Spam from reading messages on the forum, is it just a coincidence?

[EastWest Gal]

I seem to be getting a lot of spam based on what I read on this forum. For example, I read a thread about dental implants a couple of days ago and now I am getting email spam about dental implants. I didn't search the internet or even participate in the thread but all this spam started appearing in my email. Is there some way to avoid this blatant and obnoxious invasion of privacy?

I've also noticed a huge uptick in Medicare related spam, so I think it might be my participation on this forum that is causing all this.

Any suggestions?

[Janet H]

We don't share, sell or loan out your e-mail address. Google and other ads servers however, display ads often based on the page content so for instance if you are reading a thread about selling a car you may see ads that are auto related.

Under no circumstances should you be getting e-mail based on viewing the board here other than regular forum updates to subscribed threads. If you are, it's likely that you've picked up some cyber bugs and have some adware or spyware on your device.

You might want to run a system scan with Malwarebytes which is a free download. It's especially good at ferreting out this sort of stuff and cleaning it up.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet H We don't share, sell or loan out your e-mail address. Google and other ads servers however, display ads often based on the page content so for instance if you are reading a thread about selling a car you may see ads that are auto related. Under no circumstances should you be getting e-mail based on viewing the board here other than regular forum updates to subscribed threads. If you are, it's likely that you've picked up some cyber bugs and have some adware or spyware on your device. You might want to run a system scan with Malwarebytes which is a free download. It's especially good at ferreting out this sort of stuff and cleaning it up.

Exactly. Sounds like some malware is looking at cookies and using them to send spam.

[EastWest Gal]

Will this work on an iPhone?


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

[target2019]

If you have that spam email, try to open the headers and see where it came from.
Malwarebytes does not work on iPhone.
Is this an email address that never got spam?
It could be that the spam is directed at you because of what you read online, but unlikely. Have to give this more thought, because it is an interesting question.

[Janet H]

You might also do some checking to see if you e-mail address is in print publicly. Bots crawl the net looking for e-mail addresses....

Is the spam you are getting coming to the address assicated with your ER.org account?

Do you ever use a PC? If so, run a scan there.

[GrayHare]

Some messages here include graphics or videos hosted at other sites, such as youtube. When you load a message for the purposes of reading it, the images/videos also load, and they send the fact that you have looked at them back to the site at which they are stored. So, for example, youtube knows you read E-R.org as well as which messages you read because of the videos embedded within them. They sell such info to third-parties, and soon you get topical spam.

The solution is to block loading of the images and videos. Many browsers let you turn off images and some let you turn off videos. You can also get browser add-ons that block such content.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I use Adblock Pro/Adblock and Ghostery in Chrome and FireFox to stop trackers. It says there are only four trackers on this site: DoubleClick, Google Adsense, Google Analytics and Quantcast. I do not know if any of them could pass information to a spambot.

I also use SuperAntiSpyWare, AVG antivirus and ZoneAlarm firewall (behind our router as well) and I have not been getting any spam in connection with this site for years, only e-mails from Nigeria since two of my professional friends got hacked a while back.

I also get spam that must have got my e-mail address from my professional society or from LinkedIn (even though I unsubscribed long ago).

[EastWest Gal]

I'll have to try some of the suggestions. I use a Mac, but mostly use my phone. It may have been coincidence as I haven't had more problems in the past couple of days.