I recently visited AmEx Merchant Services and did not give them my email address. I am recieving email from them now. How did firefox give them my email address
I visited the American Express merchant website and within a few hours received an email to my business account. There isn't an email registration on the pages that I visited.
What is the code (if any) that is downloaded which would capture an email address and report it to the website?
I'm using a mac.. have the latest Adobe Flash S/W.. I was not at my house so my IP address was not associated with my email address. However my email S/W is running.
Is it possible that AT&T (internet provider) is capturing and reporting email addresses to websites when requested?
All Replies (8)
While you were there, did you fill out any forums? Do you have an account with them?
Firefox is not suppose to send anything unless you tell it to.
Thanks for your response. No... I didn't fill in any forms, or any forums nor provide any information. None of the pages I visited had forms on them. I do not have an account or credit card or any association directly with American Express. There isn't any link between me and American Express. This is the first time I've visited their website.
Was the message to You, or to the e-mail address? Look at the bottom. Is there a unsubscribe link? Some e-mail providers can set up rules for incoming mails.
Some scam computers will send to blind address. It costs nothing to them.
Possibly you have malware or even a key logger on your computer. More likely maybe you have just given out your email address to companies / websites and they are either passing that on or it is being harvested.
You probably would be better discussing this on some security related website or forum. We are just fellow users of Firefox trying to help one another with Firefox problems..
Thanks.... The message is to my business email address. The computer which I used is my business computer. The email is not directed to my name.
Yes there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of the AmEx email.
If it is a scam system sending to my business email address that would mean that google had a link to a scam site and I visited it. I was looking for information related to AmEx Merchant business. Could have been a possible scam site but it had a very complex architecture. More than would be believable for a scam site but not impossible. If it was a scam site then the links in the email would be to a scam as well.... (I looked at the email) The links are genuine AmEx and there is no personal information requested. Not believably from scam site.
This suggests that it is a genuine AmEx email.
With no forms on the website that was visited... This was the first time the website was visited and no direct relation with the company - This suggests a vulnerability that AmEx and other companies are using either in social media, adobe flash, or other which they are able to associate indirectly with a computer that visits their website and get their email address from (I.E an inference) Or that they are using a vulnerability in the Firefox S/W and able to access other information on the computer linked to their website.
Either is very scary since I have several add ons to maintain privacy.
Z
Thanks John99...
Could be an association from "shared data" with other visited websites who have my business email address. With the value marketers give to email addresses and to customer acquisition it is complicated but not unbelievable. Cookies are deleted at the end of every session. Social media is done from safari and not from Firefox.
Anyone else seeing this problem?
One this you can do is contact them by phone, and ask questions.
It could be the work of one of your add-ons, or even add / mal-ware. Look thru your add-ons list and make sure you know what each one is there for. Also, check the programs that are on your computer
Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the "Applications" folder Linux:
- Ubuntu Unity {web link}
- Xfce: Applications Menu category sections
- options depends on the package manager and the desktop environment
Go thru the list. If you find something that you don't know what it is, use a web search.
An gyara
Yes i was going to say if you are satisfied it was a genuine email why not contact them and ask about it.
As for a scam site looking genuine that is possible as a scam site may copy or link from details from a genuine site.
If this was some recent visit you may be able to find the site in your browser's History and could look at it again to see whether or not it is genuine.