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Cool idea (does it exist?) - Find websites that sell your email address

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mouser:
all these ideas about ways to prevent being inundated by spam by using different email addresses are good ideas, no doubt about it. and surely we will see more developments in this area in the future.

however i should just point out that i'm really talking about something completely different -- a way to figure out which sites are trustworthy in general by seeing which sites share the email addresses of members.

Renegade:
I host my own domain + email server, so it may be easier for me to do this than for other people, but I create aliases for my actual email address based on the names of the web sites I need the address for.

To explain:

My real address is [email protected].  If I'm registering at dodgysite.com, I create an alias, [email protected], and register with that address.  If, at any point in the future, I start getting spam addressed to [email protected], I not only know which site leaked my address, but I can just delete the alias and the spam stops!

-stylecrime (November 09, 2007, 12:48 AM)
--- End quote ---

Unfortuneately, this isn't always the case. If you get a virus - that theory is out the door. If you accidentally send an email to someone from that address, again, it's out the door.

Spammers also have tools to make up addresses that are likely to hit.

The problem is that so often you just can't know with certainty about these things. You can gain confidence in a conclusion, but proof/truth is elusive.

Using the alias is certainly a very good idea though! A friend of mine used to do that years ago with Bigfoot when Bigfoot was new. That was the first time I'd heard about the tactic. Still works today! :D

dlagesse1992:
Yeah, SiteAdvisor (kind-of?) does what you're thinking of. Well, at least is integrated, and easy to check before you do anything...
As for signup on sites, I have a spam email address and use BugMeNot whenever possible. DC, for instance, is a trusted site, so gets my real address, but that might not be trustworthy goes to spam.

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