Revealed: The Source of Mystery Messages

I was amazed when I got an email that told me all the places I had visited on the day I ran some errands.

The other day I called a restaurant I have never visited. Told the person on the phone that I wanted to order dinner for take-out. She said "That order would be for "! I asked how she knew this, and she said it is a service they subscribe to. Sounds like your AddShoppers outfit!

Yes-I am up to date on why I get E-mail for a item that I clicked onto 3 weeks ago from another web-site ,but this is the one that caught me off-guard.I was looking at senior citizen's apartments, 3 weeks later I get a call from one of them [no-I did not have to put in my e-mail address on any of them] I get a phone call asking me to come in for a walk thru. The only thing I could think of ,was they hooked up to my cookies and IP address ,she did not tell me how she got my phone #.

Give 'em the number of the political commitee you don't like.

What do you think of stores requiring you to show the back side of your drivers lisc. so they can scan it to verify your age? What else can they learn from that bar code? Yet another way we are being watched, I think. I have stopped shopping at Kroger when they insisted I show the bar code. BTW, I am no kid, 63, gray haired and bald.

Keep marking all junk as phishing (after all, that's what they're doing)--- maybe someone will get the hint & do something about it.

It sounds like personal privacy has ceased to exist in the US. In most counties this would be totally illegal. The first example is considered key logging, and the second considered phone tapping where I live, both of which are illegal.

Best policy here would be to let the firms involved know that you consider both policies wrong, and tell them you not be shopping with them again in future.

I recently read the novella, The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster. He warned of this as long ago as 1909, but even more concerning, he described what could go wrong - if the machine stopped.

they are getting to me from my computer for just looking at things and they know what i have been looking at ,,question is how

My complaint is that after I've made a purchase, I I get way too many pop-up ads suggesting that I purchase the item(s) again. It gets tiresome. Still I like being able to shop onliune.

Once again I feel completely justified: I don't own a smartphone and I get along just fine, living peacefully and happily and out of the reach of the marketing mafia.

Sometimes the consumer wins. My husband was investigating shoes and ended up with them appearing twice in his shopping cart before he decided not to buy and logged out. He ignored reminders that he had goods in the cart. Next thing the order turned up at our post office box with no payment made. (They had his address but no billing details.) Two pairs of shoes for free. No request for payment has ever been made.

Some five plus years ago - I was sitting astride my motorcycle having just left a food mall when my Android said it wanted to talk to me. Upon opening Google there was a message saying, "We notice that you have just visited the premises of ABC Food Mall
and would like you to give an opinion as to the level of service that you received there"

This was enough for me to disable all GPS systems until this day notwithstanding complaints from visitors wanting my Location hahaha.

If these intrusive emails rely on IP addresses, a VPN might block some of 'em. That and using throw-away email addresses.....

I just wonder why people open emails from places they don't know.
Even more odd is reading text messages from weird origins.
I would suggest going back to landlines and binning the cell phone but then I'd be told to use a tin can and string. It was always easier to shout so that's out as well.
Believe it or not I have never sent a text message on a phone or read one sent to my phone AND I haven't dropped dead yet!

I've noticed that with Instagram particularly, if you fill out a form there but don't buy anything, you will get an email from that ad.

Lately, I've been getting emails "for" someone I no longer am in touch with, they hit my spam folder, but hovering the address shows they're from all over the world. She's not. Never clicked a link, nor would, but it is some new sort of scam.

Upon opening my laptop I continue to receive a window message stating "there is a problem with your Microsoft account. Press here." This almost certainly is a phishing expedition and I will never click here on that or any other such "notice.". However, it is aggravating to see it each time. How can I get rid of it without "clicking here?"

I have never enabled internet access on my phone - I still get text messages which come over the cell system, but never any internet contacts....it's a phone - I make calls, I'm on my PC basically all day, why do I want to have to squint at the internet on my phone's silly little screen - sorry phone you are basically just a nuisance....I killed my house phone many months ago, and now speak to only people I want to hear from !

Just the other day, I received a letter in the mail, from a health care organization. They wanted me to participate in a health study, because I had "two of the following health care issues, or possibly others". They then listed 3 conditions, neither of which is a problem for me. They also said that it wouldn't cost anything, since I have supplementary insurance.(However, I'm sure this is not true, since my supplementary insurance kicks in only under catastrophic expenses.) I haven't had any direct dealings with this company, and I have no idea how they know anything about my health (although not very accurately). This is disturbing to me.

Mine is not a shopping experience, but a bit scary nevertheless.

A business proposal was emailed to me and I indicated I was not ready to consider it yet. They followed up with a phone call which I did not appreciate. After a while they stopped harassing me.

One day I reopened that email to take a another look, and the phone immediately rang. Seems they had a system in place to monitor my interactions with their previous messages, and knew I was reading the email just at that point.