Getting Email Spam in POL

[Fayttt]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

Ive never got any spam. O.o

[Saerik]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

I barely ever recieve e-mails to my POL account. Have you given your POL e-mail address out to something else?

[bungiefan]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

I barely ever recieve e-mails to my POL account. Have you given your POL e-mail address out to something else?

As far as I can tell, it's people with Japanese POL accounts that are mainly getting the Japanese spam.

I've only given my POL email address out for people to reach me for FAQ/guides I've written, and to people I know in person. I have a designated junk mail account I use to register for sites and such that I think would generate spam.

[Aeni]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

I barely ever recieve e-mails to my POL account. Have you given your POL e-mail address out to something else?

No, I haven't. Except to a friend. And I know she didn't give that away either.

The emails range from websites in the matchmaking business to nightclubs soliciting potential clubbers. Odd thing is, I don't live in Japan (not right now anyway)

[Feenicks]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

Wait a minute. Aeni, did you live in Japan for a while? I think all the spam I get started coming after I came back from living in Japan ... I logged in a couple of times while I was over there as well, in net cafes and such.

Hmmm.

[Moaku Hyena]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

Oh god. Let's pray that SE won't follow AOL's scheme with email when this becomes a major major issue. o_O

P.S. Never got spam.

[Yuanlung]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

I just started getting them for about a month now. Japanese porn site/dating site, about 1 per day. Since it's an e-mail account that I never use anyways, I'll probably just set up a cronjob to clear the content of the mailbox every day so I don't get annoyed with the flashing envelope while playing.

[Aeni]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

Wait a minute. Aeni, did you live in Japan for a while? I think all the spam I get started coming after I came back from living in Japan ... I logged in a couple of times while I was over there as well, in net cafes and such.

Hmmm.

That's probably it. I was also in Korea for a bit. Maybe they solicit specific players. Weird.

[bungiefan]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

That's probably it. I was also in Korea for a bit. Maybe they solicit specific players. Weird.

I've never used my account from a Japanese IP. I've always been playing from within the US.

How about a poll? Is everyone that is getting the spam using an account created with the Japanese version of the game? Or are American and European accounts getting the spam too?

[Macht]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

lol, no clue about my email from POL. I forgot my password for it and haven't been able to get it up and running since.

From the sound of it though if you were at the cafe's, don't think that maybe some Japanese people are just finding your email and for fun decided to send you email to a bunch of Japanese porn sites?

Multiple possibilities if you've been using your account in multiple locations.

[Aeni]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

My guess is that these companies or group of individuals are "guessing" the email address. If they don't receive a generic SMTP error that the email address does not exist or that it is declining all emails being sent to it, it must be a valid address. Whether or not the valid address is inactive or not, they don't care. The point is that they're trying to get at least 1 in every 100 emails to visit their website or check out their local business and if that happens, they've succeeded. Think about it ... even with 150,000 players only and about 100,000 of those with an email account that they guessed exists, that's 1,000 potential customers.

And the businesses range from porn to social/dating services to support groups (I got an email from a Mother's support group for those with asthmatic children) Majority of these are using temporary accounts with Yahoo or Taiwanese services (Yet the emails are in Japanese) and even SE's own POL services (I got one from someone who's aligned with the OCN side in Front Mission Online, had a weird pol.ocn.ne or something address)

[Macht]

Re: Getting Email Spam in POL

My guess is that these companies or group of individuals are "guessing" the email address. If they don't receive a generic SMTP error that the email address does not exist or that it is declining all emails being sent to it, it must be a valid address. Whether or not the valid address is inactive or not, they don't care. The point is that they're trying to get at least 1 in every 100 emails to visit their website or check out their local business and if that happens, they've succeeded. Think about it ... even with 150,000 players only and about 100,000 of those with an email account that they guessed exists, that's 1,000 potential customers.

And the businesses range from porn to social/dating services to support groups (I got an email from a Mother's support group for those with asthmatic children) Majority of these are using temporary accounts with Yahoo or Taiwanese services (Yet the emails are in Japanese) and even SE's own POL services (I got one from someone who's aligned with the OCN side in Front Mission Online, had a weird pol.ocn.ne or something address)

Well there are some really old protocols you can actually use to search for emails. All you need to know is the mail server's address and you can usually use those protocols. They aren't to often protected either, mostly think it's because they are so old and people that know of them or even how to use them is pretty limited. Also they likely didn't bother since you can secure your mail server by hidding behind your network (Which is why when you try to access your Cox email when not on a Cox ISP connection you can't reach it).

So for a mail server like the one on POL I would imagine it could be easier to crack since it's not as well hidden behind it's network.

If I remember it's the basics that exchange servers build off of, and you know how much junk those exchange servers can get. Even an address that's an incoming only address gets junk mail in like 24hrs. of showing up. Then also the stuff websites can capture example if you ever used Liveperson on your website, there's tricks with it you can do that kicks back email addresses to you.

The only email account I have that hasn't gotten any junk mail is one that I never really used. No one sends email to it and I don't send out email from it. It gets 0 junk mail, otherwise when I give that email to someone or send out from it often it's junk mail galore.