Mailing Lists

Ph3n0m

The previous thread got me thinking about something.

Does anyone know of a facility that can tell if your email address has been signed to mailing lists and which ones?

Just curious as I used to get hit everyday with dozens of emails that were unsolicited and before I knew about harvesting, I always wondered how they got my email address.

damien

Ph3n0m wrote:

The previous thread got me thinking about something.

What previous thread ?

LoLth

a previous thread that was removed for the sanity of a certain mod

It was involving unsolicited mail.

dahamsta

Ph3n0m wrote:

Does anyone know of a facility that can tell if your email address has been signed to mailing lists and which ones?

Mailing lists use all sorts of different software and platforms and networks, so no. You just need to keep an eye on your mail and learn how to use filters. And if I was you I'd ignore the advice of the person responsible for the last thread, i.e. to click on the unsubscribe link in unsolicited messages. Some people honour these requests, others honour them and then sell your address on to other spamming operations as a confirmed address, and some will just ignore them altogether. It's not worth the risk imho.

adam

ConsultClifford

LoLth wrote:

a previous thread that was removed for the sanity of a certain mod

It was involving unsolicited mail.

Whats becomming of boards...

So much for freedom of speach and dealing with topics that matter....

evilhomer

ConsultClifford wrote:

Whats becomming of boards...

So much for freedom of speach and dealing with topics that matter....

couldn't agree more.

Seth Brundle

<back on topic>
I use an alias if I am putting my email out there so that if I sign up to boards I use boards@my-domain.com or boards.ie@my-domain.com.
If I recieve spam at that address I will know that the bástard site stuffed me!

mneylon

As Adam said clicking on the unsubscribe link is used by a lot of spammers as a way of verifying that the spammed address exists.
Spammers harvest emails using a lot of different methods.
If you use a special alias for your legitimate mailing lists and you start receiving mailing list traffic to an address you never supplied to anybody then you know you've been spammed.

dahamsta

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting that the "person responsible" would do any of those things - I doubt they've sunk to that level tbh - but that generally speaking it's a bad idea to click on unsubscribe links. It's all about circumstances and common sense really -- if you actively subscribe to a mailing list from a trusted source, obviously it's pretty likely that clicking the link will have the intended result.

adam