DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Last June I wrote about RealAge.com, a neat website that conducts a free health survey and calculates a person’s “real age”. I used their site a few times and recommended it to friends.

On December 3 I began receiving email spam to the address I’d given RealAge.com. Note that this address was personalized — I created the email address specifically for RealAge.com, as I do every time I register for online services. This is tedious but allows me to track where spam originates.

The messages I received are pure junk. For example, the subject line of one of these messages reads, “Regarding your pending order.” The sender’s name is “Shipping Department.” The first line of the body reads, “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO RECEIVE A Nokia 6016 AND ACCESSORIES!”

I emailed RealAge.com to find out if their systems had been compromised. I didn’t want to jump to the conclusion that they’d sold out. I haven’t received a reply yet.

I logged in to RealAge.com to see if I’d missed an opt-out. Sure enough, on the account-preferences page there’s a CAN-SPAM checkbox. Was it there last June when I signed up? All I can say is that I’m generally careful about opting out — if I’m given the opportunity to not receive junk mail, I’ll take it.

So, I checked the opt-out checkbox, and a few days later the spam barrage stopped.

Here is a summary of the spam I’ve received to my RealAge.com registration address. If any of these look familiar, and you’re a RealAge.com user, log in to RealAge and check the CAN-SPAM opt-out.