I left a comment on Donna's Journal (Nightmaremom) - link on my side bar.
As you will have seen when you post a comment on somebody's journal, your e-mail address appears with it. Donna has already put out a warning about people being contacted by others who have nothing to do with journals but now have access to our e-mail addresses.
I received this
I am Jibbie and I live in PENSACOLA. I was reading the Journal entry and saw your comment. I've belonged to AOL for 11 years, but recently I found out about SPARKPEOPLE, which is a web site to help lose weight which is FREE. Weight Watchers and eDiets are two other sites that both charge something like $15/mo and I couldn't afford that, but this is FREE and has a large number of members now. The man who started it sold his on-line business to eBAY for $25 million and used $5 million of it to help people on SPARKPEOPLE to reach goals. I thought with the New Year coming up you might want to get into shape, so wanted to say that I'll invite you to SPARKPEOPLE if you'd like to check it out. I've lost 19# since I joined and will get to my goal with all the help I now have.
Sincerely,
Jibbie
Now this may seem relatively harmless and of course, I am deleting, but this feature now leaves all of us open to abuse in all sorts of ways.
This feature should never have been introduced. I shall be writing to the journals editor making a complaint.
If you think, as I do, that this feature should be removed and our privacy protected, then please write also to journals editor and voice your opinion strongly. A lot of hurt and upset can come about through this. I was against it from the start.
If we wanted people to have our e-mails we would give them but we would be selective and pick and choose carefully. Now they are open to any Tom, Dick or Harry.
I hope you will all speak up against it. Please write to journalseditor.
P.S. If you read the previous comments you will see that one person received an e-mail because of this trying to scam her out of money. It has to be stopped. Our privacy should be protected.
30 comments:
omg jeannette nothing is safe these days. love joanne
I got one from someone in Africa trying to scam me out of money today!
Wanting my bank number and saying I would get 60,000.
I reported to aol..as spam, this is dangerous, we must all be careful online.
As our Emails are now readily available I keep getting mail from the Bank Of America, about updating my account, these are just scams, I haven't anything yet through my Journal but I fear if not nipped in the bud will get steadily worse.
Yasmin
Jeannette,
Have mentioned it in Journals Chat, and they're aware. Do not expect action this side of 2008.
I have always seen emails. all I had to do was click on the name in years past. I dont know why now they are doing this to us
I got the same email from Jibbie.
Sugar
SparkPeople is pretty cool, though. I've lost 32 pounds since becoming a member in August. As for the addresses - well, if they see your screen name it's pretty easy to figure out you just add @Aol.com to the end of it and there's your address, so to me, it's not that far fetched to show the email address, since it's pretty easy to figure out what the address is anyway. There never has been "Privacy" if you have an aol account ... it's too easy to figure out the email address!! ~~Kath~~
Anyone who knows how AOL addresses work already knows our email address. This feature may increase a little unwanted mail. I don't know if it changes anything that much. All my spam mail has been on the rise of late, before this change. Probably something I responded to or some site I signed up for. - Barbara
I do alot on line and as a result every morning I have dozens of junk mail that goes into the spam side. I run through it like a mantra just to make sure that aol has not put my "cousin" Alice on the Spam list. But it seems to be getting longer and longer...very much of a nuisence so I am not happy to have more people throwing unwanted emails at me. Take it easy...love, Sandi
we need to stand together and put a stop to this feature immediately!
hugs
d
At least we can block these people once they intrude into our journals. Thankfull AOL has given us that feature. Linda in Washington state
I recieved this Email today as well and in the subject line was my daughters NAME. We spell it the french way and only someone who reads my journal would now this. This is the 3rd piece of SCAM-SPAM I've recieved in as many days and you bet I'm jumping up and down mad! What a SNEAKY way to get someone to open an Email...post a thier child's name on it!
glad you posted this...I thought I was the only one. Bethe
I`ve had a lot of e mails recently saying I`ve won this or that, now I know why the volume is so high!
bella xx
I will write Jeanette. Don't like this idea at all. Mind you if they take any notice is another thing. I wrote the other day to them to ask what was up with my journals lay out...the big blue band appearing....but have they writen back....mmmmmmmm am I mad waiting !! Love for now Sybil xx
Hi Jeannette, I have been deleting these for ages, my spam box gets over 20 a day now when it was only the odd one or two!!! Trouble is I keep forgetting to block, but deleting is good enough at the moment.....if it gets worse then I will be kicking off!! Aol is letting us all down big time........if it ain't broke don't fix it!
Dear Jeannette,
I have recieved many e-mails over the last few weeks. I permanantly delete the ones in my SPAM folder, and will continue to do so. Now I know why the level of Spam has been so high recently! Thanks for the warning, it's really appriciated.
All the best,
Leigh :o)
http://journals.aol.co.uk/edwardssoapy/LeighsWorld/"
if you have an aol email they have always been able to have access to your email address...
but it is worse now i agree...
Lyn
I never realised this, i wonder if this is anything to do with my computer going crazy or just coincidence? Beckie x
((((((((((((JEANETTE))))))))))))))I got that to.Thanks for the info.
I'm finally catching up on journals. First off I love all the Christmas Decorating you've done. It's truly beautiful! As for the ignorant idiots who are trolling our comments now....I recieved that same email after commenting in a different journal. The past few weeks , I've gotten more spam-trolls in my comments than I ever had in the past year of being here in J-land. These people are inconsiderate vultures. I had someone trying to leave a link for a meet single's site on an entry I did for Doc's Birthday telling him how much I appreciated and loved him. It was crass and ugly to say the least. The lowest was having someone leave a link to a psychic site saying I could talk to the dead, when I left an entry on Mom's passing......
I'm seriously contemplating moving over to Blogger if this keeps up. I don't need to screen my comments like I've been doing as of late. (Hugs) Indigo
I've been emailed by Jibby! I actually got a few emails from this person. I have already complained also.
Missie
Jeanette,
I wrote a letter to the journal editor about this. Until you wrote this entry, I did not know that there was a link to our emails. This is very upsetting to me. Because you know there are going to be people out there that will cause trouble. Hopefully if a enough of us say something, AOL will remove that "email so-and-so" next to our screen name and leave it up to the individual blogger whether they want it there. It should be our choice, not AOLs.
Thanks Jeanette for bringing this to my attention :).
Huggers,
Gayla
I agree with you that our email addresses should be protected and will also have a moan at the Journals Editor. Eileenx
I also received this same e-mail after leaving a comment. I didn't think much about it to be honest. I just read it and chucked it. I thought it was a bit out of order of them to read comments and then e-mail us. I've also in the past had one advertising dating websites.
It is very easy for people to get our e-mails anyway, but AOL doesn't really help does it, by actually leaving a link.
Carolxx
I`ve just deleted that email just one minute ago Jeannette. I had a feeling that the comment alert was going to cause problems but not as soon as this. I suppose this is just the start...sigh.
Love Sandra xxxx
I am shocked that this is possible. How awful! I agree that this facility should be deleted and quick!!!!
Jeanie
All anybody had to do in the past is copy and paste our screen name which is also our address...
BTW you should report the email to sparkpeople. It is a legit website.
I got that email yesterday!
Lori
Jeannette glad you pointed this out ~ I think we should all complain ~ Ally x
I am happy to hear they have done away with this feature. We don't need anymore spam filling our inboxes.
Lisa
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