Re: E-mail harvesting on PG lists?

Carlos Moreno wrote:
>
> This is worrisome...
>
> I decided to create a separate account for my subscription to PG's
> mailing lists (to avoid all replies bouncing back due to my strict
> whitelist anti-spam filter) -- I created the account on Dec 22, and
> today I notice a phishing e-mail ("Your PayPal account"), meaning
> that it took less than two weeks for my e-mail address to go from
> PG's mailing list to a spammers' database of addresses... Needless
> to say that I have not used this e-mail address (but really, really
> really 100% absolute certainty that I have not used it in any single
> instance), other than to post a couple messages in here.
>
> This is truly worrisome... I wonder if spammers today are basically
> subscribing to mailing lists so that they receive the e-mails (seems
> like a very obvious trick), or if they're moving to the next level
> of "decrypting" the "encrypted / anti-spam" form of e-mail addresses
> (the way they're displayed on the mailing list web site)

Our email lists are mirrored onto web sites like Google, so I am
thinking they got it that way.

> Any comments? If it is the first option above, then it feels like
> by definition there is absolutely nothing that can be done, now
> or ever :-(

Yes, I came to that conclusion long ago.

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
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