On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 09:57:23AM -0000, J.Barrett-Murrer wrote:
> We have received the following email from a student who wants to know
> how these companies obtained details of his studies. We are positive
> that they did not obtain his details from us.
>
> Has anyone else come across this problem and know how these companies
> obtained the data?
Is there any suggestion that they know that the student has a degree?
Most spam is not well targeted. For example, most people get adverts
for products to enlarge their penis regardless of whether they have
one. The same is probably true for degrees.
Getting hold of addresses is easy. They can be harvested from websites,
collected and sold when you give your email address for anything at all,
gathered from a browser or found out as a result of a dictionary attack.
Lists are then compiled and then sold. Once you get some spam, more
will follow if you tend to open or preview messages in poorly designed
mail programs, which most people do.
>
>
> 'Since getting the credits for my degree I have received a number of
> e-mail's
> offering me MA or Phd qualifications. Doing some checking on telephone
> numbers
> I find that these e-mail are from the USA and I view them as very
> dodgy...
> I have one question since I have not yet accepted my degree how
> did
> these people get the information I have a degree?
> I was under the impression that the data held by the OU was
> secure.
> This would appear not to be the case. A second question occurs to me ...
> how do
> I stop these mails?'
>
> Thanks Janice
>
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