Today I received spam addressed to equifax@mydomain . Now, it was the same address I gave to Equifax UK. So clearly they have sold my info to some unscrupulous spammers.
Hello,
I am writing to offer you the chance of taking part in a new state of the art franchise business. For a low start up fee and minimum overheads you can earn 60,000 plus, based on the last 3 years.
We have a proven system with a 3 year track record.
Limited hours, could be run in conjunction with existing commitments
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C
Colin Forrester
address I gave
You are sure that your PC hasn't sent the address out as a result of some virus or spyware?
If so, what has Equifax told you?
C
Colin Wilson
address I gave
Have you contacted them ? - explain to their legal department that this WILL be followed up.
N
nick
address I gave
No I havent yet, I'm wondering what to say to them. Dont know the legalities yet.
C
Colin Wilson
IANAL
Explain to them that you haven`t (nor will you) give your permission for your personal details to be passed around, and that you know its them who "leaked" the address because you personalise the email address handed to any company.
Ask them to get their Data Controller to contact you direct to explain what the hell they`re playing at.
Ask them to notify any company they have passed it to without your permission to remove it from their databases - also contact the third parties direct to ask them to verify the source of their information (you already know where it came from, but it helps focus their minds to the issue of misappropriated data too).
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AFAIK none of the standard exemptions would apply to passing your data around in this way
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While you`re at it, check whether the third party is registered under the data protection act... Check email headers carefully, as you may find the third party uses someone other than themselves to process the mail for them - which could be someone else again who has been passed your information without permission.
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If they`re passing data to a firm not registered to hold data they may be leaving themselves open to a few angles of attack - possibly under principles 1, 2, 6 & 7 (if not more):
1) fairly and lawfully processed
2) processed for limited purposes
6) processed in line with your rights
7) secure
D
Daytona
Send them a cease and desist notice to prevent re-occurance .
File a complaint under the Data Protection Act if you didn't give them permission to resell.
Daytona
N
nick
lol, just had another spam email to the address:
Hello,
I would like to offer you the chance of owning a powerful new software tool.
Designed to record everything that is done on your business or home PC, Monitor Pro is a powerful tool which protects you against fraudulent and illegal activity as well as giving you insight into what goes on when you are not around.
blah blah
C
Colin Wilson
I`d be tempted to keep hold of all the spam mail for now as evidence against them...
J
Joe Kelleher
I've recently had those same two spams sent to an email address which I had only given to my now defunct electricity supplier, Zest4. Now that I come to check, another junk email was sent to that address on 4th January 2006: "Hello, John asked me to send out the new website template, I have uploaded the initial design here"...
Joe
D
Daytona
I've just started using this email anonymisor which looks good.
Daytona
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