Re: Spam from your own email address at Clara
Nat Queen
Charlie+ <cha...@xxx.net> wrote:
> I thaught any reader might be interested in the quoted email spam format I
> found tangled in my spam filtering system a couple of days ago and which is
> unusual as far as Im concerned :
> I have replaced in the headers my real address name with "MYEMAILNAME"
> As you can see it appears as coming from myself! As my email address is
> unpublished it possibly / probably means that Clara's complete email address
> list is hacked... anyone else had the same?
> C+
>
>> [...]
I've seen exactly the same with my unpublished Clara address, but it
doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Clara.
I don't know whether this applies to you, but this can happen if, for
example, a spammer uses a million random addresses of the form
<name>@clara.net, where <name> is a random word or name taken from
some comprehensive dictionary. I've seen evidence of this several
times.
For example, I've received such spam addressed simultaneously to many
different addresses <name>@, all starting with the same initial
letters and in alphabetical order, including most common words/names
in that range - and the same for another address (not Clara) that I
use as well.
If your address is not of that form, then maybe there's some other
explanation.
The fact that the spam appears to come "from" your address is of no
significance. Spammers sometimes set the "From:" address to be the
same as the "To:" address, so it probably does not mean that they sent
a deluge of spam "from" your address (though that can happen too).
Incidentally, it's good to see some activity in this newsgroup. I
wish more Clara users participated here!
Nat
--
Dr. N.M. Queen | Phone: +44 121 414 6590 Fax: +44 121 414 3389
School of Mathematics | PGP-encrypted e-mail preferred. Public key at
Univ. of Birmingham | http://www.queen.clara.net and on keyservers.
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK | Info: http://www.queen.clara.net/pgp/pgp.html
Nat Queen
Charlie+ <cha...@xxx.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:42:36 GMT, Nat Queen <m...@privacy.net> wrote as
> underneath my scribble :
> Thanks for your info Nat, if it were a directory attack I would expect as in
> the past many hits at the same time, ....... so we'll see what transpires
> but this looked like a single specific. Has not happened subsequently!
> C+
Not quite sure what you mean about expecting many hits. But I think
it's quite likely that you got a one-off spam mail (as I did in such
cases). If the spammer sent a million mail messages to all addresses
...@clara.net based on some dictionary, there might be no point in
repeating this. Next time the spammer might do the same for
...@aol.com or any other domain.
Wishing you a spam-free New Year!