Is Facebook selling email addresses?

[detn8r]

OK, so recently I've been getting a WHOLE bunch of email spam (all with the same font etc) to my primary yahoo email. Obviously emails are being sent from other people's real emails, and probably my own as well... very common nowadays obviously, but what was a little concerning however is that one specific email that I had set up for a fake-test Facebook account was sent to me.

You see, I bought a subscription to Yahoo Mail, which allows me to create masked emails so, if a website I use decided to sell my email I can easily delete that masked email and stop the spam (I think Gmail may have something similar). I got an email today from one of those emails.

One of two things.. these spammers are going into profiles (via same network) and lifting the emails or Facebook is selling them. I can't see spammers manually going into to profiles, as it's a bitch of a long time.. however the interesting this is, my primary email I use for my Facebook isn't my real email either, nor is the primary one listed on my profile (which I have security settings set so only friends may see my profile).

Whats your opinion?

[detn8r]

Oh this is interesting... I tried searching for my primary email via Facebook, and it shows up in a search as my primary email & my contact email, yet that specific email is not shown anywhere on my profile. WTF? I just double checked my email addresses on file and it's definitely not listed...... checking the privacy settings, I even have my emails set to NO ONE is able to even see them. What is up with this?

[Fanatic]

So you got spam at an address that doesn't show up anywhere? Is that what you're saying?

Facebook doesn't sell email addresses, but I think it's possible that some spammers use dictionary attacks to simply GUESS potential email addresses. It doesn't cost anything to send more emails, generally, so it doesn't hurt if they bounce back.