Dodgy Invitations

It is a mystery to me how people/sites get my e-mail address, particularly as I have an excellent firewall.  However e-mails from unknown addresses do, at least, go into my junk e-mail which is something, I suppose.  The newest one was an invite to join 'Queerpeople' - and I thought the word queer was no longer acceptable in the gay or homosexual community - obviously nobody's told the site administrator.

I also get odd 'somebody fancies you' messages on my mobile phone which I ignore, of course.  I understand that this can be a ploy to get you to call a premium line number just as a call suggesting that I have had an accident and might need a lawyer is much the same thing.  I do wonder whether anybody is taken in by it - how could anybody know if you have had an accident.  There are things about over-communication that can be a bad thing.

Incidentally, most of my friends don't do it, but sometimes I get sent those rather silly chain-letters encouraging me to send the (often rather soppy - pass on a hug-type suggestion) on to 10 other people.  At work I have often wondered how people find the time, or the inclination to do so - in fact, on one occasion a number of members of staff were ticked off because it was thought a pornographic message had been forwarded.