Has Confused.com sold my email address?

Lanky_Streak

After using the internet for years I have become weary of spam emails so now whenever I register with a new website I always create a brand-new, never-used email address for that site so that I can recognise, and if necessary block, any emails from that one site.

Last year I registered with Confused.com, and gave a unique email address that actually includes the words confused.com within it. I then obtained motor insurance quotes. Since then I have received the occasional marketing email from that website which is fair enough.

However this morning I have received a spam email from the Roxy Palace Casino offering me up to a 100 euro bonus if I play their 'exciting new online fruit machines'! I have never visited an online casino and this email was sent to the unique (and not readily guessed) email address I have only ever given to Confused.com.

So are Confused.com cynically exploiting their customer lists by selling them to generate extra revenue? How else could this casino have obtained an email address I have only ever shared with confused.com?

Quentin

Expect this whenever you give away your email - though you can't pin it on confused as you will have agreed they could pass it on to their "partners", so any one of them could have sold it on. (And they do point out they don't "guarantee" you won't get spam because they do pass on your details>)

If you use special spam addresses for this kind of thing, does it really matter?

lisyloo

Did you read their privacy policy?
Did you tick the right boxes?

Normally there is a box to tick to say whether you want to receive email from selected 3rd parties (that's anyone they sell it to, to you and me).
Sometimes you have to tick and box, sometimes it's untick, sometimes it's yes and sometimes it's no, so you have to carefully read the question.

It's not necessarily against the Ts&Cs of what you agreed to.

Personally I jsut put mickey.mouse@aol.com and 01234 567890 and if I want to take the quote further I can contact the company myself.

Lanky_Streak

Does it really matter? Well Quentin, in this case it doesn't matter to me because I can easily block that one email address but I suspect most people don't go to such elaborate lengths as me and therefore, having registered with Confused.com in good faith, they may be bombarded with all kinds of spam and have no means to stop it.

Please do not trivialise the menace that spam emails have become. It costs the economy millions each year and wastes the time of all internet users.

Lanky_Streak

If only it were that simple lisyloo. I always read the Ts & Cs and I carefully untick any boxes that allow them to share my details with their 'partners'. In the case of Confused.com you have to give a valid email address in order to use their website.

Quentin

Lanky_Streak wrote: »

I always read the Ts & Cs and I carefully untick any boxes that allow them to share my details with their 'partners'. In the case of Confused.com you have to give a valid email address in order to use their website.

You specifically agreed to their ts + cs and their privacy policy which does point out they don't guarantee no spam. So whats your point?

You have been "bombarded" with one spam email after over a year and are making all these waves about it!!

What is your real agenda in joining MSE and starting this thread??

lisyloo

In the case of Confused.com you have to give a valid email address in order to use their website.

I would simply use other insurance search engines then.

I can see what you are saying but most of us just have to get on with life.

So are Confused.com cynically exploiting their customer lists by selling them to generate extra revenue?

Get real.
Every single company you deal with is interested in your details.

You do not know that your email has been sold.
A laptop could have been stolen from a train or they could have been hacked into or someone on the inside could have stolen your details.

I would just move on and get on with your life.

Lanky_Streak

Ouch! I didn't realise I was "making all these waves". I merely visited a forum where I thought others might be interested in, or benefit from, my experience. That was my "real agenda". Nothing more.

This isn't a unique experience for me. I have learnt that once one organisation, in this case the Roxy Palace Casino, has my email address it very quickly propagates so that within weeks that address will be receiving daily messages from people selling pharmaceuticals or informing me that I'm due an inheritance from a Nigerian banker I've never met. So my post wasn't motivated by concern about that one email, and I didn't actually say I'd been bombarded.

Quentin

Lanky_Streak wrote: »

Ouch! I didn't realise I was "making all these waves". I merely visited a forum where I thought others might be interested in, or benefit from, my experience. That was my "real agenda". Nothing more.

Better advice would be that if you don't want to get spam emails, then don't agree to ts + cs that specifically warn you that stopping spam emails cannot be guaranteed!

This is all your fault - you happily ticked the box saying you had read the privacy policy.

Now you get one spam message over a year later and want to warn us about confused?? When they warned you at the time?? Come off it!

lisyloo

I am interested and thanks.
Next time I want a ball park for buying a particular model of car or some such, I will use a different engine.

I do hate spam as well and there is a logical reason.
When I was on holiday recently on fairly slow wifi it took me ages (and cost me real money) to get past all the spam emails to the real ones.

I have now unsubsribed from most things and I use TPS for phone and MPS and "door-to-door" opt out for snail mail.
I also make copious use of false phone phone numers and emails unless I think there is a genuine reason for someone to call me.
Ticketmaster did text me on my mobile when a concert was cancelled which was very useful as it saved me travelling, but I'm pretty careful about giving out real details these days and rarely enter competitions.

Lanky_Streak

Thank you lisyloo. I'm gratified that you 'get it'. Your care when sharing your personal data does you credit and mirrors my own attempts to protect myself and my family from unwanted intrusion into our life.

We have found the TPS to be of limited benefit and have been regularly pestered with calls from a household name double glazing company whose staff have never heard of the TPS and tell me that they have a machine that just dials every number for a given area, detecting the unavailable ones and moving on to the next.

Quentin is of course correct that ultimately more fool me for using Confused.com. I took the trouble to protect myself but I just wanted to warn others about sharing their personal email address with what they might naively consider to me a trustworthy organisation just because they advertise on TV. I suspect that many users of these websites don't take time to read the privacy policy.