# I Think all Mods/Admins should remove all dopers from their email contact lists, but I'll settle ... **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 12, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716 "2013-03-12T15:41:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [March 13, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/81 "2013-03-13T05:12:31Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Create a filter to send all emails originating from that website to the trash. Or block the senders. Or both. It doesn’t solve the problem of someone using your email for douchey crap but it keeps your inbox clean. As long as your password is secure, you’re safe though. All they can do is make an account for you and if you don’t confirm its registration, it will remain unactivated. I haven’t replied to any, but I looked at some, and they don’t all call for a verification email. Particularly scary was one from Pizza Hit, which said, “This is the first of many special offers you will receive…” and didn’t require a verification. If another arrives, I’ll look for a way to unsubscribe. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/82 "2013-03-13T05:36:08Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I haven’t replied to any, but I looked at some, and they don’t all call for a verification email. Particularly scary was one from Pizza Hit, which said, “This is the first of many special offers you will receive…” and didn’t require a verification. If another arrives, I’ll look for a way to unsubscribe. Yeah, definitely scary. I’d be contacting cyber security firms in your area if I were you. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/83 "2013-03-13T05:40:05Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I haven’t replied to any, but I looked at some, and they don’t all call for a verification email. Particularly scary was one from Pizza Hit, which said, “This is the first of many special offers you will receive…” and didn’t require a verification. If another arrives, I’ll look for a way to unsubscribe. Was it like a special offer you can’t refuse? When those Pizza guys put a Hit out on you, it’s definitely cause for concern. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/84 "2013-03-13T05:42:35Z")
Hey Jim, maybe you should just let it ride for tonight, get some rest and take a fresh look at the situation in the morning. The situation itself will be unchanged but perhaps your perspective may be a bit more circumspect. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/85 "2013-03-13T05:47:42Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Was it like a special offer you can’t refuse? When those Pizza guys put a Hit out on you, it’s definitely cause for concern. True. I once heard of a case where a guy got an email mentioning deep dish pizza _and_ breadsticks. I don’t need to tell you how that turned out. Suffice it to say that he “got a bit of indigestion,” if you know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/86 "2013-03-13T05:50:19Z")
Sleepin’ wid de anchovies. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/87 "2013-03-13T06:07:51Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I’m not worried about LinkdIn in particular. I’m worried about thousands of lesser known sites that one or more of the mods might visit, hit the wrong key, and provide email addresses of dozens or hundreds of precious snowflake members like me. 😛 I’m just kind of confused how this would ever happen. What button would I need to press in order to do this, even accidentally? Because I have no emails stored in any of my email accounts (I don’t use my address book in any of them)…so I’m not exactly sure how it would be possible. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/88 "2013-03-13T06:15:25Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I have just received nearly 100 more of these shit emails, all from different features of the same website. The total is up to about 120 now. My guess as to what happened–Your recent flood of spam is probably not connected to Ed’s accidental Linkedin thing. You had a publicly displayed email address in your user profile. Someone, possibly one or more of the members here, saw it, saw this thread, and decided to fuck with you by signing you up for various spam sites. That sucks, and whoever did it is an asshat, but you share the blame because you had a publicly displayed email address. There is no requirement that you display an email address here. You chose to do so. Anyone could have seen it and used it for good or ill. The same thing could happen to me or anyone else that has a public email address. This is not a SDMB problem. There is nothing they could have done, short of making it impossible for you to display an email address, that would have prevented this from happening. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/89 "2013-03-13T06:39:28Z")
Hey, you could send some of those Pizza Hut coupons my way – I like Pizza Hut. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/90 "2013-03-13T12:46:23Z")
It’s the Streisand Effect in action. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/91 "2013-03-13T12:54:44Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > I regret having foolishly clicked on that damn button but let’s not make this a bigger deal than it is. It’s what we do best. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/92 "2013-03-13T13:16:39Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > As far as I can tell, the only way to be safe is to have a separate email address for each and every entity that I ever correspond with. I will give up internet correspondence before I do that. I will explain this to you the same way I explained it to my 11-year-old child when we set up his first email address last year. You have one email address that you use for personal correspondence. That’s the one that you check daily and the one that you use for emailing teachers, friends, and others. You have another email address that you use for signing up for stuff. Any site that requires an email address for registration, you give it that one. Then if someone starts spamming you, it doesn’t matter, because you only use that email address for registration stuff and you don’t check it on a regular basis. As has already been explained to you, your contact information (or, as you continue to hilariously call it, your “data”) already exists in the address books of pretty much everyone you have ever corresponded with on the Internet. It is entirely possible and I would even say likely that some of these people have, whether deliberately or inadvertently, made your “data” public to other sites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. If this is the first time you’ve ever had this happen, you are very lucky, although I’m not sure “lucky” is the right word because this is honestly an incredibly small deal and I am sort of bewildered by your outrage. