[SpamCop-List] Re: GMail Account Compromised

[Pop]

"El Guapo" <elg at none.com> wrote in message 
news:ds8hq7$k4r$1 at news.spamcop.net...
:I have a GMail account that is about 3 months old. I have never 
used it. No
: one even knows I have it except the person that extended an 
invitation to me
: and someone that I extended an invitation to.
:
: I just logon once a month or so to keep the e-mail account 
open. I've been
: debating making it my primary account since my yahoo one is 
flooded with
: Spam. In January, I started getting spam.
:
: Is GMail security compromised or is it more likely one of the 
two people who
: know the address have a virus? It's an unusual account that 
spammers
: wouldn't just guess.
:
:
AFAIK, Gmail's decent, not great, and probably isn't compromised. 
Have you asked them?  I know some folk who are pretty happy with 
their Gmail accounts, and a coupe others who see them as a status 
symbol for some strange reason.
   There are so many sources and ways for your address to have 
been scraped/picked up by spammers that it's impossible to say, 
based on the info you haven't given especially, why you're 
getting the spam.  It could even have been scraped from your own 
machine, so it's impossible to say or guess.

Yahoo:  Do you use their spam filters?  They do a pretty 
excellent job.  I don't care for Yahoo, but their filters do work 
pretty well.  I use Yahoo for throw-away and non-critical 
signups, things like that, and of three current accounts I have 
there, two of them, both with unusual account names that 
"spammers wouldn't guess",  began to receive spams within three 
days of their creation.

Think about it for awhile and you may be able to figure out some 
ways that you're letting your real email addresses be seen by the 
general audience.  If anyone can see your email address anywhere, 
then so can spammers.  It's just the way it works, unfortunately.

Can you create subaccounts at Gmail?  Maybe that would work.  Or, 
get another address.  FYI, if any PART of an email account is 
dictionariable, the spammers will likely eventually find it, 
especially if it's only followed by a bunch of numbers at the 
end.

HTH,

Pop's opinion,

Pop