An INTERNET TRUTH

[RichP]

Never ever ever search for insurance rates on the internet and put your personal email in the reply to, those whores must be making a fortune reselling them. Two weeks after I requested a quote [stupid me for using my ptd account] my junk mail went up 900%.... As soon as I get my cable modem hopefully in the next two weeks or so, I'm killing this UID.

[Glenn B]

Yikes! Bummer.... I hate spam. Wastes sooo much time and resources.
Glenn

[woody]

Ya! I hadn't connected the dots until now...got an online quote from Geico a few weeks ago, and now getting tons of daily spam in my hotmail box.

Ah well, thats what I keep that mailbox for anyway...

[Eagle]

It's a trite saying, but this is a case where "There ought'a be a law!" I see this as a short-term thing for the companies who do it, because it won't be long before folks catch on, after which nobody will request an on-line anything from such companies.

It's a royal PITA. Although I don't know what good laws do. Connecticut (and I guess most states) has a law prohibiting junk faxes. But I can no longer leave my fax machine on. Someone sold my fax number to a bunch of travel agents, and if I leave the machine on I get assaulted and beseiged with faxed offers for cruise packages, to places I'd never wat to go and at prices I could never afford. The practice has significantly degraded the utility of owning a fax machine ... and now they're doing the same thing to e-mail.

[cherokeekid95]

i have an email that i use only for signing up for stuff like that. and a seperate one for personal use. just to avoid stuff like that.

[MonsterXJ]

damn the spam

[Yucca-Man]

Originally posted by cherokeekid95
i have an email that i use only for signing up for stuff like that. and a seperate one for personal use. just to avoid stuff like that.

Likewise.

[Tucker]

We need to fight back. The only reason your demographic information is so valuable is that it can be used to market products to you.

If you skew the data, it becomes worthless ... no one can sell very many hair replacement schemes to teenage girls. Likewise, middle-aged men aren't likely to buy many beauty secrets of the ancient Egyptian princesses.

When you fill out a web form, make the data you give totally worthless as a marketing tool. Lie ... really big lies. Exaggerate your income, or minimize it. Change everything about yourself when responding to those questions.

Our only other recourse is to charge for personal info. That day *is* coming, but I (for one) am dreading it. Delay it as long as we can by trashing the data.

[RichP]

Been doing that for years but what ticks me off is that when you do a legitimite form to get real information back they sell it or 'pass it on' .
Barnes & Nobel, Waldenbooks and that other big book store wanted my email to send me 'special' offers, I said 'no thanks' I already have enough people selling me dick enlargers as it is :D

[Yucca-Man]

Consider another source I bet 75% of you have in your wallets right now. That handy little "discount card" from your local food chain is capable of not only saving you a few bucks when you buy groceries, but it can be used by the store to determine what you buy, how often you buy it; whether you pay cash, check or charge, and when you do your shopping. They get your info this way too, and yet we blindly hand the card over to see if we saved money every time....