One of my email accounts keeps getting massive amounts of SPAM, haveIbeenpwned says that the account is not in any list

[jnelsoninjax]

So my Comcast.net account, which I never use, keeps getting these obvious SPAM messages and I always mark them as such, but I am trying to figure out why and where these messages are coming from. When I checked haveibeenpwned it says that my address is clear, nothing found. At this point, it is simply an annoyance/inconvenience to have to login to the web interface to mark the message as SPAM. Most of the time, all my email is retrieved via my cell phone so that I can see all of my accounts, but I have to login to the web interface to mark the message(s) as SPAM, which takes close to 2 minutes to load.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

You don't need to have been "compromised" to get spam. One just has to give their email address to one bad actor. I believe 99% of all email sent is spam. Comcast just sucks and apparently so does their spam filter. There is nothing you can do except use a better email provider.

Funny, I am a person who almost gets no spam for the most part. I have used the same Gmail account as my main email since Gmail was a thing and have two secondary email addresses (Proton and Tutanota). The secondary email accounts get no real spam to speak of which is weird because I use them for more "shady" stuff. My Gmail gets a 5-6 spam messages a week in my Spam folder. A spam message in my Inbox is a special occasion. I also rarely get spam/telemarketing texts/calls. I don't know what all you people are doing out there. LOL

Edited August 23, 2023 by Good Bot, Bad Bot

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 23/08/2023 at 08:51, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

You don't need to have been "compromised" to get spam. One just has to give their email address to one bad actor. I believe 99% of all email sent is spam. Comcast just sucks and apparently so does their spam filter. There is nothing you can do except use a better email provider.

Funny, I am a person who almost gets no spam for the most part. I have used the same Gmail account as my main email since Gmail was a thing and have two secondary email addresses (Proton and Tutanota). The secondary email accounts get no real spam to speak of which is weird because I use them for more "shady" stuff. My Gmail gets a 5-6 spam messages a week in my Spam folder. A spam message in my Inbox is a special occasion. I also rarely get spam/telemarketing texts/calls. I don't know what all you people are doing out there. LOL

Yeah, GMail is more secure than Comcast..

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 23/08/2023 at 08:51, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

You don't need to have been "compromised" to get spam. One just has to give their email address to one bad actor. I believe 99% of all email sent is spam. Comcast just sucks and apparently so does their spam filter. There is nothing you can do except use a better email provider.

You're right!

In my case I have one email address I use for crap I don't care about. It's almost the same address as my main address with the word shi*t added to the end of it. So when I sign up for a forum I don't care about I use that one. That email address could just go away and I wouldn't miss the stuff being sent to it.

I think part of the problem is most people take their primary and give it to every site that asks for it.

Quote

My Gmail gets a 5-6 spam messages a week

Just checked my primary email's spam folder. For the month i've gotten 8

On 23/08/2023 at 08:29, jnelsoninjax said:

So my Comcast.net account, which I never use, keeps getting these obvious SPAM messages and I always mark them as such, but I am trying to figure out why and where these messages are coming from. When I checked haveibeenpwned it says that my address is clear, nothing found. At this point, it is simply an annoyance/inconvenience to have to login to the web interface to mark the message as SPAM. Most of the time, all my email is retrieved via my cell phone so that I can see all of my accounts, but I have to login to the web interface to mark the message(s) as SPAM, which takes close to 2 minutes to load.

Impressive. My primary which has currently only gotten 8 total spam emails this month, says on haveibeenpwned that the email address has been pwned 14 times.

[jnelsoninjax]

I don't use my Comcast email address anywhere, I use Gmail, so the fact that I am getting SPAM is what I am finding odd

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 23/08/2023 at 12:58, Warwagon said:

Impressive. My primary which has currently only gotten 8 total spam emails this month, says on haveibeenpwned that the email address has been pwned 14 times.

We have a winner! Warwagon!  I have only been pwned 5 times and the last time in 2019.  Anyway, that shows your email being part of a hack has little to do with getting spam. No one is hacking a server and stealing personal data to spam email accounts. LOL They are going for identity theft and credit fraud.

 

On 23/08/2023 at 13:21, jnelsoninjax said:

I don't use my Comcast email address anywhere, I use Gmail, so the fact that I am getting SPAM is what I am finding odd

It's not odd at all as the people who get few spam emails are more the exception. Email lists can be generated to spam. Comcast spam filters suck as you shouldn't be seeing that much spam.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Good Bot, Bad Bot

[Pishaw]

Amazon is by far the worst in this, to the point I stopped buying from them. In the past, I would buy something from them, and for a week or so I'd get emails asking for details about my bank card. It was obvious that Amazon sold my email address and purchase details to any criminal with cash.

You'd think that would be illegal. And you'd ALSO think that Bezos already has enough money that he wouldn't need the five bucks he got selling me out.

