Has anyone gotten an email from wordofmouthresearch.com saying someone is researching you? I have. On this website, you put up someone's email address or name and other people can contact you saying they have information on this person.

Well, I don't want the email address they have on their site up for all the public to see. It's the ONE email address I have only given to friends/family and on some of my resumes. I don't really care if someone's trying to research me, I just do not want this email address out on the internet.

So I emailed the site asking them to please remove any references to my email address. And they replied that they can because it's members of the public who put it on and all their talking if off the site.

I replied saying I didn't really care if people were researching me, that that is a private email address and I don't really want it online as it's the one email address I have tried to keep private.

Out of frustration that this website won't remove my email, I decided to file a complaint with my state's attorney general. What really annoys me is that this is the ONE email address I don't get much spam mail on and now it's online for the entire world to see.

What do you guys think? Am I overrreacting? Should I keep trying through the company to get my email address off? Should I contact my ISP about this (where I have this email address through) to see if they can do something?

It seems what they are saying is that your e-mail is not on public display but is encoded and held on a database. People can communicate with each other anonymously via wordofmouthresearch.com about a subject being researched unless both parties choose to start using normal e-mail. Even so, have they said how they got your e-mail address in the first place? That might be a good question to ask if you are concerned about it being there. I think if you want reference to it removed, it should be removed.

I personally wouldn't get too upset by my e-mail addresses being held somewhere unknown to me (which I'm sure they are). I've come to accept that it's almost impossible to take part in the Internet and keep privacy under control. I'm sure my e-mail addresses, plus any other details I've ever needed to divulge for any reason, are stored on a good few databases. Who knows if the info remains only with the people I give it to? I take the view that if it doesn't affect my way of life, or anything that I want to do, then I won't worry about it.

I know it's a nuisance but if your e-mail address has been compromised and you are concerned about it, could you not just create another one and let people know? That does seem to be necessary every now and then.

I have had a couple of e-mails from them, I assumed it was a scam to get you to subscribe to their Power Member so ignored it but did retain the link so I could check just how many people are asking after me!

2/4/2004 Looking For Information
3/3/2004 Looking For Information
3/5/2004 Looking For Information
3/6/2004 I Have Information
3/10/2004 Looking For Information
3/14/2004 Looking For Information

This is the current log on my e-mail address. What is quite interesting is the e-mail address of mine which they are using, I have about 5 which all put mail in the same mailbox, the one they have seleted to use is the one which attracts the most spam and is never used by me, in fact I used to filter out all mail sent to that address direct to the trash until I got this better spam filter, it was all spam.

I have now taken up their free membership option using that e-mail address, I will let you know what transgresses from that memberships, will I be able to find out WHO wants me?

I find this line intersting "Finally, we never share or sell our Do Not Email List.", does this mean they sell the other list?

I may have read their sites faq page wrong but I think the people that use this site remain anonymous but the information that is posted is for users to peruse at will. The general public doesn`t have access to the information but the subscribers seem to.

I don't think the e-mail addresses would be on public display, although I had to read their pages quite a bit to see how they worked and what they are trying to achieve. I suppose you'd have to join to find out exactly how it operates. With regards to that, well done Sue! We'll await the report with interest.

Searching the Internet it seems that this site is a scam. Take a look at this and this. I suspect ladymacb's email from them was just spam sent to randomly generated email addresses to get people to pay the joining fee.

The golden rule of spam is not to reply as this confirms your address as being valid. Just a thought, but wouldn't it be a good way to collect valid addresses by getting people to contact you to complain about your website. Also you can visit the site and type in an email address to search. Bingo... another valid email address!

I just added another e-mail address. The old one was maybe eight years old and it gathered a lot of spam. The new one is alpha/numeric, a stumbling block for spam generators.
The spammers will eventually be history when the bright people come up with a way to defeat the trashers. In the meantime, we have to put up with it.

Spam, what is spam? I decided not to clear my filters for a month, we are now the 19th and so far I have 7,733 items this month. Anyone fancy guessing what the month's total will be?

I have to say my filters are now really effective, I doubt whether more than a couple of items pass through each day, sometimes less. It is filtered three times and it is bliss not to have to actually hit the delete key all the time.

Well, I registered as a user using my hotmail account (that I only use for spam anyway) saying I had information... We'll see if I get a reply from the person looking for informaiton on me.

I did it the other way, said that I wanted information...

Good thinking, I will also try it the other way about since SO many people are interested in my old e-mail address.

On a similar aside, for some months now I've been getting mortgage emails quoting for my exact house address as well as my name. Naturally, no more than my name can be discovered from my email address, so you can imagine how I feel. Though the company have discovered my exact address in London(probably from a list sold round companies from earlier web sales- a directory would never find my address as my name is a very common one)they are based in Schenectady, USA.

I have two or three of these a week, and the crazy thing is it's impossible for me to ever use their service had I lost my sanity sufficiently to try it. This is clearly done by automatic means which relies on a tiny percentage of farmed addresses being eligible, but over here we have what is jokingly called a 'data protection act' designed exactly to stop these rogues from using our addresses. Though they operate from abroad, the data is bought from the UK, as that's where most of my e-sales are made. And they are 100% protected by the act, in theory anyway. Pirates will always keep one step ahaed of any system, whether doing research or trying to sell you an unusable product. And just as sure as that's the case, our local trading standards officers will be powerless to do anything about it through lack of legal power and lack of funds.