# Spam From Quidco



## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Not many people in the UK have my Gmail address .. a few here do. NO businesses get the direct address; for online ecommerce and subscriptions, I create tagged aliases on my domain.

So I wasnt surprised that a recent spam from "Quidco" in my Gmail box is for a UK firm:



> Hi,
> 
> Have you heard of Quidco? It\'s a great site where you can find lots of vouchers and cashback deals.
> 
> Check it out: http://URL-OMITTED


A few years ago a new kind of virus was becoming quite popular, one that would infect your computer, then send out masses of spam, to addressees in your Outlook, Outlook Express, browser cache, etc., ... the emails wouldn't spoof the owner's address, but other addresses found on your hard drive. So say you're Albert, you've email from Betty, and you've also had emails from Charlie, Darryl, and Egbert ... the virus sends spam to Charlie, Darryl and Egbert, spoofing Betty as the FROM sender. Betty gets one "from" Charlie, and Darryl gets another but this time from Egbert,... and so on.

A friend had this happen ... a computer in his kids' TV room was used for all kinds of teen mischief online, the boys opened up all kinds of questionable file sharing programs and such. Trying to clean it up sometimes yielded bizarre behavior, like ... the system suddenly shutting down when I tried to disable unfamiliar services and background programs. It was infected by not one, not two, but a few dozen malware apps.

All this is to remind you to have up to date security software on your systems, automatically updated. Microsoft now offers Security Essentials, basic antivirus, so you don't even have to buy the "Internet Security Suites" out there for roughly US$50-$90.

I don't know who the supposed sender is, but someone here may. And if you do ... you might be interested to know if your personal computer has been a busy little spam machine. With today's viruses, keeping your system protected is doing a favor for anyone whose email address you have on your hard drive.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2010)

Don't get Malware. Malware's bad, M'kay.


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## Kutusov (Apr 19, 2010)

Since I switched to a gmail acc I get tons, and I mean TONS of spam. They don't get into my computer because gmail put's them all in the spam folder... and a few emails that aren't spam, so I have to check once a week or so.

Two years ago, all I had security-wise was the free AVG anti-virus... one night I let the PC alone doing tons of updates, next morning it had crashed and wouldn't boot up. Two days later I got a phone call from my bank asking if I had spent â‚¬1500 with my credit card in some Dutch website (Apple stuff). I also lost every single document I had in there for the last 6 or 7 years.... including 50 pages of my ongoing PhD thesis..

From that day on I got the best security program I could find and pay religiously all the fees from the Premium pack of Avira Security Suit...


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Caution and common sense are the only effective anti-virus system.

Later,

William


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

Kutusov said:


> .... including 50 pages of my ongoing PhD thesis..


Keep up the good work, Kutusov.......I have every faith in you....then you can change your user name to Doc! (It's quicker to type!)

Go, Man!!! :thumbup:


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

I use quidco a lot. Ive made Â£40 out of it from buying takeaways online and buying stuff on ebay.

Its a bonefide website and company, maybe someone you know actually sent it to you??


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## lewjamben (Dec 4, 2007)

I also used Quidco regularly and I certainly haven't received anything negative from them. I expect it's a third-party posing as Quidco.


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## sparrow (Feb 7, 2009)

William_Wilson said:


> Caution and common sense are the only effective anti-virus system.
> 
> Later,
> 
> William


+1, that's very true - but it's still worth having some basic inbuilt protection. Or a Macintosh


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## QuidcoStuart (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi everyone,

my name's Stuart and I work for Quidco.

David, I'm very sorry to hear that you received that email. It definitely wasn't sent by Quidco, as all of our emails are only ever sent to registered Quidco members who have opted in to receiving our communications. We suspect that someone may be abusing our recently launched refer-a-friend system, has somehow got ahold of your email and has placed their referral link in there to try to get you to sign up to our site.

We definitely do not tolerate that kind of behaviour, so would you be able to pass on that specific link to me at [email protected] so that we can look into it further? I tried to find a way to send you a direct message via the forum, but unfortunately I couldn't.

Many thanks,

Stuart

Marketing Manager

Quidco


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## sparrow (Feb 7, 2009)

QuidcoStuart said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> my name's Stuart and I work for Quidco.
> 
> ...


I don't like the look of this :furious:


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

QuidcoStuart said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> my name's Stuart and I work for Quidco.
> 
> ...


Stuart, thanks for registering and offering some assistance. Your firm is clearly working to keep your online reputation sparkling clean.

Time for some disclosure. :blush:

After I posted this, I decided to search for the name and found that, oops, yes, it was someone I've corresponded with previously. Someone in the UK. So it wasn't "stranger spam." I'll decline your offer to investigate the sender as I think s/he was acting in good faith. No harm, no foul.

I hadn't realized that my activity on eBay could benefit from a Quidco registration -- it all looked like UK-specific firms, which I don't generally patronize -- I'll have to take a second look.

I will make this strong suggestion. I don't recall seeing in the e-mail I received any footer details identifying your firm, the reason the mail was sent, or opt-out information to add one's e-mail address to your e-mail "don't call list." These are common footer comments and links that covers your flanks; lack of such a disclosure notice make it look like spam.



> You are receiving this message because someone registered on our site provided your e-mail address. We don't want to spam anyone; we are NOT retaining your e-mail address for any other purposes. If you'd like to ensure you receive no further e-mails from us, click here and we will place your address on a "do not contact" list.


In your "refer a friend" app, add a subroutine that checks the referral against your "do not contact" data table, and shunts the request from the e-mail service, or shunts it and provides an error message in real time to the user, e.g. "We're sorry, that address has previously declined to receive Quidco offers, please try another." (I test web software and can give you some use cases if you PM me, presuming you don't employ FT software QA analysts.)


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## QuidcoStuart (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi David,

thanks very much for that reply. Adding a footer along the lines that you've suggested is a very good idea, so I've submitted that to our technical team and it will be live on Quidco soon.

Once again I'd like to apologise for the confusion caused!

Kind regards,

Stuart


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2010)

I've just fitted bearings to Bill Hicks so he can turn more easily.


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