[neufuse Veteran]

I get about 100 spam messages a day all stupid stuff like "LAST CHANCE WALMART WINNER!" or "YOU WON ONE ACE HARDWARE!"

My fav thing through is knowing where they started from

every time I sign up for a site now I use myname+sitename@domain.com, the +sitename will be ignored, it's just a tag that your email client can use for categorization but it will be on everything they send you so yo u can see who leaked your data

Edited August 24, 2023 by neufuse

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 24/08/2023 at 06:21, neufuse said:

I get about 100 spam messages a day all stupid stuff like "LAST CHANCE WALMART WINNER!" or "YOU WON ONE ACE HARDWARE!"

My fav thing through is knowing where they started from

every time I sign up for a site now I use myname+sitename@domain.com, the +sitename will be ignored, it's just a tag that your email client can use for categorization but it will be on everything they send you so yo u can see who leaked your data

What prevents a company from stripping the + off an email address when giving it to the other party?

[neufuse Veteran]

On 24/08/2023 at 09:33, Warwagon said:

What prevents a company from stripping the + off an email address when giving it to the other party?

you think people actually take time to sanitize stuff? time is money, and selling your email is money! But it's amazing how many spams now come from my +amazon tag

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 24/08/2023 at 09:34, neufuse said:

you think people actually take time to sanitize stuff? time is money, and selling your email is money! But it's amazing how many spams now come from my +amazon tag

I don't think it would be hard to automatically sanitize something. Just have the system record what's to the right of the + sign.

[neufuse Veteran]

On 24/08/2023 at 11:17, Warwagon said:

I don't think it would be hard to automatically sanitize something. Just have the system record what's to the right of the + sign.

hard no, do people do it? no, and most people don't even have a clue what the + on your email address does

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 23/08/2023 at 16:37, Pishaw said:

Amazon is by far the worst in this, to the point I stopped buying from them. In the past, I would buy something from them, and for a week or so I'd get emails asking for details about my bank card. It was obvious that Amazon sold my email address and purchase details to any criminal with cash.

You'd think that would be illegal. And you'd ALSO think that Bezos already has enough money that he wouldn't need the five bucks he got selling me out.

Amazon does a lot of wrongs but they are not selling your email address. #facepalm I have used Amazon for almost two decades with the same email address which gets almost no spam at all.

Third party sellers on Amazon don't even get your actual email address.

[Pishaw]

On 24/08/2023 at 12:01, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Amazon does a lot of wrongs but they are not selling your email address. #facepalm I have used Amazon for almost two decades with the same email address which gets almost no spam at all.

Third party sellers on Amazon don't even get your actual email address.

When I get an email three hours after making a purchase on Amazon, that details EXACTLY what I bought on Amazon, and telling me they need me to reenter my bank card info, where do you think it came from? How do you think they know what I bought? Maybe it was a guess. Maybe the NSA is monitoring me. Maybe Putin has an interest in my electronics purchases.

It could be that Amazon is the only trustworthy service provider on the internet. Or, MAYBE, Amazon told them what I bought to make a few more dollars. Which of those seems more likely?

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 24/08/2023 at 12:16, Pishaw said:

When I get an email three hours after making a purchase on Amazon, that details EXACTLY what I bought on Amazon, and telling me they need me to reenter my bank card info, where do you think it came from? How do you think they know what I bought? Maybe it was a guess. Maybe the NSA is monitoring me. Maybe Putin has an interest in my electronics purchases.

It could be that Amazon is the only trustworthy service provider on the internet. Or, MAYBE, Amazon told them what I bought to make a few more dollars. Which of those seems more likely?

in 3 hours? Maybe you have malware on your devices. LOL Dude, if Amazon was selling people's email addresses to malicious companies no less it would be all over the news and they would go out of business. Again, that has never happened to me nor the dozens of family, friends, and co-workers that I know that use Amazon. What seems more likely is It's an YOU problem.

I am not sure if Amazon has always not been sharing emails with their third-party sellers so if this was a while ago it could have been third-party sellers you did business with.

[neufuse Veteran]

On 24/08/2023 at 12:01, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Amazon does a lot of wrongs but they are not selling your email address. #facepalm I have used Amazon for almost two decades with the same email address which gets almost no spam at all.

Third party sellers on Amazon don't even get your actual email address.

I get surveys from 3rd party sellers all the time that sold via amazon, (strangely never from American sellers, they are almost the ones you are pretty sure are Chinese store fronts there) they do have seller tool access via API's if they sell enough which I don't think tells them your e-mail but lets them contact you via amazon, but even then somehow people are getting e-mail addresses from amazon.

