If I use my primary email address and phone number to enter competitions I get lots of spam calls and texts. Is there a way around?
How to Avoid Receiving Spam Emails and Calls after Entering Competitions?
apprentice on 10/06/2023 - 12:08
Last edited 10/06/2023 - 12:14 by 1 other user
Last edited 10/06/2023 - 12:14 by 1 other user
Comments
If I use my primary email address and phone number
Why would you?
Is there a way around?
Yes, stop throwing your personal information around.
+1 on secondary
don't we all have a second Sim card and email?I don't end up checking the secondary email. And the phone doesn't take dual Sim.
But you just add all your email addresses to your mail client on your phone and then check them all at once.
call forwarding?
Use duck.com, it'll forward emails to your inbox (also strip them of trackers) and create pseudonyms. Once the competition ends, bin that pseudonym, done.
I don't end up checking the secondary email.
A good way to do it is to just check once a week, search your inbox for 'winner' or 'congratulations' and if you won anything it'd pop up there.
Means you don't have to sift through wads of spam and it only takes a couple mins max.
When you sign up for online services or create accounts, you can add a plus sign and a keyword after your email username but before the "@" symbol. For example, if your email is "[email protected]," you can use "[email protected]" for a specific service or website.
By doing this, you can create unique email addresses for different purposes while still receiving emails in your main inbox. For instance, if you sign up for a newsletter, you can use "[email protected]," and if you sign up for an online store, you can use "[email protected]."
The benefit of using this method is that if you start receiving spam or unwanted emails addressed to the specific keyword, you can set up filters or rules in your email client to automatically sort or delete those emails. This can help you identify the source of spam and take appropriate action.
You still don’t want to use your primary email even with this method.
Brilliant, thank you, that's great information, I never knew that was possible, will be doing that in future.
To be fair, SPAM is unsolicited email - by willingly providing your email address and phone number, you’re agreeing to companies contacting you.
This is why companies run competitions- it’s a relatively cheap way of building up your marketing database
Hail corporate
Apple hide my email, or your own domain name.
for email, just report spam, don't ever try to opt out or unsubscribe as it only gets worse.
for mobile number, you can also report spam on iPhone and you could also whitelist using Focus profiles, not sure other devices such as Android based.
personally, I was in the pool of optus data breach and I got tonnes of email and phone calls every hour, that was suck. I used the above methods and I'm in peace now. But I did that base on an assumption that I will receive a voice mail or second call from the same number if it is important enough, then I will judge if I should give them a call back.
As above, spam is unsolicited email. By reporting spam you're telling your email client that that email is unsolicited.
If you 'unsubscribe' and then still recieve the emails, it is then classified as spam and illegal.Clicking 'report spam' on newsletters you've agreed to recieve can:
- Influence what emails your email client automatically filters as spam (meaning you may miss out on important emails as it is similar to ones you have marked as spam previously)
- Negatively impact the companies who are emailing. Too many emails flagged as spam can cause the emails to be classed as spammy and not send through to other people in the same client who actually want them. (Ie. if you click spam and you're a gmail user, it tells gmail to block these emails).I understand that people get frustrated with excessive emails, but coming from someone who works in a small business who has to use mailchimp and other marketing email platforms to convey important information, it's frustrating when emails don't work because people have clicked "spam" on every mailing list they've agreed to sign up on.
from your perspective, you are right and I agreed to your points as I do understand how email system works. unfortunately, many company abusing it and violate their own terms of user data privacy.
for instance, I hardly subscribe to any newsletters, promotions, or any offers, or even instance discount on subscribing for a new account at their counters; however, i tried a few times to subscribe to their service by creating an account or just subscribing to a newsletter. later, I received many email from them while I was advised that I will receive like one a month. worse yet, due to the amount of email I received from them, I unsubscribed to their service or closed my account with them. a few months later, I started receiving unsolicited emails and also received from the same company I subscribed to. so I reported them all as spam, then things got better. later on I was convinced again to create another account with another company, and the same things happened again. this sort of thing happened like every time I tried.
I also checked with some friends of mine, and they have actually experienced the same things and they know their stuff. yeah, it is either frustrating for receivers or senders, and who to blame I can't say much but what works for one may disadvantage the others.
the issues are possibly:
1. the companies are dodgy and don't care about users
2. user data is sold and added to the email pool for marketing purposes
3. data breach due to the lack of care and protection like optus or medibankso what you reckon we should do as receivers?
$10 amaysim 365 day sim for secondary phone number
Are they still available? I can't seem to locate them on their website
Champion! Thank you!
I was looking at their annual/long term expiry plans, so didn't even think to look at the as you go
Don't waste your time entering competitions
This.
Why?
I’ve had many fantastic wins from competitions. Things I’d never buy or afford myself. In the first three months of this year I won $9k worth of prizes.
In the first three months of this year I won $9k worth of prizes.
Calling BS on that or you are extremely lucky and the perfect example of being an outlier. That's like a major jackpot winner in powerball saying "enter it, put all your money in it, it worked for me"
It’s a numbers game. The more you enter, the more chance you have to win.
I win mostly on Instagram now, but every so often through WOL or website draws. It takes time and perseverance, but one big win makes it worthwhile.
Last year I won over $10k of products, vouchers etc. in previous years I have won business class flights, holidays, flight centre vouchers etc.
I’m far from the ‘biggest’ winner in the circle of people I know who enter.
It’s a numbers game. The more you enter, the more chance you have to win.
You are still the outlier. Yes, the more you enter the more chances you have, but they're still just more chances, it doesn't guarantee anything.
A lot of people spend a lot of time entering competitions and do not walk away with $10k worth of winnings.
Also how much time are you realistically spending doing that to acquire $10k worth of winnings.
@coffeeinmyveins: If you're not in, you can't win, most people can't make the effort to enter competitions, myself included, but my neighbour enters everything & has won several prizes worth tens of thousands. He thinks it's worth the effort & maybe he enjoys doing the entries, each to their own.
Use as disposable email address such as Spamex.
Create an alias with simplelogin
when the product is free, you are the product
There's a hide my email address feature on iPads. I use that and it has limited the spam
Just get a second gmail account for that purpose.
So use second number and email for comps. But we dont check the email.. win comp - then what? Check after 6 months - prize forfeited.
Use secondary email/phone number