# I'm being inundated with Ophthalmology spam! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892 "2025-09-09T17:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/1 "2025-09-09T17:25:32Z")
I am not an ophthalmologist, nor even a medical doctor of any flavor whatsoever. But starting around five months ago I began receiving emails with sender-names and subject lines like these (this set fetched from today’s inbox): Ophthalmology at NYU Langone Join NYU Langone’s Ophthalmology Grand Rounds Paradigm Medical Communications OPHTHALMOLOGY SPECIAL EDITION SEPTEMBER 2025 Ophthalmology Management Your Patients Are Skipping Drops—Here’s a Seamless Way to Stop It Retina from The Ophthalmologist Can AI predict eye damage before it happens? engagephysicians.newsletter.broadcastmed dot com Updates in Ophthalmology I didn’t sign up or register for any such newsletters, services, sites. I do not go to an ophthalmologist. You figure it’s maybe the kind of profession where any time they get a doctor’s email address they immediately sell it to some master list of eye doctors, and someone typo’d their email address as mine? Or do you think it more likely that someone chose a strange way of poking at me with amusement and malice? I’ve gotten some odd types of spam email over the years but rarely such a thick cluster all focused on a topic so thoroughly irrelevant to me. (Not counting subtypes of porn and sexual aids… I think everyone gets all of those whether they wish to meet cute Asian ladies or have a penis to enlarge or not). ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/2 "2025-09-09T17:34:31Z")
Congratulations! Someone thinks you’re an ophthalmologist. Keep blocking/ignoring/deleting this spam, and at some point, it will stop being sent to you. You were somehow added to the list, and it will take many months/years before the list is updated and you disappear from it. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/3 "2025-09-09T20:24:04Z")
You should start sending them back blurry unsubscribe requests… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/4 "2025-09-09T20:27:24Z")
Heh! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/5 "2025-09-09T21:46:26Z")
Eye Caramba! \*name of an actual glasses store where we used to live. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/6 "2025-09-09T22:08:18Z")
It sounds like someone need to provide an email address to get something but didn’t want to get put on a thousand spam lists, so he gave them yours. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/7 "2025-09-09T22:15:12Z")
Maybe there’s an ophthalmologist with your name out there somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/8 "2025-09-09T22:21:30Z")
Both of those possibilities came to my own mind – someone with a similar name and an email account on the same domain made a typo that matched my email address, or someone invented an email address to avoid giving out their own. Also the possibility that it was more personal, but who the hell gets revenge or a sense of sticking it to the dude by signing them up for ophthalmology correspondence? ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/9 "2025-09-09T22:24:31Z")
Try unsubscribing from each one - if they are a legit operation, they will honor the request. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/10 "2025-09-09T22:50:03Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Also the possibility that it was more personal, but who the hell gets revenge or a sense of sticking it to the dude by signing them up for ophthalmology correspondence? Naah, I just can’t see that. [Somebody had to do it. 😉] ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/11 "2025-09-09T22:50:40Z")
[blinks] ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/12 "2025-09-09T23:42:12Z")
I used to get regular emails for 2 different people who somehow kept using my email address. One was a Canadian mother whose son is a representative hockey goalie, the other was a Vietnam vet helicopter pilot. They have stopped now though. But, while I’m posting, would the OP recommend that I keep using the eyedrops for my glaucoma or just bite the bullet and have the laser surgery? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/13 "2025-09-10T23:19:06Z")
I get endless spam from people who claim they have seen my web site and want a list of products I could sell them. I am tempted to tell them I can provide cartesian products, tensor products, fiber products, and even shuffle products. I have refrained from doing so as it might encourage them. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/14 "2025-09-11T02:20:11Z")
And if they aren’t legit, you have confirmed that a real person is on the other end, and they will sell your name as a _confirmed_ contract. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/15 "2025-09-11T03:55:52Z")
Yeah, that’s a risk, but doing nothing works worse. Unsubscribing has kept my Gmail inbox pretty clean, but I haven’t dealt with opthalmology spam. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/16 "2025-09-11T09:53:19Z")
A little googling can readily determine whether any particular url is legit or unknown. Can’t prove it scammy, but can prove it legit. So unsubscribe from the provably legit. And configure a filter to delete the rest. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/17 "2025-09-11T11:28:18Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > but who the hell gets revenge or a sense of sticking it to the dude by signing them up for ophthalmology correspondence? No one can forsee how your enemies get revenge, and what is seen cannot be unseen. If you view this through a certain lens, the optics are not good. Ok. I’ll see myself out. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/18 "2025-09-11T12:28:08Z")
Your rose-colored glasses are showing again. If we squint just right, it’s easy to read the facts just as they are. And they spell out DEFPOTEC. Revenge works in strange and wondrous ways. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/19 "2025-09-11T16:06:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Naah, I just can’t see that. > > [Somebody had to do it. 😉] ::Pokes the wise guy in the eyes:: _Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!_ ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892/20 "2025-09-11T17:09:08Z")
What you are experiencing is what happened to me in the ‘80s. I made myself an enemy, and he constantly placed my info in every postage -paid ad he saw. I received spam (in snail-mail form) for the next 2 years when I moved to another city and it finally stopped. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-being-inundated-with-ophthalmology-spam/1022892.md?page=2)