Don't give out your real e-mail address on the interweb
 

A while back, I was thinking of getting a home addition done so I was checking out one of those home improvement websites that had a "list".
They supposedly help you find a good local contractor for projects and such.
it's free but you have to sign up.

I almost used my read e-mail address but then remembered i created a gmail address years ago, haven't used it since.
I checked it out, no activity in over 2 years. perfect.

So I gave them that address.
Now it's getting hit all day long. I unsubscribed from the 4 different lists from that website, but I still get spam from all sorts of places like health insurance, geico, you name it.
I turned off the notifications so I can just ignore it from now on, but I'm glad I didn't give them my real address.

No free lunches.

BTW the one contractor contact they gave me turned out to be a flop, I do not recommend.
I ended up finding a good contractor who did work on an old coworker's home.
Word of mouth is usually the best way to find someone like that.

He said he has never advertised and stays busy all the time, and that a lot of those contractors who advertise, have to do it for a reason.
Makes sense.

Not to hijack the OP - but had good luck with the A........s L...st site a few years back. They sold out to a rival H.........m Ad.......r and it’s been downhill ever since. I now use an app “Nextdoor” which is similar to a local ‘newspaper’. Good service people rate consistently while the not so good contractors don’t last long. All word of mouth, all local.

I replaced a Dell mini tower recently with a new Dell featuring a LOT more RAM and a large :D drive for files. I'm not here to discuss my dissatisfaction with Dell for what I got for my money, but what is added in at no extra charge is 10x the spam I got before. No changes, my bookmarks migrated over when I wasn't looking.

That's kind of disturbing in itself.

You nailed it.
Spam's list.

Dont worry itll die down in 4 or 5 years

I get calls from these companies all the time asking me to advertise or get leads for jobs once every few weeks. I kept telling them I don't advertise and there's no need for leads. As it is, I can't handle the work now, but the fooking guys do not give up until I hang up on em'. They call right back the next day or two with a different phone number because they know I block them. Sick of them.

Title company, SBA, local PTO resale shop, more.
All of them re-sold my info...
Proven.

Some databases were major f'ups.
Their own return addresses were on the spam mail.

"There aughtta be a law" is well past it's prime.

or your phone number. a few weeks ago my wife signed me up for health insurance quotes online. within an hour the calls started. i got about 40 calls per day for a week. now i’m getting maybe 10. all from different brokers with different numbers so i can’t just block them. i was pissed

I'm more than happy to give out the phone number for my land line.
But sometimes I forget to tell people that we had it disconnected a few years ago ;)

I stopped at one of the big office stores to get a simple HDMI cable. They want my phone number to even ring it up. So I told her it was 1-405-555-1212 and she said, well that is a nice easy one to remember. I really had to try hard not to bust out laughing. I really thought everyone knew a 555 exchange was for movies and TV as a fake number, except for the phone company directory assistance. She punched it in and was happy. She was about 21 or so.

At harbor freight they ask for my phone number at check-out.
My reply:
"no, you don't need that".

Another thing .... the last time I made a large purchase at home despot, I received cold-calls from two different local companies trying to sell me home improvement services.
Might be a coincidence, but I doubt it.

I have 5 email addresses. One is for all the financial institutions I deal with, one for friends and family, one address for stuff that's free if you give your email address, and one for on-line merchandise orders. The other one hardly gets used, I haven't really assigned a specific use for it yet.

Been using my old disconnect number for 10 years. It's mostly just a way to identify you like a password. If it's ever reassigned I pity the person who gets it.

When we moved into our house 21 years ago we had no cell phones, and we got a new land line number for our exchange. We kept getting crazy phone calls from people wanting to know about their investments with a oil and gas company. One time in the middle of the night some German called and demanded I help him with information. I told him in not real diplomatic terms, that company is gone, dissolved, bankrupt, and I have nothing to do with them and do not call again.

I finally called 555-1212 and for the information and asked for the number of the company. They gave me my number. So I said, wait, we have a problem. She reported it to the supervisor and week later when I called and asked the same question it said they had no listing. Score.

If you dig deep enough on the search engines you can find old documents from that company with my land line number on it.

I would be happy to get rid of it. I long ago switched it to a Ooma service so it is $4.95 per month TCIP number. My wife insists we keep it.

Happy wife = happy life and it is not worth the argument to kill the number. We have the ringers turned off. If you call and don't leave a message, we will never know. All the BS callers that do leave a message (mostly politicians) just get deleted. We might get one call per month from a someone that has our cell numbers but wants to call on the land line so we don't use cell minutes. Of course, we have unlimited call time on the cell plan so it is no help to call on the land line.

I my push again to kill the land line as the election draws closer the calls pick up. All will get deleted.

Have filters for my cell phone that blocks callers that are using known telemarketer and debit collector numbers.
Also have a great anti-spam for my email. And have had the same email address for 30 years.

What I think is funny is after doing google searches I get adds on facebook, forums, and other websites that match those searches. If I look through my email quarantine there are also emails from spammers matching those searches. So don't think it really matters if you sign up for anything. Your internet data is public, being watched, and being sold and used.

I have a never checked email address for all 3rd party garbage correspondence, grocery store, etc. etc.

Anyone who I reliably do biz with gets an email that really doesn't have my name (amazon)

I give out a fax line

I’m sorry I’m straight, or married - depending on the gender of the person at the register - is still my favorite response to this. 7/10 times they get flustered. Totally worth it.