Stupid ebay/amazon question

[Steven W. Orr]

On Thursday, Jun 29th 2006 at 09:40 -0400, quoth Paul Lussier:

=>"Steven W. Orr" <steveo at syslang.net> writes:
=>
=>> On Wednesday, Jun 28th 2006 at 11:13 -0400, quoth mike ledoux:
=>>
=>> =>On Wed, Jun 28, 2006 at 11:01:59AM -0400, Steven W. Orr wrote:
=>> =>> I just want to try to keep my question on track. Yes, it gets deleted in 
=>> =>> the appropriate fashion. The question is why does it appear after visiting 
=>> =>> ebay? I do not get the sheer number of these messages when I don't go to 
=>> =>> visit ebay.
=>> =>
=>> =>I'm guessing while you are at eBay browsing auctions, you probably
=>> =>run across at least a few that have been placed by spammers/phishers
=>> =>with embedded images, webbugs, cookies, etc.
=>>
=>> Bingo. I never thought of that. Thanks.
=>
=>Which is why I a) never fill in e-mail address field on my browser,
=>and b) set the cookies option to "always ask".  If the cookie isn't
=>from the domain I'm directly connected to, it gets denied.  As does
=>anything from a system matching the regex ad*.*.* :)

Ok. I take it back. I thought this was a good explanation but I realize 
it's not. Let's try again:

I go to ebay and I log in. Now ebay knows who I am. Then I browse around 
and look at a bunch of different items. In no case am I providing anyone 
with my email address. Then, after a finish with ebay, for a few weeks, 
the number of ebay spam messages goes up. Yes, I did not discriminate with 
the cookies; I let them all be set. Is that enough for them to know how to 
get my address?

-- 
Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have  .0.
happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ ..0
Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000
individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question?
steveo at syslang.net