OzBargain Competitions Have Led to SCAM!

LFareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 14:20
Last edited 23/01/2019 - 14:35

Hello all,

Recently, I've entered a few (maybe 10-15) competitions that were on the highlighted page of OzBargain.

To enter, you obviously have to provide your email address. Coincidentally, the amount of phishing emails have gone through the roof!

The most common phishing email I get are from scammers pretending to be from Apple saying my iCloud is compromised and to "click here to confirm now"

My questions are:
Has anyone here actually won anything from those competitions?
Has anyone who entered those competitions also getting a lot of spam & scam emails?
Why is my Outlook so bad at detecting spam/scam emails despite me reporting them?
Any tips to stop spam/scam emails? I get around 4-5 a week.

Cheers!

p.s this is my first post, be gentle

edit: apologies if title is misleading, scam attempts **

Site Discussion

Comments

  • John Kimble on 23/01/2019 - 14:23
    +5

    Have a separate email address you use for competitions only. Or use the gmail plus symbol method.

    • SnoozeAndLose on 23/01/2019 - 14:33
      +2

      will gmail plus lend the scam back to your original email?

      • John Kimble on 23/01/2019 - 14:34
        +2

        I guess it's possible if they are clever enough/could be bothered?

        • SnoozeAndLose on 23/01/2019 - 14:43
          +2

          only new email is the way to go but you still want to check you have won or not from all scam you get. otherwise just save time and not entering any.

  • swapsey on 23/01/2019 - 14:31

    People still use Outlook?

    • SnoozeAndLose on 23/01/2019 - 14:33

      still using the one created 20 years ago with it first come up

    • FireRunner on 23/01/2019 - 14:41
      +9

      Yes, in fact mine still ends with @hotmail.com

      • ego22 on 23/01/2019 - 16:50
        -1

        it ends in both. your email is @hotmail.com or @outlook.com goes to the same place

    • SnoozeAndLose on 23/01/2019 - 14:42

      Are you post 00's?

    • follow on 23/01/2019 - 15:07
      +3

      Haha recently forwarded all my outlook addresses to a single Gmail. Filtered 17000 emails to spam folder. Outlook is crap.

    • Clear on 23/01/2019 - 15:15

      World runs off outlook. Can you name a better one?

    • bluesky on 23/01/2019 - 15:58
      +3

      Majority of mail goes to gmail and is spam-filtered. Then, pop/imap to Outlook.
      Find this quite effective in dealing with spam.

  • stirlo on 23/01/2019 - 14:32
    +7

    Any tips to stop spam/scam emails? I get around 4-5 a week.

    I wouldn't call this through the roof. I probably get around 30 a day including the popular password/webcam/naughty pics extortion ones. Just ignore them.

    • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 14:40

      I'm one of those people who are OCD with email. I have 20+ folders and Inbox Rules set so that emails go to the right place. So whilst 4-5 emails don't sound like a lot, unfortunately it is in my world.

      • Hybroid on 23/01/2019 - 18:16
        +7

        Then you clearly have bigger problems and shouldn't sign up to competitions that are essentially a data harvesting tool for companies. Literally what gleam.io and similar platforms are, they harvest your data and sell it onwards.

        • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 22:34

          Selling my data? I guess I never thought about that… or read the T&C's. Cheers.

  • spackbace on 23/01/2019 - 14:34
    +3

    Winners are listed here, assuming they marked themselves as winners on the posts.

    It's part and parcel of entering, especially if you're entering worldwide comps.

  • HighAndDry on 23/01/2019 - 14:37
    +7

    I get around 4-5 a week.

    Yeah this is nothing.

    • WillRay92 on 24/01/2019 - 08:31

      If they had said "an hour" I would've been impressed. Anything less than "4-5" a day is fairly low.

  • scrimshaw on 23/01/2019 - 14:41
    +8

    Have you considered using email aliases? https://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-add-use-outlook-email-…

    You can create up to 10 different aliases a year on Outlook. Create an alias for the purpose of comping and when you don't want any more mails from them you can just delete that alias that you gave out, and you'll stop receiving messages from them.

    It's easier than managing multiple outlook accounts.

    • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 14:55

      I did not know this, I'll give it a go tonight, thanks! :)

  • arkie0 on 23/01/2019 - 14:42
    +5

    With outlook you can give yourself an alias. Like a different email address but it's still the same mailbox.

    Settings > advanced > sync email > manage or choose your primary alias > add email > [email protected]

    Use that spam email address for competitions, once you start to notice the spam increase just delete the alias and give yourself a new one.

    • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 14:55

      I did not know this, I'll give it a go tonight, thanks! :)

  • holdenmg on 23/01/2019 - 14:52
    +3

    I (cue "Leaving on a Jetplane" music)
    won https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/430195

  • Ocker on 23/01/2019 - 15:45
    +1

    Pay $10 a year and get 500 disposable address' at spamex.com.

    Create a new email address for each online entry etc etc and then you can see which other party has sold your email address. Then simply turn off the address

    • adam on 23/01/2019 - 18:17

      You need to check the emails to see if you won. So can't really turn them off / throw them away.

  • dylo on 23/01/2019 - 15:51
    +4

    I use a separate email for competition entries, I have found no problems with the Australian entry competitions. I am addicted to the Comps section so I would notice pretty quickly if scam emails had started flooding my inbox or spam. I make a point of not entering International competitions so maybe that helps.

    • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 16:20
      +1

      Thanks. I did enter a few international competitions, maybe that's why. I'll stick to Aussie comps from now on.

  • EightImmortals on 23/01/2019 - 16:33

    "To enter, you obviously have to provide your email address. Coincidentally, the amount of phishing emails have gone through the roof!"

    Yeah, that's why I never kiss 'em on the mouth.

  • amygirl on 23/01/2019 - 16:34
    +1

    I love ozbargain comps!
    I enter ozbargain and Facebook mostly
    Won over 5k in comps last year!
    Only won a box of cheeries this year.

    • FareEvader on 23/01/2019 - 17:41

      Really? Over $5K+? You're a lucky girl

      • FoxJump on 23/01/2019 - 20:24

        This year, I have not won a car :(

      • amygirl on 23/01/2019 - 23:02
        +1

        Yeah biggest win ever! The year before I didn’t win jack!
        The $2000 tv I won last year was my biggest win.
        I also won a ps4 foosball table and some other electronic stuff from amazon worth about 1.5k!
        I don’t think I’ll win anything major this year.

    • Craze on 06/04/2019 - 10:39

      Do you get much spam coming through your inbox?

      • amygirl on 07/04/2019 - 20:27

        Yes all the time but I know which ones are fake and not!

  • FoxJump on 23/01/2019 - 17:38

    I have a separate email and seperate phone number and a pobox.

  • Deviner on 23/01/2019 - 18:14

    So for the people that enter bulk competitions - what do you do with them horrendous "gleam", or whatever they're called, surveys?
    The ones that give you multiple entries into the comp if you sign in via Facebook or link all sorts of other bs?

    Do you make dummy Facebook accounts as well or what?

    • FoxJump on 23/01/2019 - 20:24
      +2

      Nup. I don't do any that require assigning of my facebook credentials.

    • brokenxsmile on 24/01/2019 - 09:12
      +1

      Yep, I have a second Facebook account. I wouldn’t call it a dummy account, as I use it actively to enter competitions and have ‘friends’ who also like to enter comps. I also post some normal things to make it look like a normal account. This way, my real life friends don’t get a newsfeed full of my competition posts and comments.

  • Some Human on 24/01/2019 - 00:11
    +1

    I get these emails without even entering competitions.
    Love it when they start with, "Dear Costumer"
    Costumer? Really?

    • FareEvader on 24/01/2019 - 08:30

      I get that one all the time! I feel a little better knowing others get this too haha

  • huggzz2u on 24/01/2019 - 11:55

    Yep I have hotmail and since entering comps I have spam galore too much to count. But it does go to junk. I get parcel pick up, naughty girls, iCloud, finance, all spam but I have won Facebook competitions a CD, an electric toothbrush, captain America and Tucker’s cracker mix bag was a sign up enter one through Australia made they have monthly competitions

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