Sims 2 Spam on my Horizons/Istaria-only email account?

[Sodbustin]

I played this game when it was called Horizons a couple years ago. When I signed up for Horizons, I created a new "disposable" email account that I used solely to sign up for the game and these forums.

On Tuesday of this week, my special Horizons email account received a spam email from "Sim Splendid" about downloadable houses you can get for Sims 2. (?!?!?) I know this was sent to my Horizons account, because my email provider tells me which email address the sender used to send me mail. I have never used that address to send an email to anyone, have never published it anywhere on the internet, or used it to sign up to any other site. (Doing so would make disposable addresses pointless.)

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone else here has gotten spam on the email account they use for Istaria? (The Sims 2 spam is the first and only I've noticed on this address.)

I use these disposable addresses in order to identify businesses who sell their customers' email addresses, so I can 1) Delete the address when it starts getting spam and 2) Decide whether I should ever do business with that company again. I actually really liked Horizons, and only quit when I was distracted by RL and another game. But there's no way I'm signing back up if they're selling our email addresses to spammers.

[Arietna]

oddly enough I got this too, however, I do actually play Sims 2 so assumed I'd signed up for it somewhere (it was actually a site I'd visited in the past).

[Takora Drakan]

I don't got this spam mail, and I have both Sims 2 on my pc and a active sub at VI, so I don't think VI has something to do with it.

[Antonath]

I got spam on the address I use for Horizons before I'd even changed the address in my account settings.

Basically, if you have an email address that is even vaguely predictable, it'll get spammed. The botnets they use can send so many spams a second they just target entire domains and throw random characters at them. They don't care whether the account exists or not.

Antonath

[velveeta]

I got spam on the address I use for Horizons before I'd even changed the address in my account settings.

Basically, if you have an email address that is even vaguely predictable, it'll get spammed. The botnets they use can send so many spams a second they just target entire domains and throw random characters at them. They don't care whether the account exists or not.

Antonath

this has also been my experience, and i agree totally with ant.

[tramsan]

This spam brought to you courtesy of EII/PME. While they returned control of the game when defaulting, they sure didn't delete the e-mail lists they got.

[Kumu Honua]

I got that email on an account never associated with Horizons at all.

Total random.

[gopher65]

I got that email on an account never associated with Horizons at all.

Total random.

But was it associated with the forums? I have several email accounts, and I only receive EII/PMI emails like this one from the one that was given to Tulga way back when (yeah, I gave them my real email address. I was naive back then).

[RuneDragoon]

I get a lot of spam for some weird chinese game, and I am very sure its EI interactive.

[Steelclaw]

I've received the spam on two accounts: one I use for HZ, the other I use for the forum.

Indeed, VI has nothing to do with this. The previous "owners", EI Interactive/Pixel Magic Entertainment/New Game World have your email address from when they had HZ. Back then, they would send monthly spam from "Game Intruder", their "magazine". Now, the mail seems to come from mmorpgmecca or mygamecraze. Notice the links at the top: "New Game World" "Immortals USA" and "Savage Eden". Those are run by the same people.

Incidentally, their "magazine" was not free. It came with a $0.99/month charge that nobody asked for. If you submitted your credit card info to play (the NA, not GN) HZ between late July 2006 and mid Sept 2007, check your statements.

Has anyone tried the opt-out link?

[Tcei]

I just did it opens up an email with the adress of unsubscribe @ type of deal I left them a nice little message. It really T-s me off that I never had issue with unwanted spam untill recently, I get 3-4 emails about a princess in Nigeria aday now...

[Galilee]

Suggestion to get away from anything still coming out of the fact that EI has gotten hold of your email-address(I would be very surprised if they did NOT misuse it, sell it for a few copper, whatever they can, after all): change your email-address on your account (set a new email up if neccessary to do so); then do the same for the boards; then, if at all possible, delete the email-address you used before.
I think that should work to get rid of any unwanted links still existing to EI/PME/whatever?

[Machariel]

Wierd. i joined about 2 months ago with a new gmail account and have yet to recieve a spam email in it.

prob what the others are saying is true. el prob has your email and is selling it ect.

[RuneDragoon]

I've received the spam on two accounts: one I use for HZ, the other I use for the forum.

Indeed, VI has nothing to do with this. The previous "owners", EI Interactive/Pixel Magic Entertainment/New Game World have your email address from when they had HZ. Back then, they would send monthly spam from "Game Intruder", their "magazine". Now, the mail seems to come from mmorpgmecca or mygamecraze. Notice the links at the top: "New Game World" "Immortals USA" and "Savage Eden". Those are run by the same people.

Incidentally, their "magazine" was not free. It came with a $0.99/month charge that nobody asked for. If you submitted your credit card info to play (the NA, not GN) HZ between late July 2006 and mid Sept 2007, check your statements.

Has anyone tried the opt-out link?

I've been getting a lot of emails from them (Now less from chinese game), some magazine or blog from a "Prince Python" who is 13 years old (Why do I find it laughable that the only person who would write for them is a kid? Couldn't hire anyone?). Tried using opt out. It fell on deaf ears, and I've only gotten more of these things, so I sent another opt out. If I get more email I'm thinking of attempting to politely request via a game forum of theirs to stop sending me stuff...

[velveeta]

replying to spam mail via the opt out option is usually a bad idea. this merely confirms a valid email address and makes it more valuable to sell on.

my way of dealing - and it is by no means a good way, much less than the best, i am just too lazy to do more - is to ignore. i add what i can to the junk mail rule folder and delete anything i don't recognize as a valid email address. after 10+ years of being spammed, i have become very familiar with what could be legit or not.....

plus i have several email addy - some i use just for registering for stuff and one i keep more private........
98% of the stuff that comes thru to the registration addys is pure junk....

[Adwene]

Good idea I too get these newletters, never asked for them, I think i'll add them to my 'delete any message this address sends automatically' list.

[Yfelvik]

Greetings,

Virtrium would never sell or even co-market email addresses. Spam is evil and we do our best to ensure that we only send mail to valid addresses, and honor all remove requests - as well as making sure that any newsletter email we send has an unsubscribe option.

- Yfelvik
Horizons Customer Support

[Kumu Honua]

Yfelvik. Virtrium isn't the culprit for this and we all know it. It's all E "DUDE! WE WANT TO HOST YOUR GAME" I that is sending the unsolicited emails. They were full of shady dealings and still are.

[Garfonso]

Has anyone tried the opt-out link?

Yes, I tried the opt-out link last month... this month I still got a newsletter from them... luckily my spamfilter already understood that it's spam

[GhostRdr]

I left HZ back in around august of 2006, after the fiasco that was EI and their mishandling of the game. I too have received these emails recently, i would say the last 2-3 months, for mmorpgmecca. Once I saw the games listed I knew who sent it, but have yet to unsubscribe from the email since some of these spam messages send em out to make sure the email accts are active so they can spam more. So i just filter the senders email, so the messages get deleted at my internet hosts server.