Getting Buried in emails from marketing consultants and web designers

[AaronE]

Just bought my first domain a few days back. Today i woke up to an inbox full of unsolicited emails from people offering web development services

How did these people find my contact info, and how the heck do i stop more from finding it?

 

[bmugford]

Imagine how bad the spam is when you own thousands of domains

Brad

 

[Kuffy]

I've started using gmail - they seem to block lots of spam. Spamassasin is good as well.

 

[johname]

These type of spammers luv the fresh regs the most, thinking the domain owner going to need Logo, Website, and SEO for their newly minted domain.

 

[AaronE]

Guys, i just got a goddamn phone call from one of these people

How are they finding my information??? l don't even remember plugging in my phone # to sign up.

Regardless, l am NOT COOL with having my phone # out there on the internet for anyone to see

 

[Justin Matmor]

that is why i am moving all my names under privacy

 

[creataweb]

Guys, i just got a ******* phone call from one of these people

How are they finding my information??? l don't even remember plugging in my phone # to sign up.

Regardless, l am NOT COOL with having my phone # out there on the internet for anyone to see

It's just the beginning, wait until you have to have your phone turned off 23 hours per day.

 

[AaronE]

Shit, i thought privacy was something to protect you from hackers or spam bots

Guess i'll have to see if they'll let me switch to privacy even though i already paid. ls that feasible? There is no way in hell i am willing to put up with all this unsolicited crap

 

[usernamex]

@AaronE - unfortunately, turning ON privacy now won't do any good and it will just waste your money. They harvest your info and then continue to use that old information.

Who is your registrar?

 

[namezest]

Well that's why icann wanted the contact info to be accurate as whois lists are bought and sold on a daily basis unfortunately. Someone is more than likely leaking fresh reg info too as it comes in. You can setup an email forwarder to only allow contact from your registrar that wipes out all of their efforts .

 

[maksimfa]

Even if you have privacy, will not stop Spam. Phone calls, yes... but not emails.

 

[tonyk2000]

Some practical recommendations:

- If not whois privacy, then use vitual phone number from an exotic country in whois, with an answering machine. There is no ICANN requirement for a phone number to be located in registrants country of residence, so it is safe to modify whois this way. Exotic country phone code = more expensive to call = less or no calls. A good solution for whois purposes - with still complete and correct whois - would be a phone and up to mail forwarding in ex-USSR country of Georgia, which is not a U.S. state but has the same name. Spammers may think that they are calling U.S. and will spend more money : - ). Also, last time I checked, it was very expensive to call to Georgia

- Even if you require design / logo / seo someday, never, again, never respond to them. Finding appropriate service online or offline is not a rocket science, and it is exactly what these spammers likely do for any postivie response (service arbitrage), assuming that they deliver what they promise to some extend (I'm unsure)

- Use extended spam filtering system (non gmail), on your own domain, which is offered by various email providers. It would allow to setup better filtering rules as you like. Familiarize yourself with filtering rules that may exist - SKY IS THE LIMIT. Possible rules may include for example

;If message body contains "[some country name here]-based" then move message to spam

and many, many more... You will also be able to better filter typical offers of pre-release and pendingdelete domains which a number of $$$holes sending on daily basis assuming that you'll order the domain through them.

 

[TestCase]

The one thing I love about the 5-15 emails I receive daily from SEO/Designer/Marketing/Logo/what ever "experts" is... they ALL use a Gmail address! They never reference their own website.

That's true professionalism right there and SURELY demonstrates the strength of their abilities and the quality of the work one should expect!

 

[baseballworld]

Welcome to buying domains without privacy now imagine the people that own thousands how many emails a year they get.

 

[usernamex]

For future reference, there was a long thread about what you can do to prevent or at least minimize the issues here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/text-spam-from-new-registrations.987396/

Personally this is my setup
1] use a whois only voice mail number
2] use coded email
3] use a business mailing address

And yes, you still have to check as occasionally buyers have contacted me through whois email, not once have I been contacted by text or phone by an actual buyer.

 

[deez007]

Lol... welcome to the domaining world mate.

The more domains you own the more chances of getting spam... more so with hand reg domains... they seem to like "fresh meat" ..

Mind you @usernamex has shared some good ideas on how to limit the problem...

 

[namezest]

They changed tactics now most used title is Hallo for me last 3-4 days.

 

[Haykay2005]

Tired of this as well and I can't turn on privacy for reason we all know. It's easier for buyers to locate you having privacy turned off. Other reasonable solutions will be appreciated

 

[Cdomains]

Welcome to the domain business.

Get used to it.

This will happen every time you reg a name.

It will even happen to names you dropped long ago.

They will spam your email and call your whois number.

It will drive you nuts if you let it.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Just bought my first domain a few days back.

Welcome to the world of domaining!

Simple...from now on, use a registrar that offers free privacy. You will still get emails from/thru the registrar that are forwarded from the original sender, but most will go into your spam folder. Be sure and check before deleting as an offer for a name would come through the same way. Epik is my current favorite that gives free privacy.

 

[domaintrades]

I like Namecheap for free privacy, even if it is just for the first year.

I'm in the UK, and I have a BT phone which on the plan I'm on I can prevent certain phone calls by entering the callers' number on BT's site, or via my phone.

At least that way I know I'll only get the one call from them, though they are like parasites, there's always another one waiting to bite.

 

[AaronE]

Wow, thanks for all the advice guys

Should clarify; l'm not exactly planning to get into domaining at the moment... i just bought my personal name domain for job hunting purposes. So anyone who searches for my contact info through Whols or lCANN, i don't care if i never hear from them.

How does one change their contact info in Whols/lCANN?

@usernamex : thanks for the link. i'll check it out later

 

[Marc Riccio]

I opened a email address in France at the post office... laposte.net

My address is for a community mailbox and my phone is a throwaway number.

I check my email and delete unwanted crap everyday. All my names are in Privacy.

Works just fine. All my spam goes to France

M

 

[Kate]

Have you noticed Icann have never done anything about this. Your privacy doesn't matter.
Yet some ccTLDs do not allow the mining of whois records easily. Or they even apply privacy at the registry level (eg .ca .fr). Nobody gets your details without a good reason.

 

[WatchDogue]

Based in part on what you recently learned about " new names " and spam we use NameSilo and it's free privacy for recently reg names.

For our 20 years with domains, spammers in one form or another have been part of the domain landscape.

Used to use a dedicated phone line with a long winded message to frustrate and annoy name/scam related callers.

My inviolable rule is never talk with or reply to spammers.