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[OT]Metalink spam

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Jim Smith

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Jan 31, 2007, 2:51:53 AM1/31/07
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I recently received some recruitment spam from a company called Venus
IT, using an email address which only exists as my metalink login.

Has anyone else received anything like this?

The availability of my metalink login to a third party has disturbing
implications.
--
Jim Smith
Ponder Stibbons Limited <http://oracleandting.blogspot.com/>
RSS <http://oracleandting.blogspot.com/atom.xml>

Mark D Powell

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Jan 31, 2007, 8:44:57 AM1/31/07
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Metalink Id's have been imporperly used in the past, but I get a lot
more junk email from newsgroup postings than I have from metalink
postings.

The email address could have been obtained off of any scanned email
message that included the id in its address list so if anyone ever
emailed you or you emailed someone via metalink your address is
floating around.

-- Mark D Powell --

DA Morgan

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Jan 31, 2007, 11:52:23 AM1/31/07
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Jim Smith wrote:
> I recently received some recruitment spam from a company called Venus
> IT, using an email address which only exists as my metalink login.
>
> Has anyone else received anything like this?
>
> The availability of my metalink login to a third party has disturbing
> implications.

Never.

But what you just wrong seems self-contradictory.

If you received email with that name ... then it seems you also have
an email account so it has not "only" been used on metalink. Perhaps
I am misunderstanding.

If you can confirm that it was obtained from metalink I would definitely
bring it to Oracle's attention. If you need a name at Oracle contact me
off-line.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damo...@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org

Jim Smith

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Jan 31, 2007, 4:43:28 PM1/31/07
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In message <11702623...@bubbleator.drizzle.com>, DA Morgan
<damo...@psoug.org> writes

>Jim Smith wrote:
>> I recently received some recruitment spam from a company called Venus
>>IT, using an email address which only exists as my metalink login.
>> Has anyone else received anything like this?
>> The availability of my metalink login to a third party has
>>disturbing implications.
>
>Never.
>
>But what you just wrong seems self-contradictory.
>
WTF?

>If you received email with that name ... then it seems you also have
>an email account so it has not "only" been used on metalink. Perhaps
>I am misunderstanding.
>

A metalink login must be an email address, but I have never sent any
mail using that address. I usually use different addresses for
registrations so I can try to trace where spammers get their info. It
also reduces the impact if I have to change an address because of spam.

>If you can confirm that it was obtained from metalink I would definitely
>bring it to Oracle's attention. If you need a name at Oracle contact me
>off-line.

I've raised it with metalink feedback, but I don't expect much response.

joel garry

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Feb 5, 2007, 1:16:49 AM2/5/07
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On Jan 31, 1:43 pm, Jim Smith <usene...@ponder-stibbons.com> wrote:
> In message <1170262339.85...@bubbleator.drizzle.com>, DA Morgan


I also have a metalink-specific email address that has been spammed by
this Venus.
It includes the obviously fake old "Disclaimer: Under Bills.1618 Title
III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this mail cannot be considered
Spam as long as we include contact information and a method to be
removed from our mailing list. To be removed from our mailing list
please reply to the sender with the word "REMOVE" in your subject
line. Include complete address and/or domain/aliases to be removed."

Unfortunately, I've made a couple of posts on the metalink forums. If
you roll your cursor
or click on any name in any post, it displays the _current_ email
address (I just tried
changing it to a new address, and it changed). I do not see any
preference setting to
disallow that. I suppose someone at Oracle has made the assumption
that anyone
paying for support would necessarily not be someone who would send
unsolicited
commercial email...

That would be a really bad assumption.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
"You know what it means when you assume?" "It makes an ass out of you
and me?" "NO, it means I'm going to be really pissed off at you!" -
Dirt


Jim Smith

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Feb 5, 2007, 4:01:06 AM2/5/07
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In message <1170656209....@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>, joel
garry <joel-...@home.com> writes

That's probably it for me to.

I'll add that info to my SR on this.

joel garry

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Feb 5, 2007, 7:00:34 PM2/5/07
to
On Feb 5, 1:01 am, Jim Smith <usene...@ponder-stibbons.com> wrote:
> In message <1170656209.081102.27...@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com>, joel
> garry <joel-ga...@home.com> writes

Watch out when changing email accounts, I seem to have had issues
with the password automatically changing. Then when I used the
reset password procedure, it sent me a temporary password for
the account name from before when they used email id's. Since
you can only login with an email id, that didn't work very well. In
the end, I had to use phone support, much more difficult
than it should be. Always "entertaining" to get an email saying
to login to metalink, when the issue is you can't login to metalink.

Sheesh.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.

As well it should be.

Jim Smith

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Feb 9, 2007, 4:23:24 AM2/9/07
to
In message <uQM3nczZ...@jimsmith.demon.co.uk>, Jim Smith
<usen...@ponder-stibbons.com> writes

>I recently received some recruitment spam from a company called Venus
>IT, using an email address which only exists as my metalink login.
>
>Has anyone else received anything like this?
>
>The availability of my metalink login to a third party has disturbing
>implications.

I am now also receiving spam from a
company called RadiantInfoTech (www.radiantinfotech.com).
They superficially appear to be a different company, but they sell the
same products and have the same addresses in Florida and California.

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