Anyone else suddenly get spam e-mail after joining?

[kren]

I use an account that has not changed in years. I haven't given out my e-mail address to anyone except this forum and affiliated suppliers in the past month. But all of a sudden I'm getting a ton of spam in my inbox. Has this happened to someone else? And is there a known culprit?

(sorry if this is the wrong subforum; please move if need be)

 

[oldsoldier]

ECF does not share your email address with anyone, It is used for account identification and to utilize forum features such as subscriptions. A sudden onslaught of spam can usually be attributed to a compromised email account (usually someone that has you in their address book and uses weak/easily guessed passwords) or an imprudent post with your email address exposed to an email harvesting bot. You should also be aware that some sites explicitly state in their privacy policy that they share your email address with "partners" -- ECF does not. Sometimes it does pay to read the fine print on sites.