How to deal with people selling my email address?

[clnorris]

We saw our spam volume increase after registering with a service on expresstransporters.com. After inquiring about it with that service, we received a rude email (see below) where they are upfront about selling our info. Is there any recourse for dealing with people who are not spamming directly but aiding the spammers who are actually spamming?

I have contacted their ISP, but I'm not sure if their actions are technically in violation of the ISP privacy terms. Maybe the next step would be a consumer protection agency?

I'm interested in hearing about similar experiences from you all when you discover a person selling your info against your wishes. Cheers!

From: (snip) <(snip)[at]expresstransporters.com>

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:30:55 -0400

To: (snip)

Subject: Re: Ad Posting to be Removed

bull crap 6 transporters requested your info. and we do sell your info. good luck

On Sep 16, 2010, at 12:45 AM, (snip) wrote:

Hello,

Please remove my ad posting from your website. I've received no transport quotes, and have noticed a very significant increase in junk mail since the posting.

Reference #(snip). Thank you,

[Farelf]

...I have contacted their ISP, but I'm not sure if their actions are technically in violation of the ISP privacy terms. Maybe the next step would be a consumer protection agency?

Sounds like a violation to me

Privacy Statement

Express Transporters respects your privacy and commits to using any information you provide only as it is necessary in any transportation venture.

If that is what you signed up for and you are now getting unrelated emails as a consequence then that is a breach of trust. But proving the link between your spam and and their actions would be difficult IMO. Whatever is happening is apparently "at arms length" ("No Agency Relationship Created", from the Terms of Service), the only indication they might be corrupt is the peremptory response to your complaint which is, never the less, an effective denial. The FTC might be interested in an indirect sort of way (report - forward - spam to them, they put it in a database, there is a slight chance the data might aid the investigations of an enforcement agency at some time in the future). Others here might have more hopeful suggestions.

[TG2]

One of the beautiful things about having multiple email "aliases" is that you can throw them away.

Back in the day erealty.com was an up and coming website to register on and get access to house listings without having to be a member of MRIS. Shortly after I signed up there, with an aliase I'd created solely to use there, I started getting spam on that alias. I complained to the company, explained I'd just created the alias, never used it anywhere else, and it wasn't just "jo-bob" or something simple. THUS I was giving them as much proof as I had that the source of the email address leak was them.

What they said to me three weeks later ... They used that information, along with other recent complaints, to find that an employee had stolen the list, :angry: was selling it to competitors and into the spammer market, they'd since terminated the employee and would I mind if my information was shared with a legal team that may be looking at suing the former employee for the breach.

I own my own domain, and host email services with places that let me have as many aliases as I want.. at last check I was over 950 addresses, 99% of which I never get spammed on, the few that do, have been relegated to the back burner, or were for specific purposes, and serve now as a type of early warning system.

No one has my real user account email address and I've never seen spam come into it directly. My main email address (which I'll never get rid of) is the only one I give to family and close friends ... and that remained fairly spam free for a year after I started using it ... but with virus & worm traffic so prolific in the PC world, it would have never stayed safe. (way I figure it, we always have one crazy family member, friend, distant relative, that believes in the "this email will destroy you" type FUD-Mail and happily forwards off that warning to their entire address book ... on the TO line.... in full view of everyone else...)

As for dealing with the rest of it.. I forward some of it off to SpamCop in bulk and much of it gets caught by junk filters ... still leaves me with about 10 or so pieces max per day that are getting into my email folders ... but I figure that's not too bad. I don't necessarily go after the causes of the problems, if I need them, I'll change the email aliase they have for me.. and re-itterate my displeasure that they are sharing my email address ... if I don't need them.. I unsubscribe, and if I continue to get emails (after unsubscribe but are legit to the original source) I start sending those into SpamCop as well ... or I delete the aliase and bounce their messages to the either.

god help the spammers, for if I ever became omnipotent, omnicient, and inclined, they'd be serverly dealt with.

-T