Astrobay ?????

[John]

Most forum bans are upheld using members previous email/IP address members rejoining using a different username are compared to either and blocked.

I can understand that as part of the site administration but when said details are passed or sold to a 3rd party I'm sure it contravenes the Data Protection Act. I guess I'd have to examine i) the terms of my membership of UKAI and ii) the UKAI DP Act registration (assuming they have one) to really get to the bottom of this though.

[JB80]

When I got to my profile at UKAI I can see that I have my e-mail address visible in my profile, I didn't select the hide option. I'm not sure if that's the case for everyone but it's not inconcievable that a 3rd party list compiler just looked at profiles on forums and took the address that is shown. If that's the case I can't hold anyone else but myself accountable then again that's why I left it visible so I was contactable for whatever reason or to be updated on things.

[Kai]

Mine is hidden from the Public , for just that reason (didnt stop them though )

[afm038]

As disclosed by the originator of the email that he bought this mailing list from an as yet unidentified entity then who else has bought said list ? Spam time maybe just round the corner for us !

Andy

[shaunster]

You have to question wether such a list even exists, I mean like others I dont see it as a mere coincidence here... he is previous moderator and/or admin of UKAI, he sends spam mail out to users of UKAI then pleads innocence and passes the blame to a 'third party'...

[JB80]

Mine is hidden from the Public , for just that reason (didnt stop them though )

Fair enough, it was just something I noticed on mine is all.

[JamesF]

As disclosed by the originator of the email that he bought this mailing list from an as yet unidentified entity then who else has bought said list ? Spam time maybe just round the corner for us !

Andy

Alternatively, might the fact that you haven't already been receiving lots of astro-related spam suggest that the claimed list may not actually exist?

James

[acey]

Although all concerned state that this has nothing to do with UKAI it seems more than coincidence that the people who received the mail also all have UKAI accounts.

I'm not registered with UKAI but I received the e-mail, which incidentally is the first bit of astro-related spam I can recall ever receiving.

Edit:

Well, I thought I wasn't registered at UKAI, because I hadn't even heard of it before reading this thread. Then I visited the page and it said "welcome acey". Turns out I'm registered after all, including my e-mail address.

So it would appear that by registering at SGL I've also registered myself at UKAstroImaging. Frankly I have about as much interest in imaging as I do in underwater basket weaving (sorry folks but it happens to be true) and I shall be de-registering myself from UKAI forthwith.

TBH I find this a lot more irritating than the spam e-mail from Astrobay.

And in my settings at UKAI I found the "Hide e-mail address from public" option was unchecked. Not hard for the spammers to get it, then.

[Grant]

Acey, SGL has no links or ties with UKAI, if you are registered on there it's because at some point you must have setup an account on that site.

[Psychobilly]

FWIW my e-mail addy was hidden on UKAI as well...

See the Equivalent thread on UKAI has been locked... Wonder if they will do a NOTW...

[Kai]

See the Equivalent thread on UKAI has been locked..

Now why am i not surprised.

[JohnR]

I was a member of OCUK a few years ago,and all the members on that vbulletin forum had their emails harvested by one of their own members,so its certainly possible

[Ant]

Now why am i not surprised.

C'mon - locking the thread isn't unreasonable??? let them have time to look into what's happened. The fact that the thread is still visible is a sign of how serious they are taking this.

Give'em some time and I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of it.

Ant

[Digz]

I received an email as well. Just had a look at UKAI and I seem to have a profile on there, which I do not remember creating! Apparantly I created it on 1st June 2010. In any event my email address was hidden.

[RobH]

There's more going on than purely UKAI.....Amanda has only ever registered with SGL and never visited another astro site, but she got the email this morning too.....where did her address come from?

Rob

[David Galvin]

There appears to be an awful lot of finger pointing, cat calling and the usual knee jerk reaction from the general users, mods and admin on this group. It is, sadly, obvious some have an axe to grind with UKAI who are being, in my opinion. very decent about the matter and corresponding with the admin of this group.

Somebody is guilty of passing on our e-mails to Astrobay and we will have to wait until all (if ever) is revealed.

I wonder how many of our fellow astronomical friends, who are not on SGL or UKAIG, have also recieved this spam from Jason Hibbert-Lau. If they have then perhaps we can all stop throwing stones at other forums.

With respect, as always, David Galvin.

Member of several groups including SGL and UKAIG

[Digz]

mmmm, its not looking too good. Just read the post on UKAI and seems a bit washy.

[harry page]

Hi

I am a member over there , I have no email

Harry

[ScoobyStoo]

I'd bet my bottom dollar that Jason and the UKAI team are telling the truth. Jason has sadly almost certainly bought the email list from a disreputable company that has obtained our email addresses through a combination of unauthorised harvesting and/or hacking of astronomy related websites. I've had the misfortune to deal with companies like this myself in the past. They will have robots that scour every single page on all the major astronomy sites collecting any email addresses they can find. These email addresses could be in a member's profile (where they have chosen to make them public or just forgotten to make them private), in a posting etc etc etc.

Additionally a lot of these out-the-box forum software platforms have known security vulnerabilities, which if not patched, give these unscrupulous companies a back door into the website's database. Now, I'm sure the SGL admin team keeps the software bang up to date but I wonder if some of the smaller sites have the resources to manage their security so well...

Up until recently AstroBuySell made all seller contact details publicely accessible.

I think Jason probably bought the list in good faith and has now unfortunately paid the price for the underhand method in which the marketing company he has chosen to use obtained the email addresses.

[steppenwolf]

I think it is fair for UKAI to lock the thread and don't see anything sinister in that, I think we here on SGL would probably have locked a similar thread while we looked into the issue especially when accusations that cannot at present be qualified started flying around. That's not to say that I approve of my email address being harvested and used in this manner though!

[Carbon Brush]

I heard somewhere that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Not having received the email, I just had to take a look at Astrobay.

To be honest, I didn't see anything to make me think I should use it.

SGL & Astrobuysell & 'the bay' all fulfill kit sale or purchase, each with their benefits or disadvantages, but with significant overlap.

Do we need yet another site? I think not.

[Photosbykev]

Hi

I am a member over there , I have no email

Harry

never mind Harry you can have a copy of my email if you feel left out

ps although it's annoying my email has been harvested, no one has died and the email went the way of many other unsolicted emails .... in the bin lol. Life is way too short to worry about a very minor issue

[acey]

Acey, SGL has no links or ties with UKAI, if you are registered on there it's because at some point you must have setup an account on that site.

Like I said, I'd never heard of UKAI until today. I had no activity logged in the profile I found I had there, and my "join date" was the date I registered with SGL. So my username, password and e-mail address somehow made their way from SGL to UKAI. I've PM'd admin there and have now been de-registered.

[jamespels]

There appears to be an awful lot of finger pointing, cat calling and the usual knee jerk reaction from the general users, mods and admin on this group. It is, sadly, obvious some have an axe to grind with UKAI who are being, in my opinion. very decent about the matter and corresponding with the admin of this group.

+1 to this. I am a member over there too (and yes I have recevied the e-mail) and have had no issues whatsoever with the admin team. I hold both UKAI and SGL in high regard and will do until one of them is shown to have sold addresses on - and I do not expect this to happen.

Come on, SGL - stop the back-biting and try a bt of "innocent until proven guilty", please!

My 2p,

J.

[Ant]

Acey,

I can assure you that there is NO WAY that your details on SGL were passed over to UKAI.

UKAI and SGL run different software, are run by different Admin teams, on different servers - what you are suggesting is just not possible.

Ant