Ordered some stuff from a UK online bike shop (who shall remain nameless so far…).

For every online shop I use I put in a unique email address (they all get redirected back to my proper email account) just in case it gets into the ether.

Lo and behold I’ve got some dodgy emails that can only have been [passed to the spammer from this shop – I’m going to have a word with the shop but is there anybody else I should contact too. I just don’t want the shop to go “yeah yeah yeah, your security is important to us” and ignore it.

they probably have some clause in their privacy policy that allows them to share your details with selected other partners, or some such shite

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

unless there was an opt in when you registered then as above, contact the ico.

I wouldn;t even bother contacting the shop, tbh.

or of course the spammer is just generating random addresses and got lucky….

For every online shop I use I put in a unique email address

Really? 😯

I’ve got one email address which I use for everything. I cannot see the point of anything more complicated. What’s that supposed to achieve?

For every online shop I use I put in a unique email address (they all get redirected back to my proper email account) just in case it gets into the ether.

Do you work for MI6?

It’s quite a good way of filtering spam etc.

You can also have a separate password for each one and associate them easily via one of the password vault type apps.

I guess it depends how careful you are and how many shops you use online 😉

What’s that supposed to achieve?

what it has done, show you who’s sharing your info. Creating seperate email aliases that all point to the same email account isn’t difficult to do.

I have 2 emails, one for when i’m buying online so all the junk just goes in there

IanMunro – Member

For every online shop I use I put in a unique email address (they all get redirected back to my proper email account) just in case it gets into the ether.

Do you work for MI6?

quite a common thing to do with lots of the IT guys i know…

I do the same as the OP. Use the website name. then I am able to see who is spamming / has weak security.

Allows me to auto delete spam.

tis great and not in the least complicated

I have a spam filter, tis great and not the least bit complicated 🙂

I never see the spam, gmail is very effective at detecting and filtering it.

Do you work for MI6?

[quote]quite a common thing to do with lots of the IT guys i know… [/quote]They’re only fantasising

What do you mean by Spam though – unwanted marketing from other businesses or nigerian scammers, viagra, russian brides and the like?

What do you mean by Spam though – unwanted marketing from other businesses or nigerian scammers, viagra, russian brides and the like?

A ‘book order’ (in dollars!) that looked like it linked to a dodgy site for me to log into. And an attachment (zip file presumably with virus) for me to open for the invoice.

Definitely wasn’t similar bike shops/establishments that would like my business…

Really?

I’ve got one email address which I use for everything. I cannot see the point of anything more complicated. What’s that supposed to achieve?

I have 38,480 in my achieve, only 18% full too 😉

Hoe can you be sure that it was just anyone and everyone standard junk?

They might have been hacked. It’s common for lists of customer email addrs to be sold to spammers or added to hacker lists.

I’ve got one email address which I use for everything. I cannot see the point of anything more complicated. What’s that supposed to achieve?

I think that’s fairly clear from the OP – it’s to detect this sort of unscrupulous behaviour. Dead easy to do if you have your own domain name.

I’ve got one email address which I use for everything. I cannot see the point of anything more complicated. What’s that supposed to achieve?

It’s also easy to do if you have a gmail address just by addint ‘+’ plus a name e.g.
leffeboy@gmail.com
leffeboy+crc@gmail.com
leffeboy+rose@gmail.com

are all the same email address as far as google are concerned but I can then filter them out.

I don’t though because I can’t be arsed 🙂
and I don’t have that email address

I guess it depends how careful you are and how many shops you use online

Loads. And Loads.
I cannot be bothered with loads of email addresses and gmail seems to filter 100% of spam away before I see it, as Jota says above.

then I am able to see who is spamming / has weak security.

I don’t care about either. If anyhting untoward happens it’s on a credit card and covered by them

This all just seems a) Unneccesarily complicated b) Slightly paranoid.

🙂

I’d do a bit more digging as it might have been an ‘unofficial’ passing on.

However, if it wasn’t unofficial, and having had to deal with rather too many unsolicited (and aggressive)calls to my elderly/frail parents, where their details are being abused I may go as far as to suggest that you could potentially create a few adverts on some ‘dating’ sites where you could accidentally enter incorrect contact details

Why not just mark as spam and forget it ever happened or turn off the forwarding to your main email? You’ll then not see the emails again and not have to waste time worrying about something that is (in real terms) pretty unimportant.

🙂

I may go as far as to suggest that you could potentially create a few adverts on some ‘dating’ sites where you could accidentally enter incorrect contact details

Of course that could be abused the other way – change the email address to (say) crc@****.co.uk, and sign it up to lots of dodgy stuff.

This all just seems a) Unneccesarily complicated b) Slightly paranoid.

It really isn’t very complicated and personally, it’s a) interesting and b) allows filtering into different areas of my email

I don’t care about either

You use unique passwords for all these sites then, yes?

Otherwise, you should care, as it only takes one of them to be breached and be using reversible encryption (or no encryption) on your password and you’ve potentially just lost access to everything you use online.

You’ll then not see the emails again and not have to waste time worrying about something that is (in real terms) pretty unimportant.

So you’re cool with god know what details about you (email , address, credit card etc.) being passed around unscrupulous people as long as you go “lah lah lah, I didn’t see it, so it’s okay”? 😯

For every online shop I use I put in a unique email address
Really?

I’ve got one email address which I use for everything. I cannot see the point of anything more complicated. What’s that supposed to achieve?

Pete – a mate of mine does this.
All the emails come into the same email ‘inbox’, just with a different name to them.

i.e
CRC@petepoddy.com
wiggle@petepoddy.com
annsummers@petepoddy.com
swedinshmadepenisenargers@petepoddy.com

You can then tell ;where your email has drifted in from’, just like the OP.

DrP

This all just seems a) Unneccesarily complicated b) Slightly paranoid.

or the symptoms of a mild case of OCD.

I like a clean inbox, so have rules that file incoming mail to certain folders depending on who the To: bit, easier that setting up a host of rules on the From: bit.

probably to much detail but any hoo each to there own, I wouldn’t worry about it

So you’re cool with god know what details about you (email , address, credit card etc.) being passed around unscrupulous people as long as you go “lah lah lah, I didn’t see it, so it’s okay”?

I only buy online from proper shops who have systems like Worldpay or Paypal portals so my card details are as safe as they can be anywhere. ID fraud protection on my accounts protects me in case anything like the CRC Worldpay hack ever happens again, and if a piece of “spam” or unsolicited email hits my inbox, I just delete it without opening. Simple.

A ‘book order’ (in dollars!) that looked like it linked to a dodgy site for me to log into. And an attachment (zip file presumably with virus) for me to open for the invoice.

Definitely wasn’t similar bike shops/establishments that would like my business…

thats evidently virus or hacking activity that the shop has been victim of, rather than a decision of theirs to share your info

They might have been hacked. It’s common for lists of customer email addrs to be sold to spammers or added to hacker lists.

That would worry me if I were using a credit card.

So you’re cool with god know what details about you (email , address, credit card etc.) being passed around unscrupulous people as long as you go “lah lah lah, I didn’t see it, so it’s okay”?

I honestly don’t give a flying toss, no.

Same system here. When dropbox were hacked it was obvious even before they admitted it as loads of spam started arriving to dropbox@mydomain.com

I just set my junk mail filter to exclusive and dont get any junk.

Had similar junk mail after buying from a certain well known site,ie an invoice and attached link,just sent to spam monster as i know i sent payment when order complete and senders e mail address was unknown.