Fucked up spam bullshit...
 

Anyone else having this happen: your member's email addresses getting spamed?

I've had several people write to me to bitch about the fact that the private email address that they created and used only once, when joining my site, is now getting spammed. I've a strict privacy policy and anti-spam disclaimer on my site, and now these members feel lied to and they are pissed off.

Am I right to assume it has GOT to be my cc processor that sold or leaked or was hacked for the email addies? These members never used the email address anywhere else, other than when they joined my site. All of them have written to say the same thing.

This blows!:feels-hot

I've had e-mails NEVER once used - EVER!
and within days of those e-mail addys becoming active I had spam.

I think people working at ISP's sell off e-mail addys.

Spam is annoying, and I hope some laws are passed to jail/fine these people in the future. Until that happens, all you can do is delete the e-mails.

Sorry to tell ya, but processors are bad and they do sell your email addresses of your members. It is also someone may have got control of your site via a trojan and got into your address book:(

So, I'm to assume, after talking to my processor, that they are simply lying to me about selling email addresses. They swore up and down that they didn't. It seems suicidal for them to do something like that -- a real violation of their own terms, and the trust of their 'clients.'

Originally posted by reddawg
It is also someone may have got control of your site via a trojan and got into your address book:(

But these particular email addresses weren't stored anywhere at all on my site or my server. They would only be in the databank of the cc processor. So are you saying the processor was hit by a trojan?

Look, processors make enough money taking our 13% and banking it. I do not believe they would sell email addresses, but who knows. Don't hassle them about it your just wasting your time.

There are also programs that use keywords to generate every type of email address you can imagine.

I mean my friend registered [email protected] and he said he never posted anywhere but after 1 month some spam started to get sent to him and then more and now he is overloaded with it.

They use programs hooked up to dictionary programs and make all these fake email addresses and then run the lot through there verifying email address software and it removes all the fake ones and leaves them with the correct ones.

Thats how its done i'm sure of it.

Sammy