Being signed up for random mailings and sites

Anonymouse

So lately I've had someone signing me up for weird websites and also weird magazine subscriptions. I'm pretty sure I know who it is since I have no problems with people other than one person who possibly has some very serious problems in the mind. Any way I can protect myself from this sort of harassment? I can always just tell him to knock it off but without solid proof well I'd just be a jackass for bringing anything up to a person I'd rather not speak with.

MentholMoose

If these mailings and sites are just "weird" but otherwise legitimate, you can contact the owner or maintainer to remove yourself. If you want "proof", you could also ask for the IP address (and other details, like browser, day and time, etc.) of whoever signed you up. Many companies will maintain this info but may or may not give it to you. You might have to be sneaky about it, for example you could say you aren't sure if you signed yourself up, and request the registration details to confirm.

If you can get the IP, you can run nslookup and whois on it and possibly get some clues... e.g. it could be registered to the culprit's employer or school. For residential IPs it may at least have some location information. You can also use geo-location services like MaxMind - GeoIP to gather info. Another thing you can do with their IP is send abuse reports to their ISP.

You can also try to get the IP of whoever you think is doing this to make a match. If you can get them to send you an email, the email headers may have their IP address. You could also send them an email containing a unique link to a website you control (e.g. Subject: OMG CHECK THIS FUNNY PIC, Body: yourdomain.com/funnypic1kj3.jpg), then check the logs for accesses to that link.

Anonymouse

Cool I'll try that out. Well it started out as just weird being random spam/scam type sites and there were details here and there that gave me a clue to who is doing it. But now I have a bill for a magazine I don't read nor would I subscribe to.

MentholMoose

Anonymouse wrote: »

But now I have a bill for a magazine I don't read nor would I subscribe to.

That's happened to me, too (I swear, I really didn't sign up for Playboy ). Unfortunately anyone can fill out and submit those subscription cards with any info on it. Just call the magazine's subscriber services to cancel.

steve13ad

MentholMoose wrote: »

That's happened to me, too (I swear, I really didn't sign up for Playboy ). Unfortunately anyone can fill out and submit those subscription cards with any info on it. Just call the magazine's subscriber services to cancel.

Right after a college, a friend had a habit of giving all of our names out to people, all sorts of Head Hunters, Military recruiters, and even the Red Cross.

It was a real hoot telling a Marine Recruiter, who happened to show up at my front door, that he was wasting his time.

Numbers were changed, people moved, and after about ten years I'm just now starting to talk to him. He did have some good ones, though!

Anonymouse

MentholMoose wrote: »

That's happened to me, too (I swear, I really didn't sign up for Playboy ). Unfortunately anyone can fill out and submit those subscription cards with any info on it. Just call the magazine's subscriber services to cancel.

Actually that's exactly what I was signed up for recently. Looks like the person used my email address to do the subscription online too. That's all they could tell me. But, now I've narrowed it down to one person. Still debating on good old rumble (too old for this), signing him up for stuff, or acting my age (like he should).