For a while now I've been getting things telling me that I have rewards or something is on its way. Sometimes they tell me they're holding something for me and all I need to do is provide additional information. Just yesterday I got a call from (what claimed to be) the United States Treasury. In all my life I've never gotten a call from the UST. The guy had a definite accent. I won't describe it because I don't want to offend anyone, but I DID say to him "You don't SOUND Ammerican." He said "I'm from Canada" though is accent didn't sound so. I said "What do you want?" He said "Money." I said "You're not getting any" and he hung up.

As I started out saying, I get a lot of e-mail messages trying to get me to click on something. Some even look VERY legitimate. But when I click the dropdown window on their address it reveals some pretty weird stuff.

Here's some of the more recent ones:

@VooC5QTY.epizy.com (claiming to be from Amazon.)
@worthlessboy.co.uk (these I don't recall from whom they claim to be.)
@gomeatredayusoon.co.uk
@addmastercard.ca
@careermeetings.racing
@snikers.medianstructure.com
@balcone.medianstructure.com
@kalor.moonlightguidance.com
@epi.uni-kiel.de

What have you been seeing?

 

My email is through my local phone company and I can set the passthrough filter how ever I want.

Thanks to that about 95% of my mail goes right in the trash without my ever seeing it so I have no clue what sort of spam and junk mail I get any more.

 

For a while now I've been getting things telling me that I have rewards or something is on its way. Sometimes they tell me they're holding something for me and all I need to do is provide additional information.

I have been getting them too though I never copied the real addresses--just dumped them in junk. Funny thing though, my wife gets none of them.

 

I keep 3 or 4 email addresses. I give, "throw away" addresses to anybody except personal friends and family. When an address begins to get spammed, I delete it. My friends and family email has been active for at least 10 years with no problems, therefore, the problems must be coming from websites.

 

What have you been seeing?

I just checked my SPAM folder on my email provider and saw that on a typical day, I'm getting about a dozen SPAM messages that I never see. I download email to my computer automatically, but whenever SPAM gets through, I flag the message on the server so the filters can be updated. Sometimes it takes as much as a week for the filter to start working.

Some email programs only let you examine the headers. Mine lets me also examine the message source. Whenever I receive a suspicious message, I look at the message source to avoid launching any payloads.

I too have disposable email addresses. My provider lets me create as many as I want and associates them all with my main email. I can delete them whenever they become a significant source of SPAM.

 

I use GMail and it is very good at spam detection. I seldom get anything in my main inbox that even smells of spam (and I'm pretty suspicious of every piece of email I get).

Just looked at the spam folder and I've been getting 5-10 pieces per day. Most of them laughably bad. A few were almost clever. My favorite was a notification from the "Microsoft Team" that my account was locked with instructions how to unlock it which included going to a dodgy website.

 

My favorite was a notification from the "Microsoft Team"

We get calls from "Microsoft" trying to tell us that we have a computer virus. As if Microsoft would really care...

We also get calls from the "IRS" telling us we owe money and that we need to give them a credit card number or they'll send the police. I just tell them to send the police and hang up.

 

We get calls from "Microsoft" trying to tell us that we have a computer virus. As if Microsoft would really care...

We also get calls from the "IRS" telling us we owe money and that we need to give them a credit card number or they'll send the police. I just tell them to send the police and hang up.

I've been getting calls from a collection agency telling me I owe Sprint about $3600. I've never had a Sprint account, so they sent me a letter demanding I document everything from my birth certificate to the mailing address they sent to letter to. Then I noticed...it's not my name on the bill.

 

My wife's a CPA, she says the IRS never calls you. They communicate via US Mail only.

 

We get calls from "Microsoft" trying to tell us that we have a computer virus. As if Microsoft would really care...

We also get calls from the "IRS" telling us we owe money and that we need to give them a credit card number or they'll send the police. I just tell them to send the police and hang up.

I have a regular occurrence of the same 2 - 4 bill collectors calling and looking for people who don't live here. As soon as I get it cleared up with the usual 2 - 4 collectors that one person does not live here and I have no clue who they are they sart up with looking for someone else.

The only pattern is they all have my last name and almost always they are women and assumed to be my wife, daughter or sister. Rather strongly implies that women are the worst ones for not paying their bills.

 

My wife's a CPA, she says the IRS never calls you. They communicate via US Mail only.

The IRS has that information on their website too.

My Wife and I never give them a second thought because we know we don't owe money to the IRS.

 

I think my problem began when I filled out what I thought was a job application. Instead of being directed to a job site I started getting offers to upload some program that was supposed to help me find work. Unfortunately they now have my name, phone number and e-mail address.

As for junk e-mail accounts, I wish I had done that. Too late now.

 

I think my problem began when I filled out what I thought was a job application.

I contacted Philips to get a replacement for one of their LED bulbs. They never responded about the bulb, but started spamming me with mail about their other products.

Guess I can't call it SPAM because I contacted them. That gives them the legal right to send me unsolicited email for 6 months.

 

I would suspect that someone who has your email address, in their email contact list.....has got a virus. And your address has been added to a spam list as a legitimate email address.

The spammers have gotten better and now mine verified email addresses.

For the next few weeks monitor the headers in your email.......and out fake(the unknown address in parenthesis)....to the junk folder. Don't delete them.....put them in junk.....so they get recorded.

 

I put them into a "Rules" box where when something from THAT address is immediately deleted. It's even too much a hassle to report them, though they should be reported. But that only makes them do what they're probably doing already - changing their address on a daily basis to avoid detection and possible capture.

Wish I could send a spike their way and burn their equipment out - just like (I think it was) in - um, what was that movie where everyone was living in a virtual world? Where guys could dodge bullets and stuff. Anyway, I wish I could just go to another planet and start life over. Have a "Minimum IQ" requirement and a clause where if someone were to be malicious they'd get moved one planet closer to the sun. Survive or die - it was up to them.

Fantasy. I know.

 

I've been getting calls from a collection agency telling me I owe Sprint about $3600. I've never had a Sprint account, so they sent me a letter demanding I document everything from my birth certificate to the mailing address they sent to letter to. Then I noticed...it's not my name on the bill.

A lot of those scams (that involve people claiming to be from the IRS and you're going to be arrested if you don't send them $$$) are perpetrated by India nationals working in the U.S. and Canada.

They somehow get your email (or phone number) then they give you a sucker punch in the hope you'll get swindled big time.

 

Fall out from the Equifax debacle?