Box.NET has released addresses from their user database to spammers. At this point, I don’t know if it was intentional or by accident, nor do I even know if they know about it, but here’s how I know, with nearly 100% certainty that they are responsible, in one way or another, for releasing my E-Mail address to spammers:
Update (6/8/2011): I received this response from box.net:
Very sorry to hear that this has happened to your account. We never sell or give out email addresses, so trust me when I say that everyone at Box is taking this very seriously. We know that you trust us with your information, so hearing that you’re being spammed makes us feel terrible.
We’re currently investigating what happened and will update our users once we have answers. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly at ******** if you have other questions or concerns.
Best,
Mark
That was left to me on this blog. That makes me feel much better that they are now aware of it and are researching it. Note that I’ve also received a confirmation from another Box.net user in the comments below. I look forward to Box.net’s resolution.
Article now continues…
I follow these practices (religiously) when giving out my E-Mail address to vendors such as box.net:
In short, I make a new E-Mail address for EVERY website that needs my e-mail address and NEVER give that address to anyone else, EVER!. The E-Mail address I registered with Box.net YEARS ago finally started receiving spam as of 6/2/2011. The one on the 2nd was for replica luxury watches and the other was for, you guessed it, those little blue pills, which was today, 6/3/2011.
Update: I called box.net at 877-729-4269 and informed them. They seemed to take it seriously (at least, they didn’t discard it). I should be expecting some E-Mail from their support manager about the instance.
For the record, to show how my anti-spam practices actually work, I’ve received only about 10 or so spams so far this year (and we’re well into June now). 100% of them are traceable to who was responsible. 3 or 4 were from my cousin’s wife’s PC that has a virus. 2 were from a friend with a virus, and 3 or 4 were from one of my sisters’ PCs, also with a virus, and then these 2 triggered by box.net somehow releasing my address. In case you’re wondering if I’ve forgotten to check my spam folder… these ARE the full contents of my spam folder. These anti-spam practices really work and take less effort, overall, than manually filtering through all the spam and marking or deleting it.