How is this even possible?

Devon

A friend sends me an invite to gmail.

I use the invite to open a gmail account, but I don't give out the name of the account to a single living soul. Didn't type it in to any internet sites or anything similar. Nobody could possibly know my gmail e-mail address.

I didn't send one mail from that account at all since opening it 3 weeks ago. Nothing in or out.

...and yet I have 5 pieces of spam in the bulk mail folder?

plonk

I never get any spam with G-mail

mad m

Its probably an automated thing which goes through email names and sends them...

Tiriel

when you accepted the invite.. you're friend was notified that you accepted.. and was also told what your new address is.. so . . . IT'S YOUR FRIEND:eek:

dahamsta

mad m wrote:

Its probably an automated thing which goes through email names and sends them...

Dictionary attack. Is the username something relatively obvious? A word from the dictionary or a common-ish name?

adam

BrokenArrows

Ive started to get a trickle of spam over the last few weeks with gmail, 1 or 2 a day but they always get caught by the spam filter and put into the spam box.

I have not signed up for anything with this username. But my friends have added me to stupid lists of things which i got pissed about cause i knew it would result in spam.

Alot of spammers just choose random names and send them.

Goodshape

plonk wrote:

I never get any spam with G-mail

I get shed loads

Not my main account though, use it mostly to sign up to things and give out to internet n00b friends of mine who like to send "funny" pictures and general ****e... so the spams to be expected I suppose.

Fairly good filter on it anyway.

You really need multiple accounts these days, for different classes of people/friends/websites/etc. (mail from boards for instence goes to my main account.. about the only website that does as I'm fairly certin they wont spam me)

Fast_Mover

iv never recieved spam with my gmail account!

but ya like you goodshape it not my main one- i too just have it for friends to send me forwarded on crap..

Gaillimhtaibhse

Common username? You might want to run this thread on the Internet boards?

tbh

mostly what happens is that some sort of bot will connect to the gmail mail server and try to send to

a@gmail.com ; aa@gmail.com ; aaa@gmail.com ; b@gmail.com ; bb@gmail.com ...etc

as well as just sending to a list of words in the dictionary. See, it doesn't cost them anything to do this, so even if only 1% of the addresses work, it's still worth doing. I work with a mailserver that has a setting to delay this kind of thing - if the sender gives a username which doesn't exist, they have to wait a configurable amount of seconds before they can enter another one, its great to see it in action.

Caimin

LegacyUser

jerryadams wrote:

A friend sends me an invite to gmail.

I use the invite to open a gmail account, but I don't give out the name of the account to a single living soul. Didn't type it in to any internet sites or anything similar. Nobody could possibly know my gmail e-mail address.

I didn't send one mail from that account at all since opening it 3 weeks ago. Nothing in or out.

...and yet I have 5 pieces of spam in the bulk mail folder?

The person who sent you the invite has your email address, they get a mail informaing them that you have opened an account and offering them the chance to be the first person to send you an email to your new account.

Binomate

At least you don't get spam from your administrators telling you that you have no spam in your spam folders. That's what happens with my college email account.

tbh

sillysausage wrote:

The person who sent you the invite has your email address, they get a mail informaing them that you have opened an account and offering them the chance to be the first person to send you an email to your new account.

don't go giving your friend dirty looks! they (spammers) don't need your email address, they are just sending to random combinations of letters and numbers, and seeing what sticks.

rubadub

I get very little spam to my account and most goes to the bin. I have had spam to some really bizarre email addresses they set up, some have massive lists of very similar names too that it was also sent to.

just got one now! second today. check out the other generated names, mine is deleted (=== added to stop robots)

From: Fawziyya <lashawn@alleydog.com>

To: Wilvert <hsolem@===gmail.com>
Cc: [email]dinus2@===gmail.com[/email], [email]umonroy@===gmail.com[/email], [email]dmelanson@===gmail.com[/email], [email]parkernd@===gmail.com[/email], [email]kmyers7@===gmail.com[/email]
Date: Feb 7, 2006 1:57 AM
Subject: Obtaining our supplements at home- what a great idea.






I tells ye, ye order viagra just the once and they keep hounding you forever

netwhizkid

I only once ever got spam into my gmail and it was "an unique investment oppurtunity" from Joseph Ngoho funnily enough from the very uncorrupt [sarcasm] country Nigeria.

May the blessings of the world be with you!

fjon

I get 4 or 5 a day :mad:
Most are picked up by the spam filter, but some aren't.
Also, I like the way it gives you that "This email may not be from who it claims to be" message when you get those dodgy Paypal/ ebay/ bank emails looking for your CC details.

tbh

check this out if you are annoyed at the 419 (Nigerian) scammers. Its a classic!!

netwhizkid

caimin wrote:

check this out if you are annoyed at the 419 (Nigerian) scammers. Its a classic!!

Father Jack Hackett :v: :v: Ahmed Sadiq is some muppet really, I wish now i hadn't erased those mails as I'd love to scam them!! If i get another one i'll form a thread here and let ye know the proceedings!!

$7.2million boat Roflmfao :v: :v: :v: