[ExI] SPAMBOT ALERT Re: From: Giulio Prisco

[BillK]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 1:47 PM, Giulio Prisco wrote:
> Thanks Bill,
> I never had this problem before. The fact that it appeared immediately
> after I installed the Alexa toolbar a few hours ago, and (hopefully)
> disappeared when I disinstalled it, seems a coincidence too big to
> ignore. Any idea how the Alexa toolbar may facilitate the spammers'
> work?
>

I doubt that the Alexa toolbar has caused this spam problem. The spam
arrived too soon after you installed Alexa. Spammers harvest email
addresses from many sources (including public mailing lists).
They don't need access to your gmail account as the originating
address is faked in the spam emails.

I do agree that the Alexa toolbar should be removed as it slows down
browsing and monitors user's browsing habits and stores data about all
websites the user visits. The Google search engine should also be
avoided. Use Startpage or DuckDuckGo or Ixquick instead.

BillK