TooStep? Opt-out?

[spring3007]

I just got an email invitation to join a discussion site called "TooStep." This invitation came to an email address I ONLY used to sign up for daniweb.com. Can someone direct me towards the section of this site that details how our email addresses are shared with partner sites? I didn't want this address shared.

[Dani]

Your email address is never shared with any third parties. Additionally, I can personally promise you that there have been no unauthorized accesses to the database.

That being said, sometimes free email providers (and even some paid ISPs) do share email addresses with partners. I have created free email accounts in the past that I have never used even once, and yet still they received spam.

[spring3007]

Your email address is never shared with any third parties. Additionally, I can personally promise you that there have been no unauthorized accesses to the database.

That being said, sometimes free email providers (and even some paid ISPs) do share email addresses with partners. I have created free email accounts in the past that I have never used even once, and yet still they received spam.

I signed up with my Gmail account, and one of the cool things you can do is append other words after your username by utilizing a plus sign i.e. "[e-mail]"

I use unique identifiers in my email address like this in order to track how my address gets used. This is what I used when signing up for the daniweb forums.
I received an unsolicited email from something called TooStep that was addressed to the address with the daniweb identifier. Here's a snippet of the message:

"You are invited to "Project Management ++" Community at TooStep
Do you want to get professionally connected with members of Project Management ++ community?
Do you want to find and share knowledge, advance learning resources, and professional advice with Project Management ++ community?
Do you want to find and share high quality career opportunities with Project Management ++ community?
If answer to any of the above questions is YES, join community on TooStep where you can effectively do all the above and more."

So how did TooStep get an email address that I only typed once in my life, when I signed up for daniweb?

[jasimp]

So how did TooStep get an email address that I only typed once in my life, when I signed up for daniweb?

Internet magic ;)

[Nick Evan]

I signed up with my Gmail account, and one of the cool things you can do is append other words after your username by utilizing a plus sign i.e. "[e-mail]"

So a spambot came by daniweb, saw your username, appended '+daniweb' (apperantly you're not the only one that knows this function) and voila: spam. That wasn't to hard :)

[edit]
Or you just have some spyware on your HDD, when was the last time you scanned? It could have gotten the mail adres from a keylogger or a trojan or your cookies etc

[Dani]

When you registered with DaniWeb, we sent you an activation email and then a welcome email. Google, as well as your ISP, both are aware that [e-mail] exists because mail was sent to it.

[IMJS]

I've just received an email from TooStep too. Whilst TooStep may have received my address from another source, I have no other obvious links to the IT industry and this seems to be the community that TooStep are targetting. My email address does not contain "daniweb" nor does my username bare any relation to my email address. My email is provided by my employer and therefore is not being shared. Perhaps DaniWeb needs to check its security? And perhaps users should be adviced to block emails from TooStep?

Personally, I'd never join an organisation that claims to 'ideate'.

[jasimp]

Methinks this is could be a "clever" marketing scam by TooStep.

[MidiMagic]

There are several other possibilities:

- An internet node somewhere between your ISP and DaniWeb's server was cracked. The crackers installed a keystroke spy or an email address spy.

- Someone else with spyware installed looked at a page containing your email address.

- The spammer guessed at username+daniweb and got some hits.

- The spammer generates random combinations of usernames and website names it finds. Only a few work, but those few are enough.

[Dani]

Now this is really weird ... I, too, just got an email from TooStep. However, my email is addressed to [e-mail] (which is just an alias for my real email address ... mind you an alias that I haven't ever used!) The email addresses I always use are either [e-mail] or [e-mail], and that's the only thing that has ever been on our Contact Us page. [e-mail] had to have just been a random guess??

[MidiMagic]

Now this is really weird ... I, too, just got an email from TooStep. However, my email is addressed to [e-mail]

This means they are generating trial email addresses from pieces they pick up over the Internet.

[jbennet]

This means they are generating trial email addresses from pieces they pick up over the Internet.

Yeah its probably some sort of bot that tries to make likely guesses of email addresses.