WTF?? Yahoo! sells their e-mail addresses???

[Cyclone]

I got this on a spam message sent to my e-mail address.


This email is sent in compliance with strict anti-abuse and NO SPAM regulations. Your address was collected as a result of posting to a link, a classified ad or you have sent me an E-mail recently, or you are on a list that I have purchased. To remove your E-mail address simply click on the Reply button with "Remove" in the subject line.

Everyone say it with me: what the hell?

Cyclone

[Hermit]

Wouldn't surprise me if they did. I don't really care if they do either, I just BLOCK everything :D

[Mak-X]

Yahoo sent out a e-mail recently about a change in their privacy policy but I doubt they're selling your e-mail address to spammers. Most likely its the people that pick up your e-mail address with bots that are selling it to person that sent you that e-mail.

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by Hermit
Wouldn't surprise me if they did. I don't really care if they do either, I just BLOCK everything :D

Wouldn't shock me, either. But why would some idiot just come out and say, "Oh, I purchased your e-mail address. Thanks."

Cyclone

[vegeta1215]

From Yahoo! Mail's Privacy Policy:


Information Sharing and Disclosure

Yahoo! does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except to provide products or services you've requested, when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances:

We provide the information to trusted partners who work on behalf of or with Yahoo! under confidentiality agreements. These companies may use your personal information to help Yahoo! communicate with you about offers from Yahoo! and our marketing partners. However, these companies do not have any independent right to share this information.

We have a parent's permission to share the information if the user is a child under age 13. Parents have the option of allowing Yahoo! to collect and use their child's information without consenting to Yahoo! sharing of this information with people and companies who may use this information for their own purposes;

We respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims;

We believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Yahoo!'s terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.

We transfer information about you if Yahoo! is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Yahoo! will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

You can find the whole thing here: http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/

I think someone just got your email, sent you spam, and made up something about Yahoo! selling it to them. I trust Yahoo! They wouldn't violate their own policy.

If you're unsure, you can always forward that email and try and get that fucker in trouble! :D

[zeldafreak]

It sounds fony to me. I have never had any advertisers email me a notification telling me that they have my email. Like I said, it sounds fony. If you get strange emails like that, just block them. I use yahoo to, and I always get stupid emails. You know where they go? In the trash and blocked. Just a little advise. :)

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by zeldafreak
You know where they go? In the trash and blocked. Just a little advise. :)

What did you think I did with them? Print them out and put them on my wall? :laughing:

But block, no. By the time I block it, another addy surfaces.

Cyclone

[vegeta1215]

I sure wish some of those anit-spam laws they're trying to get passed in other states make it through (and over to MD!) Possibly make it required that they tell you HOW and FROM WHERE the list got your name on it.

I get loads of junk in my Excite account. I did those 'Remove' things at the bottom of the emails. It seems I get less junk, but I still get some junk mail. For all we know, some of those Remove forms could be actually putting you on another list, you know?

[zeldafreak]

Oh, I like to frame all my junk emails and put them in my archives. J/K

No, its just all junk email anyways. I use that account rarely because of all of the junk that comes through that account!

[Hermit]

Well every e-mail account I have(5) is all forwarded to 1 hotmail account, which has a junk mail feature which takes out the spam shit for me. So I rarely get any ads or spam anymore, maybe 1 or 2 a week or so.

[Warlock]

Originally posted by vegeta1215
I get loads of junk in my Excite account. I did those 'Remove' things at the bottom of the emails. It seems I get less junk, but I still get some junk mail. For all we know, some of those Remove forms could be actually putting you on another list, you know?

Dude, don't do the remove things.. all that does is confirm you have a working e-mail address and you get on more lists/get more spam. I read about some guy who tested it out with a completely clean address.. I think all he did was sign up for a Geocities webpage with it and after some amount of time he had like 100 spam e-mails or something..

Anyways, it's best just to block them I guess..

[Cyclone]

And that tells you why I never "remove" from them.

I did try one. "We are sorry to see you go..." Hell, I never even wanted it in the first place, so of COURSE they are sorry. I mean, they were trying to sell me silkies...:blah: Even a wedding dress. :badrazz:

Cyclone

[Mitsukara]

I've had four e-mail adresses... and I almost never use any of them. Therefore, I don't know if any of them have been sold to advertisers or not... I trust that my @zeldaclassic.com account isn't, but the others I don't know or care about.

[Cyclone]

I just reread my message.

I misanalyzed it.

Let me try again: there is a big anti-spam policy that this guy is apparently following. However, the e-mail may be a result of a list being PURCHASED from another group. So, to sum up...this guy can PURCHASE my address from somewhere and spam me, even if I don't want to be contacted (otherwise known as spam)?

If anything is fishy, this be it. Perhaps it's time I contact some people about this.

Cyclone