Are spam emails an indicator of internet searches?

[Lynn]

My husband gets a great deal of spam emails from sex/dating/hook-up/singles type websites. I am wondering if spam emails he receives are an indicator of his online searches? Does the internet pick up on that sort of activity? I mean, I don't get spam like that...curious why he would get so much of it...

[rlc_60504]

No. A search will not result in spam. There is no way for companies to get an email address based on a search alone. It is technically impossible.

Now ...a search plus providing your email address to a site to gain access to otherwise blocked content can lead to spam.

Searches alone cannot.

[Finwie]

I think it's random. I mean, I'm a straight girl and I get spam every damn day about viagra and hook-up sites. I don't exactly search around for viagra or hook-ups, so I don't know why I get those e-mails either.

[Kelly]

As an I.T. professional...

No.

Email addresses are often sold by companies is one way to get spam mail from spam mail such as offers to buy things (products, medicine, etc).

Generally if you are getting emails from dating sites it is because you are or have been a registered user of that particular website and gave your email address to them. The downfall of that is even after you close your account with them, you often still receive their emails for quite some time. I still receive emails from match.com and I haven't been on the site in at least 5 years.

As far as internet searches, ads you may see on facebook or other sites you visit will show up on the site based on cookies or adware on the computer of previous searches you've done but these won't generally generate emails to you.

[Sandie Pandie]

I get spam emails about penis enlargements all the time & I'm female !
I have never looked or searched for a sex site in my life.

[Liz]

Highly doubt he is responsible for all this, why not have a laugh and show him what you have found. Watch his face, its the only way to know for sure.

[Y]

Nope, I get a bunch of them in an email that I use strictly for business commination's and have never searched from. On this account, one of the most common adds is for dating site even though I don't go to them.

[Patricia]

Unless he gives out his email address, he won't get emails. So he's been entering his email at websites. The internet can't guess what our email address is.

[Mike]

I am going to answer... You already gave away my 10 points. Possibly if you ask another question I will answer

Yes absolutely........ Especially porn, escort, gambling and similar sites. Look into "Google Analytics"

Roughly 25% of websites on the Internet use Google Analytics in order to track statistics about their users. All of this information is transmitted and stored by Google and linked back to a cookie on your computer that gives them the ability to track your usage across different websites. Additionally, if you have something like a Gmail account or a Youtube account or any other of Google's services, they know what your email address is, they know what your Google Analytics cookie is, so they can easily sell your email address to spam marketers. It's not just Google that does this. Have you noticed all the Facebook "like" buttons all over most of the web pages you visit? Those have the same type of tracking built in to them.
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Think of the NSA, it has been in the media a lot. They work with corporations who do this. Most likely he was looking at porn and picked up maleware or a trojan. You can remove it with something : spybot, avast, or avg.

GL.... Keep in mind their are java exploits too........

HEY? Did he say he was "just searching" for it not looking? He is full of crap.