A New Kind of Spam
April 26, 2007 – 6:52 amI’ve been getting a lot of bounced emails lately. It wouldn’t be a big deal, except they are ones that I did not send.
After inspecting a few of them and finding that the attached emails were spam, I got worried. I thought that despite all of my efforts to keep my computer secure and free of junkware, it had still somehow become a spam zombie. For those who haven’t heard that term, it’s a computer that has been infected by a virus or trojan that causes it to send junk mail on the infector’s behalf.
So of course I decided to investigate. Come to find out, it is just a new kind of spam. Spammers send spam emails to addresses that do not exist, with your email address in the reply-to field. Then the spam bounces back to you. This causes it to bypass most spam filters. Many Internet users, such as myself, will be curious as to what this mysterious bounced email is, and read the attachments.
If you get email like this, do not open the attachments. If they contain images, they can let the spammer know that your email address is in fact valid, and you will in turn get more spam.
It blows my mind the lengths that spammers go to in order to find new ways to get their junk mail out. I just don’t get it. I know that I totally ignore anything that reeks of spam, as do most other email users I know. There must be people out there that are making it worth their while, or they wouldn’t continue. Don’t be one of those people.
2 Responses to “A New Kind of Spam”
You want even more scams? Check out the ones I tried and lost money to!
You have to check out http://www.home-based-businesses-uncovered.com
By Dany on Aug 7, 2007
Whenever I read about the “Spam Zombie” computer, I feel so lucky that I’m on WebTV. My computer could be in Seattle, New York, Timucktoo, or Hong Kong. No matter where it is, I don’t have to worry about maintaining it. That’s Microsoft’s problem.
By Jack Payne on Sep 6, 2007