For the past few weeks I’ve been getting spam, usually for “education” like nursing school, or online universities, and the subject line starts with my mom’s first name. The emails come in with the “low priority” down arrow (if they sneak it by me I’m more likely to read it?).
This happened a couple years ago, I told my mom not to give my email address out ever, for any reason. I have no idea where she would have entered it to get me spammed. I haven’t listed her name anywhere, which is why I suspect she did something (probably unwittingly) to get spam for her, sent to me.
I don’t open them, I just list them as junk, so I’m not going to “unsubscribe” (I Know that trick). She did make a comment a few months ago about something, which lead me to believe she actually clicks banner ads. I told her not to stop doing that.
Maybe nothing at all - spam is often cobbled together with forged headers and addressees based on information harvested from other emails captured containing the information together - if you mother has a friend who likes forwarding glurge or scare emails to all of their contacts, it’s easy for the information in the spam you’re receiving to have been harvested.
Block it on your mail server if you can, or filter it in your mail client. There’s not a lot else you can do about this or indeed most spam.
I don’t know how to make some of the spam go away. I’ve been getting spam for over ten years addressed to “Amanda Eakins.” I do not know anyone by that name, I’ve never signed up for anything under that name, and no portion of that name appears in my email address. They all start, “Dear Amanda.” I don’t know how I got on a list under that name over ten years ago, but apparently the list keeps getting sold, and resold, and resold…
Whereas I’ve had to yell at my husband, repeatedly, for using my email address as a contact email. If he wants to give out HIS OWN damned email address, I don’t care. But I don’t want him giving out mine, especially if it’s something that HE primarily uses. He says that I check my email more often than he checks his, which is true. However, I’m NOT going to forward emails to his account when he should have given the right address in the first place.
He got the message when I cancelled the cable. I don’t watch TV, except on very rare occasions. The cable company kept sending me “important consumer announcements” and wouldn’t quit, so I cancelled the account and moved the rest of the messages into my spam folder. But this behavior is NOT a woman thing.
Lynn: you seem to very often be the exception to the gender stereotype rules !
Wombat: Are you talking about your SDMB email, or another one that is usually public? I could see someone signing you up for something like that as a joke, not realizing it would be so hard to get rid of.
Either that or she is signing up for the stuff and absent-mindedly entering your e-mail address.
I’ve been getting e-mail for a guy in Australia, he keeps entering his e-mail address incorrectly on sites and his mistake happens to be my e-mail address. Unfortunately these sites don’t confirm the information they’re given.
No, I’m speaking about my personal email address that I’ve had for many years (my own domain).
The oddest thing about the “Amanda” emails is that I suddenly started getting them on one of my business email addresses as well, about 6 or 7 years ago. I can’t remember ever having linked those two addresses in any way, but someone somewhere must have connected them.
