Email spam

[sighutch]

I just received an email that was supposedly a fitbit private message in the community  trying to sell me sunglasses. I'd like to report this spam and have concerns about how they accessed my email address. 

[MatthewFitbit]

@SunsetRunner Sorry to hear you had trouble with the PM interface - can you tell me specifically what you'd like to see changed?

[SunsetRunner]

My message was supposed to be a reply to this post: Re: Email spam (https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/Email-spam/m-p/1881685#M64290)

USAF-Larry's screenshot clearly shows the issue.

[MatthewFitbit]

@SunsetRunner That's not a deliberate part of the UI - the spammer entered a single character as their subject line, which made it a bit harder to see. This wouldn't normally happen, since the subject line is usually a bit longer. I'll see if I can add a minimum character requirement in the future.

[SunsetRunner]

So with a longer subject line, the report button would have been visible?

[USAF-Larry]

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@JonasNorstrom wrote:
So with a longer subject line, the report button would have been visible?

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With a longer subject line, it would have been easier to open the message, and then the Report link would have been visible.  You have to open the message to be able to report it.

[MatthewFitbit]

@SunsetRunner With a longer subject line, it would be easier to click that line of text to open the message. Once you open the message, there is a "Report" button at the bottom. 

Edit: What @USAF-Larry said.

[Classy]

@MatthewFitbit & @USAF-Larry,

I'm sure the spammers intent was to exploit that programming flaw & make it difficult to open by only using a single special character subject line.  I think it would be wise if Fitbit deployed that at a minimum subject line character count which was a minimum number of alphanumeric characters so the subject line can't contain only special characters like the comma.

Edit: what you said @MatthewFitbit.  Make sure the limits require at least one alphanumeric character also.

[USAF-Larry]

You are correct, @Classy, but one thing I learned in over 50 years of computer systems design and programming is that you cannot make any program idiot proof - as soon as you do, they invent better idiots. Stopping spammers & hackers is the most frustrating thing IT professionals deal with.

[Classy]

True, @USAF-Larry, changing the subject line will not stop the spammers.  But it would make the subject line easier for us to see and report it.

[etmo]

My son signed up to Fitbit on my email and now I am receiving at least 20 spam emails a day for him. From reading the posts I think it started when he was asked to change his Fitbit password. I am reluctant to unsubscribe from them all b/c I think that just confirms your reading them. Any suggestions of how to get rid of the and alert Fitbit to this use of their list

[MatthewFitbit]

@etmo Contacting Fitbit or resetting an account password definitely wouldn't put your address on any spam lists - we don't provide your information to anyone. If you can give me more information on the nature of the emails you're receiving, I can clarify whether they are indeed coming from Fitbit. Feel free to send me a PM.

[etmo]

Thanks for your response, Here are some of the emails I receive daily addresses to my son Ethan

Could you please check who the first email is from as it doesn’t seem to be Fitbit but pretending to be. Please let me know what you think

[MatthewFitbit]

@etmo I didn't get anything from you - I'll reach out via PM to assist.

[SoftwareDevil]

The spam email I’m getting is from Fitbit. Fitbit is something I buy once so I put it on my arm. The only level of email advertising they have is obnoxious. Unsubscribe was the only choice. I wish a manufacture like Fitbit would realize I don’t need them to be imbedded in my life every day. I would welcome an email every few months or at least once a year but I don’t need to hear from them twice a week.

[SoftwareDevil]

The spam email I’m getting is from Fitbit. Fitbit is something I buy once so I put it on my arm. The only level of email advertising they have is obnoxious. Unsubscribe was the only choice. I wish a manufacture like Fitbit would realize I don’t need them to be imbedded in my life every day. I would welcome an email every few months or at least once a year but I don’t need to hear from them twice a week.  I could not see a good category to put this in