# "Ed Zotti sent you a private message on Feed Share - please respond" **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686 "2010-04-29T00:07:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/1 "2010-04-29T00:07:55Z")
> [@a spam email](#): > > Ed Zotti has added you as a friend > Is Ed Zotti your friend? > > Click Yes if Ed Zotti is your friend, otherwise click No. But you have to click! > Please respond or Ed Zotti may think you said no ☹ Anyone else get this? (Oh, and no, I did NOT click… seen this sort of thing before). ---
**Author:** ![Terry\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Terry\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terry_Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/2 "2010-04-29T00:29:25Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Anyone else get this? > > (Oh, and no, I did NOT click… seen this sort of thing before). Yup. Got it around 5 PM EDT. I PM’d Ed about it, since the phishbot used the email address I only used to register here. It is obviously crawling the board pulling out profile info. Haven’t heard back yet (but it has only been an hour or two). ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/3 "2010-04-29T00:30:21Z")
Yeah, I got it. I got it to a different email than I use on this site though. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/4 "2010-04-29T00:34:24Z")
Yeah, a few of the mods got this, including me. It’s spam. Just delete it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/5 "2010-04-29T00:47:43Z")
Yes, I got this. I actually tried to respond, but I backed out when it asked for my Yahoo password. I forwarded the email to Ed’s AOL address, and then came here 'cause I thought someone might have done a thread on it. This seems a little too targeted to just be spam. I’m concerned that someone may have hacked member account information – someone who knows enough about the place to use Ed’s name, which we would all recognize. Now maybe something just got into Ed’s personal email and got his address list, but I don’t why he personally woulf have my email address. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/6 "2010-04-29T00:51:05Z")
I got it too. I copied and pasted the “from” field: This sender is DomainKeys verified “Ed Zotti” \ I have no idea what “DomainKeys verified” means. Maybe DomainKeys are the ones used when singing “Spamalot”? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/7 "2010-04-29T01:16:57Z")
This reminds me of some other site which was trying to set itself up as a sort of social networking site, but actually got you to basically spam all your friends to try to set them up so it could spam _their_ friends etc. The one or two I got from _that_ site were actually from people I knew, doing like **Boyo Jim** did, only going that extra step. Though why Ed would have _my_ address in his file would be confusing; as we did actually exchange some emails just after I joined in 2003 and I requested a username change, but he wouldn’t have my _current_ address in his address book. And I checked the address I did use, back then, and it hasn’t gotten such a message. I’m guessing it’s as **Terry Kennedy** said - some sort of bot looking for addresses which aren’t hidden. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/8 "2010-04-29T01:23:24Z")
Some links: [http://www.samefacts.com/2009/10/uncategorized/if-you-get-an-email-from-something-called-feed-share/](http://www.samefacts.com/2009/10/uncategorized/if-you-get-an-email-from-something-called-feed-share/) [http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section\_id=679&doc\_id=182792](http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=679&doc_id=182792) What’s funny is, if they’d chosen almost _any_ other board user, I might have thought at first that it was a real person trying to contact me. I still don’t think I’d have signed in (because the message was almost verbatim what I saw some months back for another site)… but folks on the board have occasionally emailed me so it would be a _complete_ surprise. But by using Ed’s name, it was pretty obvious it was a scam. If Ed needed to get hold of me he’d have PM’ed me; if he needed to get hold of everyone, he’d have posted a sticky or something. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/9 "2010-04-29T01:26:46Z")
Has anyone gotten this who doesn’t have their email public? ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/10 "2010-04-29T02:25:55Z")
My apologies to all. Got suckered. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/11 "2010-04-29T02:29:15Z")
Does this mean you’re not my friend? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/12 "2010-04-29T02:38:07Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > My apologies to all. Got suckered. Shit as they say, sometimes happens. But we will still be your friend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/13 "2010-04-29T02:45:40Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Does this mean you’re not my friend? ☹ I’m everyone’s friend, except for the son of a bitch who dreamed this up. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/14 "2010-04-29T03:04:36Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I’m everyone’s friend, except for the son of a bitch who dreamed this up. Well that kind of sucks all the specialness out of it! Of course, I actually had a girl tell me once, “You’re not that special; I’ll pretty much sleep with anyone.” I didn’t let it bother me too much! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/15 "2010-04-29T03:10:24Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Yes, I got this. I actually tried to respond, but I backed out when it asked for my Yahoo password. Same here. I thought it was an SDMB friend request. When it asked me for a password I cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/16 "2010-04-29T04:31:25Z")
So if I were to reply, what Bad Thing would happen? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/17 "2010-04-29T04:43:46Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > So if I were to reply, what Bad Thing would happen? Based on it getting passwords, I’d guess it’d at the very least probe your account for other people to say it came from you. And now that they have your account info, there’s no reason they couldn’t log in and use you as a spam bot. That’s what happened when my account got hacked (albeit by just brute force. I had a lousy password.) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/18 "2010-04-29T04:44:16Z")
I dunno for sure. But it prompted me for my Yahoo password, which would have given it my email address book, and some personal information as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/19 "2010-04-29T05:27:19Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > My apologies to all. Got suckered. Don’t take this the wrong way, but have you or the SD board made an announcement either on the boards or via email to not respond to that request? It may have gone out to thousands of people, some of whom may have taken it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686/20 "2010-04-29T10:24:15Z")
I got this as well. Fooled me for a moment, but then when it started requesting passwords and stuff, I didn’t take it any further. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ed-zotti-sent-you-a-private-message-on-feed-share-please-respond/537686.md?page=2)