I got an email the other day from somebody that includes a couple of links. Since I took my own advice and didn't click through them I was wondering if other people had seen this as well. Since I don't have a website, I suspect the person was email mining and came up with my address from this site (among others). Of course I didn't include the links! "Just being careful here."

Roarmeister FWIW I got this same e-mail today but, like you I didn't respond

Mike

I as well, kind of interesting.

I also received the e-mail, I just deleated it.

Mike

I got the same email, reported it as Spam, which it is. I love things like this, the moron who sent it claims to have found my website while browsing, that's funny, I don't have a website. And here the same guy is claiming to have found everyone's website while browsing. Guess I'm not as special as I thought I was...

If you're gonna spam people, be upfront about it. Don't lie to me and then expect me to take part in whatever you're selling.

John E

I didn’t get it, I must not be as important as all of you…

Naaahhh... You just don't put your email address in your ETS profile. Neither do I (on purpose), and I didn't get the spam either. Notice that all the people here who got the spam have their email address in their profiles. There are all kinds of software robots and spiders that crawl websites/forums looking for personal information like this. If you click on a link in such spam, or reply to it, there's a 99% chance that you just moved yourself from "potential target" to "verified target" in somebodies database. They get more money selling verified targets to other spammers.

I am unimportant. No email.

Yep. Deleted as suspect. Do we take it that ETS has been virused?

Got it to, and as others have done it got deleted real quick.

I have gotten e-mails from ETS members but they come through the ETS system to my personal e-mail address.

I got it yesterday. Deleted it.
So far that is the only spam from this site. Guess I will leave my e-mail in the profile unless this becomes a continuing problem.

nomad

Got it, and deleted unopened.

Probably not. There's nothing to suggest that the ETS site's code has been compromised. The spammer probably just harvested (copied) email addresses off the ETS site. To actually get into site and hack the code can be done, but it's a far more sophisticated kind of attack, and getting into a site isn't typically a spammer's purpose; a spammer generally just wants your email address.

I got it too... deleted it.

Those of you who have your email address visible as-is are just asking for spam. Even something as simple as I did, adding "nospam" to the start of the domain, kept me from getting this spam. But I decided to remove even that. In the unlikely event someone here wants to reach me they can send me a PM.

Yeah, I got it as well and ignored it.

But I'm embarrassed to admit that I even opened it (unsolicited email from someone that I didn't know).

They dangled the "preparedness" worm in front of me and I went for it.

Bad fish "slaps own fin", naughty fish....

On a side note, the email that I use on here is a separate address specifically used for "handing out" over the internet or using in situations where the email might be suspect. That way, if I end up having to drop it for any reason, it doesn't really matter.

I also have an old cheap computer that I run a Linux distro on. When I want to check something questionable (say, an email), I'll check it on there. Again, because it runs Linux it isn't usually effected by windows based viruses or issues and since I don't keep anything important on there, it doesn't really matter to me if something does happen.

With email addresses being so simple (and often free) to get as well as old, but functional, computers being so cheap, it's a great way to help avoid viruses and other issues. As well as to increase your security.

First and fore most though, make sure you have multiple secure backups of anything important; digital and on hard copy if possible. Technology likes to fail at the worst possible time.

Nope, didn't get it

-Bill Liptak