Stupid ebay/amazon question

[Heather Brodeur]

Steven W. Orr wrote:
> I thought I knew a little bit about 'puters, but this one stups me.
>
> I don't go to ebay on a regular basis. I go rarely and I purchase even 
> more rarely. When I go, I log in for various reasons. But what I don't 
> understand is that after I have visited, I get ebay spam saying that 
> my account was corrupted or that bmy paypal account may be in 
> jeopardy, you know, the usual ebay spam.
>
> Can anyone explain to me why I get gouts of ebay spam just from 
> visiting without actually purchasing? Even if I were to purchase, that 
> shouldn't explain anything either. Is there some sort of troll inside 
> ebay that sends my address to the spammers whenever I visit? I know 
> this happens to other people too.
>
I have never made a purchase on ebay and never had a paypal account, yet 
have been sent what sounds to be the same spam.  I put it into the same 
category as the other phishing mail that I get about problems with my 
accounts at banks I've never been a customer of, etc.  As near as I can 
tell it's just spam being spam (ok, phishing spam), hoping to convince 
someone that it's real so that they can steal account info.  My advice 
(and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) is to just delete it and 
forget about it, or better yet, use it to train your spam filter.

-Heather