Spam Question

I know a lot of computer savvy folks frequent these forums from time to time, so, I got a question about spam. Specifically, how does this spam that is not even addressed to me end up in my e-mail. For example, it will be addressed to Johnwhoever@charter.net, and although I'm not John, it's in my e-mail. What's that about?

Dave

Re: Spam Question

I think mass mailing has alot to do with it. They pick a domain and send it to any probable username....

Re: Spam Question

A more frequent source of email addy's are from forum posts. Bots scan threads for usuable email addresses from posters themselves. Never post your real email address in a post. If you have to use the address, obscure it , johndoe(at)msn.com. You could always open an account at Hotmail and use that address for all non personal use too.

Goto your ISP's website and administer your account. Look to see if they have a spam filter that you can activate.

When you do get a spam email, never click on the option to "Remove my name from your list" . When they receive a reply from you, they know they have a viable target for more spam.

Re: Spam Question

Some programs will hack an isp's files and get the addresses.

Other programs will hack the isp system and send mail to "all accounts".

My last 2 isp's were bad with email/spam security.
I now use a Mac mail account and only get about 1 spam email a month, which my Mac Mail program promptly deposits in the "junk" folder.

Re: Spam Question

It's almost unheard of for spammers to hack into an ISP's mail servers. The usual trick is to launch a dictionary-based attack which sends a bunch of emails to a number of different permutations and which have a forged reply-to address.

Permutations that bounce are assumed to be bogus, those that aren't are assumed to be possible matches and are flagged for inclusion on a hit list. That hit list may be further refined or used as-is by the spammer and/or be resold to other spammers.

ihose people who actually request to opt out will actually end up having their email addresses tagged as confirmed and are added to a different list. Because that particular list is made up of confirmed users it can be resold at a higher per-user price than the first list type.

Spammers also mine mailing lists, forums, Usenet postings, whois records, conference attendee lists, and just about any way they can think of that can be mined online by a bot. Bots are pretty clever at stripping out email addresses, so if you're going to try to obscure it don't be obvious, johndoe(at)msn.com isn't hard to guess.

Lastly, it's not hard to forge a name (it's optional) in the To: field of an email address. If you look at the actual headers you will see the bogus name, but you will also see your correct email address.

Re: Spam Question

If you have spam in your email..... don't eat it..... you don't know where it's been 8)

Re: Spam Question

I thought the question was: How does email that is not addressed to me wind up in my mail box?

Re: Spam Question

Thanks guys. I think ratracer answered my question in his last paragraph. It seems that what I think is the address in the " to:" field is optional and can be forged. Like you guys, I have several e-mail addresses, one of which I try never to give out except to secure sites like my bank and such. That seems to be the only way to keep the spam out. Even then, over time, some spammers will eventually stumble upon it.

Dave