Is this a new way to spam

[HarryM1BYT]

I never open email from unknown sources, but at some time this afternoon. A second browser window appeared, with Tiscali's name on it. Tiscali, or TalkTalk are my ISP and it seemed to be genuine, from Tiscali.

The window was asking me to complete a survey, though didn't require any personal info like name and address, the bribe was to get a £60 prize at the end.

At the end of the survey completion, a page appeared with various offers. An e-cig starter kit they valued at £100, a muscle building kit, an anti-wrinkle cream and other things, where you just paid the (not too unreasonable postage cost of around £5.

All of the offers led to commercial sites, not Tiscali involved asking me to fill a form in to receive my goods.

I actually valued the e-cig starter kit at around £5-£10. Of course I didn't progress it further, I just wondered if anyone else had similar happen?

I am aware that they can work out who your ISP is from the IP you are allocated, so maybe that is how it was done.

[chipsceola]

nearest I had was Saturday, like you another window opened inviting me to complete a Tesco survey to receive a £60 gift, don't trust pop-up windows either so closed the window without checking further.

[reworht]

There's a huge load of spurious voucher offers being spammed around - I've had them reputedly from Tesco, Groupon, Morrisons, Boots, Asda, Aldi to name but a few. Apart from the common denominator of offering unrealistically high value vouchers (are Boots really going to send me a £600 voucher ), the main thing they have in common is that they ALL ask you to "click here" at some stage - and that is when you open the door wide and let them in
If you hover your cursor over the email sender's name (e.g. Tesco or whatever) - you'll will see the email address from which it was sent - usually with an Eastern Europe or American suffix, but definitely NOT an English Tesco one

There is no doubt that some of the ISPs have got loopholes in their security which allow some of this spam in, and it then gains access to their particular email addresses. Virgin have admitted as such to me - and miraculously, since I complained, there has been a huge reduction in the amount I get

[reworht]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

I never open email from unknown sources, but at some time this afternoon. A second browser window appeared, with Tiscali's name on it. Tiscali, or TalkTalk are my ISP and it seemed to be genuine, from Tiscali.

The window was asking me to complete a survey, though didn't require any personal info like name and address, the bribe was to get a £60 prize at the end.

At the end of the survey completion, a page appeared with various offers. An e-cig starter kit they valued at £100, a muscle building kit, an anti-wrinkle cream and other things, where you just paid the (not too unreasonable postage cost of around £5.

All of the offers led to commercial sites, not Tiscali involved asking me to fill a form in to receive my goods.

I actually valued the e-cig starter kit at around £5-£10. Of course I didn't progress it further, I just wondered if anyone else had similar happen?

I am aware that they can work out who your ISP is from the IP you are allocated, so maybe that is how it was done.

If you haven't already got them Harry, have a look at 'Pop Up Blocker' and 'Ghostery' which are add-ons to your browser. The first blocks all pop-ups, but gives you the power to allow your chosen ones through; the latter blocks tracking cookies (again, you can switch it off for trusted sites) and stops a lot of them identifying your browsing habits and then peppering you with 'appropriate' advertsing and scams.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by reworht

If you hover your cursor over the email sender's name (e.g. Tesco or whatever) - you'll will see the email address from which it was sent - usually with an Eastern Europe or American suffix, but definitely NOT an English Tesco one

There is no doubt that some of the ISPs have got loopholes in their security which allow some of this spam in, and it then gains access to their particular email addresses. Virgin have admitted as such to me - and miraculously, since I complained, there has been a huge reduction in the amount I get

The thing was, it wasn't an email - just a browser window which opened.

I get 50 plus emails per day for various legitimate purposes. I open the ones which are one off's from legitimate senders first, then the remainder are sorted into folders. The spam is picked out by my filters, before they even get as far as my in box. It is very rare for something unknown to get through, but it stands out like a sore thumb when it does.

I will say the spam is at an high at the moment, I am getting two or three delivery attempts per day, but this didn't result from a spam email, of that I am sure.

[clf]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

I never open email from unknown sources, but at some time this afternoon. A second browser window appeared, with Tiscali's name on it. Tiscali, or TalkTalk are my ISP and it seemed to be genuine, from Tiscali.

The window was asking me to complete a survey, though didn't require any personal info like name and address, the bribe was to get a £60 prize at the end.

At the end of the survey completion, a page appeared with various offers. An e-cig starter kit they valued at £100, a muscle building kit, an anti-wrinkle cream and other things, where you just paid the (not too unreasonable postage cost of around £5.

All of the offers led to commercial sites, not Tiscali involved asking me to fill a form in to receive my goods.

I actually valued the e-cig starter kit at around £5-£10. Of course I didn't progress it further, I just wondered if anyone else had similar happen?

I am aware that they can work out who your ISP is from the IP you are allocated, so maybe that is how it was done.

yes, I have been getting them, "dear talk talk user ..........." etc I don't complete online surveys, in fact I don't do surveys at all. just close it. with Google chrome (and other browsers) you can inspect its elements and see their origins, but I can't even be bothered with that anymore lol, just click the x

[neilb740]

yep, ive had a few of these. Its a marketing scam.

You will be offered a "free" gift at the end worth half the value of the postage they want to deliver it!

Plus you will have to give them your name and address to receive it.

[Sector-9]

Call me cynical but all unsolicited offers and requests are ignored and deleted - even if they claim to be from somewhere I deal with already. Mind you what I'm getting a lot of at the moment to my work phone are automated calls about my "recent accident" or "PPI claim". Unfortunately I have to answer calls even if from a withheld number, though I ignore those on my personal mobile.

[HarryM1BYT]

I get an irregular one from a company claiming to be O2, when you dig a bit deeper, its not O2 but a company 'affiliated' with O2. I'm not actually on O2, but on GIFFGAF which uses the O2 network.

They all get the same answer from me - NEVER RING THIS NUMBER AGAIN! - but maybe not so polite as that!

[Fifer]

In Firefox I use "Adblock Plus" and "Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon". The software still allows you to open pop-up windows from legitimate sites with a mouse click. Any other unwanted advertisements etc can be easily blocked.

I never take part in these so called surveys, as they are only harvesting personal information.

Jim