Posting Personal Info Online ..do You ?

Years ago I posted my topics of interest and more personal info like my home address and email on an online Stamp Forum that looked like a never ending message board with no subtopics , I have kept the same email address for years and suspect that a large amount of Spam from clever Nigerians (probably from Lagos)were sent to me because of that particular public message board .

Have any members here ever made this mistake or had similar experiences.

yes..i had that experience...but I've changed email add ever since...

Yup....my email id and home address is posted in some forums too but spamming is not a problem as that particular email add is used exclusively for spams and non important mails which I check irregularly. My main email add is known to only a few friends and relatives.

I haven't had any problems resulting from this forum yet. Of course we do not post addresses or emails here and only established members can email us. I do get spam from other sites I have visited.

Dianne

I've been lucky lately I do post one of my email address on this site and so far no spam

There is no need to post your email address here since established members can always contact you by forum mail. For new members, you can contact them first through forum mail, and then they will have your email address and can reply to your message. This protects your email address from programs called "spambots" which shift through web sites looking for email addresses to send spam to.

It is not a good idea to post your home address on a collector forum. It says to the world, "I have a collection you can come by to steal anytime, just put my address into google maps for directions."

it is more scary nowadays though coz of the prevalence of identity thefts

I get 1-2 Nigerian Spams a day , I've won the Lottery so many times thatI'm filthy rich and I'm always related to a deceased millionaire who's acting executors are trying to reach me so I can get what I'm entitled to, I find the Spam more amusing than annoying.

I've never shared or replied to any of these mails and I've known about the spambots for a while , I'm just more amazed at how a 1 time reply to a stamp message board caused all this havoc , oh and I did get some replies from stampers around the world but the last one was 2-3 years ago .

I do not post my address on a message board and can't recall leaving my email address on a board either. I usually let anyone interested to reply to the message itself or send me a message from my profile page. I also am on Myspace and Facebook and some other social sites and have not had a major problem with spam or phishers. I do keep my spamfilters & spyware software up to date. Then again I am also on the do not call, mail, or email privacy lists.

I started out with a small local internet provider.and I used to get a lot of porno ads...since I switched to roadrunner they must get filtered out..also I used to get ads pertaining to words I used on the internet...i do not have that problem now..i guess you get what you pay for !!

Jayelem, you should be able to protect yourself from most of that using your search engine filters, a good anti-virus program (I use Norton but there are several other good ones - some free) and free anti-spyware programs like Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html) and Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spy...blaster.html). I use both and haven't had anything get by in several years.

I just never do, it just isn't a smart thing to do. In fact I use a secondary email address for web related things.