: the "MY DOMAIN" in "moneysavingexpert@MY-DOMAIN.com" in my original post was an obscured reference to my web domain (surprise surprise!). It is not my domain name.

Cheers

Browntoa

I've been a member since 2004 , never had a problem with this ??

just checked spam folders for the email account for here and nothing at all

orie0505

Browntoa wrote: »

I've been a member since 2004 , never had a problem with this ??

just checked spam folders for the email account for here and nothing at all

It's good to hear it's not a widespread problem. Most users wouldn't be able to know if their email has been compromised by MSE, unless they registered with a uniquely-created email address.

The 2009 post linked to above concedes that "the number of reports by users with unique e-mail addresses makes it difficult to argue against the fact that at least some of our Forum e-mail database has fallen into the hands of spammers". So there we have it.

I'm not sure quite why it's taken this long before I received my first spam to this address, but who can fathom the perverse minds of spammers!?!

If it gets worse, I'll just re-register with a new address and block the old one. No harm done.

Pound

I received some spam to my unique MSE Forums address in July 2009. I've since changed the email address that is registered on these forums. I've also just received the same spam that the OP received but it was to the address I used pre-July/09, the new email address didn't receive this spam.

savemoney

Spammers have various ways of getting spam to you mostly illegal

They have spiders that patrol web sites looking for valid email addresses, they also have programs that can send mass emails based on algorithms so it can be sent to myname1@aol.com myname2@aol.com and so on so they will eventually strike lucky

Until we find a way of people being charged to send emails and even then compromised pc can be used we will never stop spam

My advice get a gmail account they have very good spam filtering it stops 99+% of all spam