Do schools sell your e-mail information?

[streetlight]

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So I have a separate account for my correspondence with med schools (AMCAS, application, TY letters, etc). I just recently received my first rejection and suddenly I started receiving spam in that e-mail account. Isn't that weird?? Or am I just being paranoid and critical for no reason

 

[Conky]

So I have a separate account for my correspondence with med schools (AMCAS, application, TY letters, etc). I just recently received my first rejection and suddenly I started receiving spam in that e-mail account. Isn't that weird?? Or am I just being paranoid and critical for no reason

Yeah, I get a bunch of random email and snail mail about "med school." Pretty lame thing to do if you ask me. I get enough spam as it is.

 

[scg]

You should probably have a control group before you jump to conclusions.

I bet if you opened a new email account and did nothing you'd still receive spam.

 

[virusgirl]

I very much doubt that schools sell your information. I don't know about AMCAS.

I wonder if maybe it's Kaplan or the other test-prep companies. I definitely got a lot of spam that was MCAT-centric (as in, "Your MCAT scores suggest that you should apply to the Navy/U Alabama's MSTP program/etc.")

 

[CourageKid]

So I have a separate account for my correspondence with med schools (AMCAS, application, TY letters, etc). I just recently received my first rejection and suddenly I started receiving spam in that e-mail account. Isn't that weird?? Or am I just being paranoid and critical for no reason

ME TOO! I've had the account since April of last year, use it only for med school emails, and just started getting spam two days ago. The group that has my email account besides the individual schools and AMCAS is FAFSA and the CollegeBoard Profile. Since I recently completed both forms and recently started getting the spam, I'm wondering if it's one of those two that somehow leaked my info.

 

[streetlight]

ME TOO! I've had the account since April of last year, use it only for med school emails, and just started getting spam two days ago. The group that has my email account besides the individual schools and AMCAS is FAFSA and the CollegeBoard Profile. Since I recently completed both forms and recently started getting the spam, I'm wondering if it's one of those two that somehow leaked my info.

almost exactly the same for me. i've had it since April and only started receiving a bunch of spam 2 or 3 days ago.

 

[pianola]

Yeah, an increase in spam for me, too.

But as my stats teacher loves to say, correlation does not prove causation.

 

[146233]

Somewhere along the way, I must've missed a checkbox when I signed up for the MCAT. I got a ton of spam after that. It's not from my school or AMCAS.

 

[fizzle]

Just have Gmail forward your emails to another account, and give everyone your dummy email address. Gmail's spam filter works very well (very few mistakes, and none significant), and I almost never see spam because it gets captured in the dummy account's spam box!

 

[235009]

Just have Gmail forward your emails to another account, and give everyone your dummy email address. Gmail's spam filter works very well (very few mistakes, and none significant), and I almost never see spam because it gets captured in the dummy account's spam box!

huh? dummy account? why don't u just use gmail? or is that too simple?

oh and OP your post is like saying "i got my first rejection today and suddenly it started raining. do you think it's related?"

 

[fizzle]

huh? dummy account? why don't u just use gmail? or is that too simple?

oh and OP your post is like saying "i got my first rejection today and suddenly it started raining. do you think it's related?"

Well actually, both my real account and my dummy account are Gmail...but the reason that I set up this system instead of just staying with one account is that I'm one of those obsessives who HATES seeing that bold folder text that indicates any unread emails...it's quite a nightmare when your spam folder keeps filling up with unread emails, even if they're all useless.

 

[235009]

Well actually, both my real account and my dummy account are Gmail...but the reason that I set up this system instead of just staying with one account is that I'm one of those obsessives who HATES seeing that bold folder text that indicates any unread emails...it's quite a nightmare when your spam folder keeps filling up with unread emails, even if they're all useless.

seek help 🙂

 

[Jolt21]

Actually, a lot of spam clients have random name generators, and they just continuously pump out name after name @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, or whatever. Usually if a name doesn't exist it will bounce back as a regular e-mail does, but if it doesn't, then they spammers know they found a real e-mail addy and will hold onto it. I suppose people could be selling your e-mail info as well, but I would like to think it is the former.

 

[cbrons]

So I have a separate account for my correspondence with med schools (AMCAS, application, TY letters, etc). I just recently received my first rejection and suddenly I started receiving spam in that e-mail account. Isn't that weird?? Or am I just being paranoid and critical for no reason

You bet your ass those bastards sell your information. Anything to make a $.

 

[chad5871]

Actually, a lot of spam clients have random name generators, and they just continuously pump out name after name @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, or whatever. Usually if a name doesn't exist it will bounce back as a regular e-mail does, but if it doesn't, then they spammers know they found a real e-mail addy and will hold onto it. I suppose people could be selling your e-mail info as well, but I would like to think it is the former.

So that's why I frequently receive spam sent to multiple addresses that are very very similar to mine (only a difference of a character or two)...

 

[JackInTheBox]

I am almost certain that at least one school or organization in the whole process sells our information. I've had my Gmail account for several years and never got more than 1 or 2 spam messages every 6 months. After I applied, I started getting 200+ every week.

I have another Gmail account created around the same time that has a much more common name that I use much more frequently (newsletters, online registrations, etc), and that one still only gets a single spam message or two a month.

 

[streetlight]

yeah, whoever is attributing it to just random spamming, i don't think that's the case. it can't be that i get no spam for 9 months, and then suddenly in the last two days a ton of spammers coincidentally got lucky? it would probably be easy to statistically reject the hypothesis that it was random, no matter what functions you use to model spamming activity.

and i mentioned that it happened after my first rejection because there is the possibility that they go "oh we're done with him, now we can at least sell his e-mail". was just a thought though.

 

[Jolt21]

yeah, whoever is attributing it to just random spamming, i don't think that's the case. it can't be that i get no spam for 9 months, and then suddenly in the last two days a ton of spammers coincidentally got lucky? it would probably be easy to statistically reject the hypothesis that it was random, no matter what functions you use to model spamming activity.

and i mentioned that it happened after my first rejection because there is the possibility that they go "oh we're done with him, now we can at least sell his e-mail". was just a thought though.

spammers use the same e-mail lists and they just get circulated. once one has one, they all have it. it is probably a mixture of both

 

[Captain Fantastic]

Somewhere along the way, I must've missed a checkbox when I signed up for the MCAT. I got a ton of spam after that. It's not from my school or AMCAS.

Yeah, I started getting spam after the MCAT as well. I must have missed that same checkbox.

 

[MedMan25]

I'm pretty sure it comes from AMCAS, same thing happened to me.