Just got this from PH

[Simpo Two]

Is this real or phishing? I clicked on the link and the name and password prefilled but were not recognised.


Dear PHer,

At PistonHeads we like to keep our house in order and as a member of our forums we wanted to get in touch for two reasons. Firstly, thanks for being a part of the community, without your input PH would be a quiet place, and secondly we we want to ensure the personal information we hold about you is correct, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Mailing you to ask the correct data may seem dull, but it helps us to ensure you get the most out of being a member of PistonHeads and the following services.

● Partake on our forums.
● Receive information after signing up to Sunday Service events.


In addition you can also take advantage of benefits away from the community such as:

● The ability to advertise on our used car classifieds for Free (members who joined prior to January 2009 save £9.99 when advertising).
● Receive the daily editorial news directly to your inbox.


Please log into the member area to review and amend the information as required. It would also be useful if you visited our terms and conditions as these may have changed since you joined up. If you haven't visited PistonHeads for a while and need a reminder of your password please click here.

Thanks for getting this far, and thanks again for using PistonHeads.

Regards,


The PistonHeads Team

---

This service message was brought to you by Haymarket Media Group and sent to [e-mail].
Please click here to unsubscribe from future marketing messages.

About Haymarket | PistonHeads
© Haymarket Media Group Ltd, 174 Hammersmith Road, London, W6 7JP
Registered in England No. 267189

[TheHeretic]

I believe Garlick, or Stuart mentioned these would be getting sent out.

[pad58]

I think Paul has mentioned something before on here,not sure though.

Bugger was beaten to it.

[Simpo Two]

I was also suspicious it wasn't personalised (think of Paypal spoofs that say 'Dear Customer').

[Shaw Tarse]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[trashbat]

links.em.pistonheads.com is still PH. It's the last bit that matters. Not a bad idea to be suspicious of links though.

Edit: oi, where did your post go?

[Garlick]

It's legit. All part of our database clean and 350k of you will receive it.

We can't make you respond, but it's worth checking we have the correct preferences saved

[pad58]

And I did, except I have to pay for adverts as mine was a little different to yours.

[madbadger]

Done. I also at first assumed it was spam.

How do you know how effective the email has been when it just asks you to log on?

[Garlick]

There's not 'target' to achieve, it's a message sent as part of our data protection obligations that will hopefully clean our database too. We'll know bounced mail addresses and if a few update their emails to a new address that's great.

If a few members come back after a period of absence or place an ad (free or paid) as a result of the mail, that's an added bonus.

[Simpo Two]

And why the need to log in? A simple reply 'yes' would let you know the e-mail address was active without logging in and subsequent risk of misuse.

IMHO it's a poorly conceived wheeze. Internet common sense says you never click on links that arrive in unsolicited unpersonalised e-mails asking for private data.

Edited after Garlick's reply - 'data protection obligations' require you to elicit data? My bank never sends me e-mails asking to log in...

[Garlick]

Simpo Two said:

IMHO it's a poorly conceived wheeze.

Fair enough.

[madbadger]

Simpo Two said:

Internet common sense says you never click on links that arrive in unsolicited unpersonalised e-mails asking for private data.

But this is different because of this thread.

Unsolicited email would normally get binned, but at least with this I could go and check if it is genuine.

[Vieste]

Done mine.

[chrimbow]

googled the content of the email which brought me here

[cuneus]

Just so you are aware - gmail identifies this as spam, so that's another fail

[Vieste]

Not my gmail.

[All that jazz]

"Please click here to unsubscribe from future marketing messages."

The cynic in me wonders if this action will work the same as all other marketing ads where you won't actually get unsubscribed at all, but instead confirm to the company that your email address is live and ripe to be sold onto their partners for even more spam..

[Grenoble]

Vieste said:

Not my gmail.

Nor mine...

[anonymous-user]

Grenoble said:

Vieste said:

Not my gmail.

Nor mine...

Mine either.