I have been getting signed up for email lists that are appears as if the University has been selling my information. Example: I got an email today from Uloop to help me find housing. What the hell? The only thing I know about them is that they have a shitload of posters on campus advertising housing. I have also received an newsletter from NCSSM's alumni association, which shouldn't even have my email address, because this address was created after I graduated. I am also getting job offers that appear to be scams. My information isn't listed under the people search tool. What can I do to get this to stop?

11/9/2008 4:09:58 PM

more like the university doesnt give a shit that anyone can parse the directory

11/9/2008 4:11:23 PM

ncssm pwns you

next they will want your money

11/9/2008 5:54:47 PM

public university: the information is free to anyone that asks for it.

it's bull, but that's why you're getting spammed.

11/9/2008 6:28:16 PM

if you have a gmail address, do this.
Change your official NCSU address to your gmail address (if it's not already), but add a plus sign and a suffix like 'ncsu' to your user name. For example, if your address is:
jcfox2@gmail.com
then for your NCSU address, enter
jcfox2+ncsu@gmail.com

with gmail, a '+' and anything following it will be ignored, and the message will still go to your mail gmail address, but the +suffix will be retained, so you can tell who the email is coming from. Only use the +ncsu suffix for your NCSU address, then whenever you get an email to jcfox2+ncsu@gmail.com, you know they got that address from the University.
Of course, this won't help stop or identify anybody who has previously gotten the address, but you can tell from now on. You can also use this trick for any other sites or services that need your address to see who is spamming you - jcfox2+nytimes, jcfox2+wsj, etc

11/9/2008 6:45:54 PM

nice trick

11/9/2008 7:32:32 PM

Quote :

"Change your official NCSU address to your gmail address"

one problem - NCSU won't let you change your official address to anything other than your unity mailbox.

11/9/2008 8:28:36 PM

since when?

you could definitely do this when i was in school.

11/9/2008 9:28:49 PM

yeah, i was able to change mine no problem.

[Edited on November 9, 2008 at 9:32 PM. Reason : back in the day anyways]

11/9/2008 9:32:22 PM

i think that evan is confusing official with forwarding

11/9/2008 9:34:46 PM

i was able to do it when i was in school

11/9/2008 9:47:29 PM

Quote :

"NOTE to students: Your Unity email address (see below) is your official campus email address. It will be the only one to which official email communication from NC State will be sent. However, you can use OIT's email forwarding service if you prefer to receive email from NC State at a different address. "

[Edited on November 9, 2008 at 10:13 PM. Reason : omg things have changed]

11/9/2008 10:13:37 PM

Yeah I think that mandate came down about 3 yrs ago...

[Edited on November 9, 2008 at 10:29 PM. Reason : but you can still forward of course like ^^^ said]

11/9/2008 10:29:26 PM

Quote :

"ncssm pwns you next they will want your money"

Like they don't already want my money?

@agentlion
Sweet trick, I am setting it up.


[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 12:07 AM. Reason : :]

11/9/2008 11:54:05 PM

^ spammers will just start stripping everything after the "+" for gmail addresses if they don't do so already.

11/9/2008 11:59:49 PM

thank you bigman for letting the people above know i am not an idiot

remember - i used to work for ncsu itd.

11/10/2008 4:24:03 AM

I have my Gmail acct set up to recieve all my NCSU mail, and I can email from my NCSU address from Gmail. So all the stupid spam actually goes to the appropriate spam folder. (Maybe this is the NCSU forwarding thing?) I haven't signed into Squirrelmail in... years...

11/10/2008 4:38:35 AM

Quote :

"^ spammers will just start stripping everything after the "+" for gmail addresses if they don't do so already."

Periods within the e-mail address also work too.

moron@gmail.com
moro.n@gmail.com
m.oron@gmail.com

all go to the same mailbox.

11/10/2008 8:01:38 AM