Posted: Tue Apr 19, 05 3:21 pm Post subject: spam to "real name" style email addresses
waddyaknow, I'm using this site for work reasons again!
So my leedle IT gurus, agree with me on this one:
if you have an email address which is for example j_johnson at hotmail.com (not hotmail in this instance, but another well known ISP or webmail provider), ie, an initial and a not uncommon surname at a well known domain, is it really quite likely that you'll wind up getting spam even if you hardly give out the email address to anybody?
sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 05 3:25 pm Post subject:
I've got a real-name address at Hotmail and I get very little spam. And my name is not that odd.
Northern_Lad
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 14210 Location: Somewhere
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 05 3:26 pm Post subject:
Probably more likely to.
Dave Gorman used this very principle to find his namesakes all over the world. He simply took either his name, initial, or both, created a long list of them in different combinations, and then added on a few well-known host names. Don't know the exact figure, but I think it was around 2000 addresses. And that's just with one persons name!
Having said that, most span comes from bought lists, as the people who generate it aren't bright enough to figure out how simple it could be.
Me too, although my names a bit odder than yours - I did once get a series of emails from a woman in America meant for her daughter. She was very nice.
But are you sure Hotmail isn't just punting them to your junk mail? And anyway I don't think Hotmail is nearly as bad as it used to be...I have my suspicions about this one as we once opened a webmail account from the same provider, and within days, it was spammed to oblivion, and we'd not even used it. It was a word rather than a name though.
sean Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 42219 Location: North Devon
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 05 3:32 pm Post subject:
I think it's got better, but I check my junk folder regularly and there's never much in it.
)...come on ladies and gents, please, any opinions?
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