Is HF giving out or selling email addresses?

[guzziguy]

I just got spam email from CEntrance. They referred to HF to help sell their product. The only place I can think of where they could have gotten my email addy is HF. Has anybody else received this spam? I guess it's time to delete my account on HF.

[Grahame]

But will deleting your account remove your email from their (previously sold?) mailing list?

In the same way as using a unique identifier (middle initial, etc) when "registering" stuff with your physical name / address - so you can identify the source of spam , maybe you should use a disposable / forwarding / aggregating email address .

Of course now that the HF horse has bolted its a bit late to bar the email gate as it were.

Mind you, if you, like me, have friends + relations who don't and won't understand the concept of bcc, no matter how many times you tell them, then many of your email addresses are already out in the wild, never to fade away.

(E.g. how many times have you seen a "Here's a funny" with multiple fw's and cascaded email addresses ripe for harvesting.)

Edited November 21, 2012 by Grahame

[skullguise]

I got the same email....but I had signed up directly with them for info on their DACPort some eons ago. I thought it was for that.

I'd be kind of pissed if I get a bunch of random emails all of a sudden based on H-F membership.....I'll have to see if there's a Privacy Policy there.

[Wmcmanus]

Mind you, if you, like me, have friends + relations who don't and won't understand the concept of bcc, no matter how many times you tell them, then many of your email addresses are already out in the wild, never to fade away.

Even if people use the Bcc to forward emails you've sent to them, they often don't delete your email address from the body of the message.

[guzziguy]

I agree about "bcc", but this email was headphone specific. Who knows, maybe I visited their website and stupidly signed up for emails. Anyway, I've removed myself from their list.

[Augsburger]

I haven't received any emails from CEntrance but I must have visited ED/Cialis and Nigerian Bank websites because I get emails from them on a daily basis.

[Grahame]

Its interesting that the increase in spam, and the corresponding drop in signal to noise ratio is why some people have moved away from email as a communications medium.

"email is for old people"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/technology/21email.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/06/digitalcommunication

[cutestory]

This is exactly why I have a bunch of unique forwarders that point to my "real" email addresses. When something is compromised, I just delete the forwarder, and make a mental note to be mad at the people who fucked me.

[guzziguy]

I agree about "bcc", but this email was headphone specific. Who knows, maybe I visited their website and stupidly signed up for emails. Anyway, I've removed myself from their list.

Since nobody else has reported getting these unexpectedly, I must have been stupid.

[Augsburger]

Never hurts to ask questions and be suspicious of anything outside of HC.