email addressed to a bloke named Stephen

fiendishly

I have started getting lots of emails from different companies addressed to a 'Stephen Thursfield"
Does anyone know why this might have happened?
Has my email been compromised?

Browntoa

suspect not, i'm getting loads of emails for loads of different names at the moment

symy@nufc

same here!!!:mad: im even spamming myself some how??:mad:

nealallen

Yep, getting them too, also as attatchments. Just block the sender and delete the emails.

superscaper

nealallen wrote: »

Just block the sender and delete the emails.

Agree with second part, first part is a waste of time. The sender is probably going to be unique each time and the spam wouldn't have actually come from there anyway. The "from" address is almost always spoofed.

It's times like these I'm glad I have a zero spam system.

fiendishly

How do you manage that then? Whenever I try spam filtering it gets rid of loads of good stuff as well.

superscaper

fiendishly wrote: »

How do you manage that then? Whenever I try spam filtering it gets rid of loads of good stuff as well.

I don't have any spam filtering. I just use my own domain and give anyone I sign up with their own address (eg [EMAIL="amazon@mydomain.co.uk"]amazon@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL]) they all then forward to a unique address I don't give out to anyone, eg [EMAIL="fg34h4nrh34@mydomain.co.uk"]fg34h4nrh34@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL]. If I did get any spam I'd know instantly which company gave away my details and I can easily replace that email address (eg [EMAIL="amazon2@mydomain.co.uk"]amazon2@mydomain.co.uk[/EMAIL]) or just delete it altogether without affecting everything else.

Because it simply comes down to the way I manage my addresses there's no wasted time and processing spam filtering and no lost email due to accidentally being labelled as spam.

superscaper

Al_Mac wrote: »

You do have spam filtering then, although it appears to be manual

Not really, I don't actually filter anything, there's not much effort or anything. It was mostly in the setup in adding all the addresses to my forwarding list but considering I don't really sign up with anyone new any more, I'm already signed up with likes of amazon etc. I don't even have to think about spam any more. The extent of my manual work on my email these days is simply checking my inbox. Even to begin with there's no filtering, it's more of an email strategy and having greater control over who has your addresses. And you can just stop any influx immediately if there's a problem with one of the addresses. Even then I've never had any real spam, I've had a few phishing emails since I started this system only to email addresses I gave to Aria and RGMedia. I informed them they had a security leak (which they dutifully ignored) and I simply deleted those two addresses and replaced the Aria one. And I now know to be wary of those companies with my details. In the case of RGMedia, it's a small company so I'll just never deal with them ever again. Simple.
Trust me it's far far less work than receiving lots of spam or the work left over from spam filtering (how many people would actually 100% trust a spam filter, I bet they all still actually have to waste time looking through for false positives).

superscaper

Al_Mac wrote: »

OK it's a strategy

What it comes down to is what do you do on a day to day basis for your email. For me these days I simply look at my inbox, nothing more. Every single email in there is genuine, either to me specifically or something I've signed up for. I don't have to look in a spam folder "just to make sure". Where's the manual filtering in that?

Longer timescale; maybe every other week or less I'll sign up with a new website, I give an email address (which everyone does) which at the same time I'll add to my forwarding list (maybe a few extra seconds).

I'd say overall I do less manual work on my email than someone with a very good spam filter. The whole point in the first place is reducing the actual work you have to do. If you can point out anywhere that takes me more time and effort than the few seconds in adding an address to a forwarding list feel free. As I said even then day to day I only have to look at my inbox (and nowhere else) which contains 100% solicited mail. How can you possibly get more efficient than that? I'm an extremely lazy person, it would be in my interest in finding the method with least effort.

That's what I meant by strategy, it's all to do with HOW I do things which is different from most people but that doesn't mean I'm putting more work into it.

Poppycat

I get loads of spam but tend to get emails sent to gmail and they have fairly good spam filters then thats sent to my outlook and any that do get through I block with my trend internet security spam filter and it gets removed straight away

NEVER OPEN ATTACHMENTS UNLESS YOU RECOGNIZE THE EMAIL SENDER AND EVEN THEN HAVE A AV (ANTI VIRUS) INSTALLED

grievousangel

I've been getting emails addressed to a 'Lee Leighton'. I've got his online poker password for Pacific Poker, his mobile phone number from his Carphone Warehouse contract and his scores from online gaming at EA Sports.

How does this happen? What can I do about it? Is he getting my emails? Should I give him a ring on his mobile?