My work email address leaked to lads

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 71

Man I dont know how it happened, but after applying for a loan online I all of the sudden get about 15 scam emails a day. Some at the exact same time from different lads. Very strange. I get even more here than I do in my catcher account. They come to my blackberry too and its driving me nuts. Anything I can do? I doubt it but I figured Id ask.

419Eater is my life Joined: 08 Aug 2008 Posts: 475

if you forward all your mails to a (new ?) gmail account, and recieve the mails from there to your mobile, then you could set a filter with gmail for "Loan", and other relevant keywords to be deleted or send to spam, and gmails- spanfilter will also accure,
or a filter that will only send you mails that does not include the words ... ..,
and set up in accounts "Send mail as:" your original-adress,

this could be a solution.
or your mail-provider offers also filtering.

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:27 pm

It was a genuine loan provider, I take it? Not a scammer who might have passed your email address on to other lads?

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^^I agree, are you sure you didn't apply with a fishy loan company? Do you have the link to the company you applied with?

Not quite a Newb Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 71

^^^ come on guys give me some credit!!! haha no it was legit, got the money already etc. got bombarded with other spam but could at least unsubscribe. the IT guy here showed me the spam log and im at the top now LOL.

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:11 am

Sometimes if you do the unsubscribe, it'll put you on a list for more spam...

I had to give up a work e-mail I had for about 10 years (and was printed on everything) due to too much spam accumulating - it just kept snowballing...

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:03 am

Could be that the lads got hold of a sold or hacked loan applicant list...Some of the (slightly) more advanced lads do get targeted lists for specific scams, and I'm sure not all of them are legally obtained.

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:46 am

Did it have the SSL? (HTTPS) I didn't know about that at first, now I am a stickler for it for any forms.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I have talked to loan scam victims who were contacted by scammers after applying for a legitimate online loan. It seems that the companies sell/make available that information to others and the scammers get it and use it to target people. It's one of the ways that victims have been sucked into the scams. They think that it's a legit loan offer because the scammer has their info sometimes and knows they applied for a loan. Check with the company you applied with and find out if your information is disclosed to others.

As others have said, the best thing is to just filter them to trash. You can also post them here in the surplus forum for others to bait. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:48 am

Maybe I am thinking too simple but can't you just get a new work addy? The blackberry thing seems like a real pain.

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:30 am

an solution = to ask the IT people at work to change you emailadress
a little bit.. eg. add a "dot" and the spam is stoped..

still a good learn for next time not to use work mailadress for private things

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:19 pm

Depending on where you're based, you may have an almighty case on your hands for Data Protection laws. If you're in the UK (or actually most places in the EU) you should kick up a massive fuss, get the Data Protection Registrar involved, etc. Once your address is out there, you'll never stop the spam, but you'll make life very miserable for whoever sold your email address in the first place.

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