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/93 "2013-03-13T13:19:29Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I will explain this to you the same way I explained it to my 11-year-old child when we set up his first email address last year. > > You have one email address that you use for personal correspondence. That’s the one that you check daily and the one that you use for emailing teachers, friends, and others. > > You have another email address that you use for signing up for stuff. Any site that requires an email address for registration, you give it that one. Then if someone starts spamming you, it doesn’t matter, because you only use that email address for registration stuff and you don’t check it on a regular basis. > > As has already been explained to you, your contact information (or, as you continue to hilariously call it, your “data”) already exists in the address books of pretty much everyone you have ever corresponded with on the Internet. It is entirely possible and I would even say likely that some of these people have, whether deliberately or inadvertently, made your “data” public to other sites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. If this is the first time you’ve ever had this happen, you are very lucky, although I’m not sure “lucky” is the right word because this is honestly an incredibly small deal and I am sort of bewildered by your outrage. Perfect post. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/94 "2013-03-13T14:05:12Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I’m just kind of confused how this would ever happen. What button would I need to press in order to do this, even accidentally? Because I have no emails stored in any of my email accounts (I don’t use my address book in any of them)…so I’m not exactly sure how it would be possible. It could happen to anyone who does use their address book. As it happened to Ed Zotti a few days ago in LinkdIn, when he accidentally gave them more than a thousand email addresses from his contact list to spam, including mine. There is an ATMB thread about it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/95 "2013-03-13T14:17:48Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > My guess as to what happened–Your recent flood of spam is probably not connected to Ed’s accidental Linkedin thing. You had a publicly displayed email address in your user profile. Someone, possibly one or more of the members here, saw it, saw this thread, and decided to fuck with you by signing you up for various spam sites.. Um, yeah, we all, including Jim knew this. He said so a couple of posts earlier. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/96 "2013-03-13T14:33:32Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Um, yeah, we all, including Jim knew this. He said so a couple of posts earlier. Yeah, but it’s more authoritative when \*\*Oakminster \*\*says it. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/97 "2013-03-13T15:28:21Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Definitely _First World Problem_. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: You’ld be _amazed what I could do_ at this point. Just STFU. Don’t make me _do_ it. I’d probably make it _look_ good. Just ignore the bodies… You are being Warned for “being a jerk” in this About This Message Board thread. There is room for disagreement in About This Message Board but you must be civil about it and this is way over the line. TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/98 "2013-03-13T16:50:43Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > You have another email address that you use for signing up for stuff. Any site that requires an email address for registration, you give it that one. Then if someone starts spamming you, it doesn’t matter, because you only use that email address for registration stuff and you don’t check it on a regular basis. And if you really want to get fancy, you use an email service like gmail, which allows you to generate an infinite number of unique addresses to give out to people just by adding a suffix to your address. Say you’re [boyojim@gmail.com](mailto:boyojim@gmail.com). When you sign up for the straight dope message board, you give them [boyojim+straightdope@gmail.com](mailto:boyojim+straightdope@gmail.com) as the address. When you sign up for linkedin, you give them [boyojim+linkedin@gmail.com](mailto:boyojim+linkedin@gmail.com) as the address. They all go to the same email box, so you still get the email, but if you decide one of them is too spammy, you don’t need to trust them to honor your unsubscribe request, because you can just create a filter that sends all email to boyojim+\@gmail.com to the trash. I’ve been doing this for at least 15 years now and it works flawlessly. Just about the only downside is that occasionally someone is confused when you’re giving your email address to them in person. “Wait, your email address is [boyojim+1800flowers@gmail.com](mailto:boyojim+1800flowers@gmail.com)? Are you sure?” ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/99 "2013-03-13T19:21:56Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > As it happened to Ed Zotti a few days ago in LinkdIn, when he accidentally gave them more than a thousand email addresses from his contact list to spam, including mine. There is an ATMB thread about it. Yes, I know. My point is…not all staff use it, so there’s not a huge case to why custom emails should be mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716/100 "2013-03-13T19:49:05Z")
I just checked my email, and there were over twenty emails in my junk mail folder, many offering me services to increase the size of my manhood. I know I did not request these services as I do not need these services, and so I am at a loss as to how they came to be sent to me. Can I also request that the admins check who has been looking at my profile, and please let me know the names of the people who might be sending me these emails. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-all-mods-admins-should-remove-all-dopers-from-their-email-contact-lists-but-ill-settle/652716.md?page=6)