Has Confused.com sold my email address?

hollie.weimeraner

If you don't wish to be spammed when visiting comparison sites but still need access to certain emails then thre is an excellent site called mailinator.com that allows you to select them for your email address eg [EMAIL="mickey@mailinator.com"]mickey@mailinator.com[/EMAIL] but you can still have access in case you wish to recall some of your quotes. It's also a totally free service;)

lisyloo

and means that someone has sold a mailing list which is a breech of the law and should be investigated by Confused

IMO (and I have tried to follow these things through before) it is unlikely to yield anything satisfactory.
If the data could have been validly given/sold to other partners then it could have been a breach from ANY one of those partners.
Plus it could be untraceable e.g. an employee recording email addresses.
It will just end with a fobbing off letter.

If there was a widespread problem then I would agree with taking action, but just not worth it for one email unless you really do have nothing better to do.

Quentin

vaio wrote: »

Spam from casinos and (tomorrow) from Viagra shops isn’t and means that someone has sold a mailing list which is a breech of the law and should be investigated by Confused

You need to get a grip on reality.

The OP is upset because she has received one spam email more than a year after giving her address. (The address used seems to have been set up as a trap anyway!).

How much do you think anyone is going to use up time/money resources investigating this.

(And it doesn't necessarily follow that the address was sold on via confused or their partners)

vaio

Quentin wrote: »

.......How much do you think anyone is going to use up time/money resources investigating this........

Don’t know but Confused seem to think it’s an important enough issue to ask people to report instances in their privacy policy......

You should therefore not receive any communication from any third parties, other than outlined in this Privacy Statement. Although we cannot guarantee this, we do have contractual arrangements in place to prevent such communication, so please let us know if you do experience problems other than outlined above by emailing [EMAIL="communications@confused.com"]communications@confused.com[/EMAIL].

Lanky_Streak

Quentin wrote: »

You need to get a grip on reality.

The OP is upset because she has received one spam email more than a year after giving her address.

A quick update for the benefit of Quentin who doesn't seem to understand that once the genie is out of the bottle (i.e. an email address is in the hands of spammers) the situation quickly gets worse as the spammers trade addresses amongst themselves.

For the record I have now received four spam emails (3 from online casinos and one informing me that I have won a "£1 million Exxon Mobil cash award" that I can claim by writing to an email address in China) since 7am today. I confidently predict that the number of these spam emails will grow exponentially.

Therefore Quentin my motivation to post had nothing to do with one spam email, it was for what I confidently predict will be over 100 by the New Year. Some people use their work email addresses to visit Confused.com in their lunch-breaks and incoming spam for companies can be a major and costly headache, not the trivial irritation that you seem to suggest.

Quentin

Lanky_Streak wrote: »

A quick update for the benefit of Quentin who doesn't seem to understand that once the genie is out of the bottle (i.e. an email address is in the hands of spammers) the situation quickly gets worse as the spammers trade addresses amongst themselves.

You seemingly expected this over a year ago when you visited the website and set up a unique address.

The savvy amongst us know what to expect!

But seeing as it has taken over a year to surface, could it possibly be that this address has been obtained from some other source??

jennikitten

Lanky_Streak wrote: »

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.

Or they can forward the email to mail@unsubscribe.com which will remove them from the mailing list. Limit is 5 spam emails over a certain period unless you want to pay: http://unsubscribe.com

no-oneknowsme

For the record I have now received four spam emails (3 from online casinos and one informing me that I have won a "£1 million Exxon Mobil cash award" that I can claim by writing to an email address in China) since 7am today. I confidently predict that the number of these spam emails will grow exponentially.

[/QUOTE

Come to think of it i get loads of spam emails from online casinos an such like and i have put that email addy into confused.com before

I get on average 10 spams per day.....some from companys flogging viagra , some selling medication and some from girls who would love my company:eek:

My virgin media mail catches them before they get to my inbox and every few days i just glance through it to check no legit mail has been sent there before i bin them !!!

Its no biggie though and i dont let them bother me .

dacouch

Not sure if confused do it, but there is an anecdotal evidence that if you enter in some comparison websites that you have had a non fault claim, that you start receiving calls / emails from ambulance chasers offering their services

WhiteHorse

lisyloo wrote: »

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

I do exactly the same thing.