Here's a little more information about Amazon and email addresses which sheds a some light on the topic. This information isn't from an official Amazon or Target source, just from public comment but it seems to say that Amazon isn't selling our email addresses but that they share our tracking cookie data - and we all know how prevalent that is on the internet. .................from the Amazon forum............ Posted on Mar 1, 2011 1:43:37 PM PST PF says: They don't sell emails, but they do share tracking cookie data with their third party affiliates and partners. Target and Google are probably the biggest examples in addition to the Square Trade example L. Leverton posted above. Those companies will share Amazon's tracking cookies and know your browsing and purchase history unless you specifically opt out. You are not identified by name, address, financial data or email in those cookies. There is just a tracker showing that one computer user searched or bought certain items. The activity is not logged to a specific person, just the hardware you are using. So Amazon does not supply them with your email address, but the Amazon tracking cookies have logged your IP address and a few other encrypted identifiers. If you have existing business relationships with those adverting partner sites, they have enough data to send targeted advertising to the email address you have on record with that company. You can opt out of personalized advertising services so that affiliates and third parties do not get your tracking cookie information: http://www.amazon.com/gp/advertising/oo/ref=ya_64 If you use Gmail, you also have to tweak the advertising settings on their end. Amazon uses Google Analytics as one of their personalized advertising partners. Just by using Amazon's site, you give permission for Google to track your browsing and purchase history. You have to opt out of allowing Google to forward offers from their own third party advertising partners to a Gmail account. http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/ ......................................................... NPR had an informative (and scary) segment a few months on how companies track and store our data. Google is notorious for this. I know how limited I am to avoid all of this. So from my end I follow the normal precautions - select good passwords, change them regularly, monitor my credit cards etc. And while I have a debit card I don't use it or carry it. Maire Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon group discussions This post was edited by maire_cate on Sat, Jan 18, 14 at 14:00

I see what its doing, essentially extending terms and reducing interest rate in order to make the borrowers income fit into the percentage. If I were the borrower, maybe start looking for a low paying job? That way I can lower my payment. What happens if you can't do that? what happens if we're at a 1% interest rate and a 50 year mortgage to get there?

We don't usually shop there at all but we did buy one gift card but it was on Nov 26th...before the problem! Whew! Joann

I just saw on TV there are several new credit card scams hitting right now and it's very similar to what you are describing, they said they send out the card with a phone number to call but it is not a real company it is part of the scam they then get the person to give up personal information which they then use to get real cards with the information. So everyone be aware ofphone calls saying that they are the bank or credit card companies plus getting a card. This time of year everyone is using their cards so much they are more likely to get scammed. Yesterday my brother in law said that the bank called to ask if they were currently in Mexico. He said no they weren't. Their card numbers had been used for purchase in Mexico and it got flagged. They had blocked the card already and sent them new cards.