Usually they come within a day or two of delivery

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 24/08/2023 at 14:58, neufuse said:

I get surveys from 3rd party sellers all the time that sold via amazon, (strangely never from American sellers, they are almost the ones you are pretty sure are Chinese store fronts there) they do have seller tool access via API's if they sell enough which I don't think tells them your e-mail but lets them contact you via amazon, but even then somehow people are getting e-mail addresses from amazon.

Usually they come within a day or two of delivery

A survey is a lot different than what Pishaw said was happening. Again, I have never seen any spam or surveys connected to anything bought from Amazon. I have made 100's of orders on Amazon and even a couple from those 3rd-party Chinese stores. Trust me, I am not special. It could be Amazon contacting customers on the behalf of third party sellers which doesn't mean they have your email address.

[Pishaw]

On 24/08/2023 at 16:08, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

A survey is a lot different than what Pishaw said was happening. Again, I have never seen any spam or surveys connected to anything bought from Amazon. I have made 100's of orders on Amazon and even a couple from those 3rd-party Chinese stores. Trust me, I am not special. It could be Amazon contacting customers on the behalf of third party sellers which doesn't mean they have your email address.

Same day. I bought glasses in the morning, went to work, and received the email at work. It listed the precise items I bought, and how much they cost. It said there was a problem with the purchase (which had already been approved and the money moved) and they needed my bank card information again. It looked like a legit Amazon email, and looking at it on my phone I saw no reason to think it wasn't from Amazon.

However, when I looked at it on my laptop, I noticed Amazon was spelled Amzon. And no, no malware. Amazon had clearly sold information about me and my purchase. That info wound up in the hands of someone that was into fraud. As this doesn't happen when I do business with other retailers, I concluded that Mr. Bezos must be short of cash for a new yacht or something, or maybe developed a drug problem. So I stopped doing business with Amazon.

Did this happen every time I bought something from Amazon? No. Was one time enough for me to stop spending money at Amazon? Oh yea.

Since the topic is actually spam/email accounts, the account I used to use for online purchases was Gmail. I'd get dozens of spam emails a day, and almost none in the two Microsoft accounts I had. I now have three Microsoft accounts. Spam is almost nonexistent.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

On 24/08/2023 at 21:32, Pishaw said:

Same day. I bought glasses in the morning, went to work, and received the email at work. It listed the precise items I bought, and how much they cost. It said there was a problem with the purchase (which had already been approved and the money moved) and they needed my bank card information again. It looked like a legit Amazon email, and looking at it on my phone I saw no reason to think it wasn't from Amazon.

However, when I looked at it on my laptop, I noticed Amazon was spelled Amzon. And no, no malware. Amazon had clearly sold information about me and my purchase. That info wound up in the hands of someone that was into fraud. As this doesn't happen when I do business with other retailers, I concluded that Mr. Bezos must be short of cash for a new yacht or something, or maybe developed a drug problem. So I stopped doing business with Amazon.

Did this happen every time I bought something from Amazon? No. Was one time enough for me to stop spending money at Amazon? Oh yea.

Since the topic is actually spam/email accounts, the account I used to use for online purchases was Gmail. I'd get dozens of spam emails a day, and almost none in the two Microsoft accounts I had. I now have three Microsoft accounts. Spam is almost nonexistent.

Again! Amazon did not sell your email to company that is trying to scam their customers. You concluded wrong...

You had a malware issue or a comprised email/Amazon account.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Good Bot, Bad Bot

[Pishaw]

On 24/08/2023 at 23:30, Good Bot, Bad Bot said:

Again! Amazon did not sell your email to company that is trying to scam their customers. You concluded wrong...

You had a malware issue or a comprised email/Amazon account.

No. You are wrong.

It's likely you think you're smarter than you actually are. You would assume I am so careless that malware would be on my laptop. You assume that this malware only affected me one time. Somehow, you assume that Amazon is so trustworthy, that they would never sell my name and purchase information to, say, Satan, for five ($5) dollars.

That makes you naive at best. Do you think I would make a purchase on a machine I wasn't positive was secure? See, I believed that you were at LEAST as intelligent as I am at the start of this. I always assume that with people I don't know. Then, you discount everything I said. Because you are so smart, you have this all figured out. Malware. On my laptop.

I'm glad you're not our IT person. But hey, keep on thinking you know everything. That will serve you well.

[corrosive23]

lol Ive gotten 122 today alone.

[bikeman25]

My Comcast email strictly used for only Comcast Related Emails and rest of mail typically in either Outlook or Gmail

in fact about to switch a couple sites over from Comcast Mail to Gmail in a few here, and  really have it back to just Comcast service related emails, and about it lol for Comcast  address

 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

How long have you been a Comcast/Xfinity customer?  They had a data breach in 2014 that exposed 595,000 customer email addresses: https://www.streamtvinsider.com/cable/comcast-scrambles-as-595k-customer-email-accounts-and-passwords-show-up-dark-web-market

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky