[Harc] it's taken a while but it finally happened...

Howard, KB6NN kb6nn at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 2 16:16:29 CDT 2021


My email address has finally been harvested by click-bait advertisers.  I'm not pleased, but I am not upset - it was bound to happen sooner or later.  I am used to receiving junk email from random advertisers, generic stuff not specifically addressed to me or aimed at my areas of interest.  Until now.

I just received an email advertising a new ham radio product.  When I clicked on the link, my computer warned me that the link does not go to where it is worded as going to, so not to a "friendly" or "safe" link.  I didn't click through, just closed the program.  Who knows where it would have led - perhaps to a website unrelated to the advertised product - perhaps to a website that would put "drive-by" virus/malware on my computer.

I would be interested to know if anyone else in the club has had this happen.  As far as I know, the only place my actual kb6nn email address is found on line is in text in the print version of the weekly bulletin on the HARC website.  I used to say you can contact me by looking for my call on the email list (that's this list, but for a while now, I have been lazy and have included it in my calls for programs, as in, "Howard, KB6NN, is looking for program ideas...you may contact me at..." When that is announced on the air, no problem.  But when it gets posted to the Digital Bulletin on line, I think that's where it gets picked up.

As you may already know, "spam bots" scour the web for email addresses.  They go to every web site they can find.  They can and will harvest email addresses even from plain text. (as opposed to mail-to links)(a mail-to link is an HTML term and is what's in the code behind the page that allows a visitor to a website to click to open an email to the contact person for the website, for example, "mailto:info at xyz.com").

The cat is already loose from the bag, and if my spam filter doesn't do it's job, I will eventually change my email address.  Just a word to the wise.  Now wiser.

-- 
73,
Howard
KB6NN

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