I clicked on one of these damn adds by accident

[doc03]

and have been inundated with F---ing junk E-mail the last week or so 63 of them yesterday and 72 today.

[Poll_Blind]

1. Waiiiit....you just clicked on one by mistake and now you're getting...

...junk e-mail?

Hrm...That doesn't make sense. How did it get ahold of your e-mail address, presuming the spam is coming from the clicked ad?

PB

[Redstone]

2. You're right, that doesn't make sense.

Redstone

[doc03]

3. I clicked on one of the adds here on DU something about

Bush polls and promising a free gas card I went through several steps with questions and entered my E-mail and the BS continued until I finally just dropped the damn thing, now like I said I am getting inundated with e-mails haven't got this many in the 6 or so i have have on the internet. This sight is where it came from no doubt about it. I won't make that mistake again.
on edit: I never saw adds on here before and didn't realize that's what it was until I had gone to far.

[shoelace414]

4. And there is nothing you can do anymore to stop it, you are screwed.

[MazeRat7]

5. You actually entered a real live email address ????

Here is a hint. Protect you primary email like you would your ss #. You need to set up several "alternative" emails with your ISP (most all ISP's offer multiple email accounts) and use those for your on-line stuff and only give your primary out to known "trusted" people (not companies) When the junk gets too great in one or more, terminate the account with your ISP and create another. Have one for personal, one for banking/bills, one for shopping, one for all other misc crap, etc, etc.

In a pinch, you can always enter something like [e-mail]

Most site only check for the <name>@ and something ending in .com, .net, etc. As long as it looks like a legit email you can continue and not get bothered in the future.

MZr7

[smtpgirl]

16. YEP, I would have given them an AOL address, it will go through

I make it a practice not to click on banners, drop-downs & side bars.

[Ladyhawk]

22. I USE hotmail as my spam address.

Recently my primary address started getting some spam and I have no idea why. :shrug: Sometimes despite all precautions, you slip up. However, if you give out your e-mail address...well, hehe, you're just askin' for it. :D

[cboy4]

6. Suggestion. If you're going to sign up for free stuff and contests,

etc., sign up for a "throw-away" e-mail address at yahoo or hotmail and use that.

That way, your junk mail is funneled to an e-mail address you don't care about!

[diamondsndust]

14. Good suggestion.. I have some G-Mail invites to give away

if anyone wants one. For those who don't know, g-mail is Google Mail. It's web based and comes with 2 GIGS of storage. I have 25 invites to give away, first come, first served.... send me a PM with your email addy and I'll send you an invite. I won't keep your addy and you will never get another email from, nor will I share, sell or rent your email address to anyone else.

[cboy4]

15. You bet!

:)

[diamondsndust]

19. ??

would you like a g-mail address? I was on the ground floor of the Beta Testing for g-mail so I have some invites left to give away. I don't like to put my email addy in any correspondence, as robots and data miners can pick up on it and you get spam out the ying yang. I've got to have an email addy to send the invite to, so you can reach me at 'my user name @gmail.com .

[1monster]

7. I did something like that some time ago and spent five minutes

everyday thereafter deleting the junk e-mails.

The only way to lessen the amount of spam you are getting is to open each piece and follow the directions (usually at the bottom of the page) on how to remove your e-mail addy from their mailing lists.

It takes about ten days to two weeks to get rid of most of it, and a few weeks later, you will probably have to do the same again, but it will eventually slow down and stop.

[doc03]

9. Thanks for the suggestion, until recently I

maybe had 10-15 a day, the last few days I just glance through them and then delete them all. Like I said it was one like you see at the top of the page now, I trusted this sight and had never had problems like this before. I saw many many posts complaining about the adds after what I had done about a week ago now I see what all the bitching was about.

[cboy4]

12. Wow! I'd always heard it wasn't good to respond to spam because

they'd know it was an active e-mail address and then really start bombarding you.

That's good to know if you say it works!

[sandnsea]

17. Exactly

I think they just sell it to 1000 spammers before they stop sending it from the one account you respond to. Nothing works to stop the spam except a separate email address that you never give to anybody.

A free spam program is cloudmark and it works pretty good and is easy to install. I use Norton Spamfighter and it works better. I've had the same email address for 8 years and I get probably 1,000 spam a day, but usually only my real email comes through. I can't change it because it's business and would be more trouble than it's worth.

[renate]

23. I got a virus once from "unsubscribing" to an e-mail

I would never ever ever ever ever ever click on a link to unsubscribe, never ever ever again.

I have a spam filter so I wasn't used to getting spam. I clicked "unsubscribe" and got a virus that sent itself to people in my address book and ended up erasing part of the hard drive of a friend's work computer. I felt so much much worse than if I'd screwed up my own computer, or burned down my own house for that matter.

He was sweet about it but God, that was a nightmare.

[bonemachine]

11. OK

So, it's not clicking on the add that got you on a spam list, it was actually filling out the page that came up after clicking the ad.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

13. So you entered your e-mail..

and now you're actually surprised to be getting spam mail?

Question: Have you just recently been introduced to the internet?

[alittlelark]

18. They are ads, not adds. Unless you give them you e-mail

nothing will come of it. I use Firefox and am getting no pop-ups.

[doc03]

20. That would be your, not you, smartty pants.

I don't get pop-ups it's the e-mails, I will try the suggestion given earlier and start unsubscribing.

[sleipnir]

21. Welcome to the Internet. It might try to scam you, so be ready.

Lesson One. Don't ever do what you did.

Would you give you S.S. Number to a telemarketer who just called you one day? No...well...don't give out your email to obvious ad fakes. Most google ads are just pure exploitation rip offs, which does upset me that DU would use such tripe to make money, but what can you do...DON'T EVER CLICK ON THE DAMN ADS, THEY'RE JUST FOR SUCKERS.

[OnionPatch]

8. Hi Doc03!

:hi: Do you have any software for pop-up blocking? I have Norton anti-virus and I think it has pop-up blocker and I think there's a pop-up blocker with my ISP service. Whichever it is, I am not seeing any of the ads you guys are seeing at all. I'm not really even sure what you mean, I'm assuming they're pop-ups. :shrug:

Edited to ad: I think you can get some for free online.

[doc03]

10. Hi again! Onion patch, don't get pop ups they

are blocked just junk E-mails.