I just got a couple of emails on my private addy

[zodiac66]

I just got a couple of emails on my private addy

that I only give to a select few. I do not use it when I sign up for any site nor is it an easy one just to guess.

Upon tracing the IP, one came from Michigan the other from California. Is there a way to tell who this is other than the city and state they are from?

They both had .exe attachments (like I would be dumb enough to open it).

 

[llad12]

Word to the wise Zodi,

Block the sender, dump 'em, and forget 'em ... anything with a .exe file attachment is worse than spam.

 

[AeroJonesy]

Is there a way to tell who this is other than the city and state they are from?

Even the federal government has to subpoena ISPs to get personal information from an IP address.

 

[Stompwampa]

You probably could, but it wouldn't really do you any good. If you email them back and tell them to put you on their "do no email list," they'll know that your account is active, and they'll sell it off to a mass email list, and you'll be in even worse shape.
I would just block those email addy's and let it be. Some who knew that email address probably sent you a FWD that had a bunch of other people on it. That email probably made it's way to a spammer who just copies and pastes and ads to his collection.

 

[zodiac66]

See, the problem is..I just got a few more. They all come from different email accounts, have different IPs and the dates are either from 1970 or December 2006. Email filters are not going to work.

I want to know whom gave out my private email. I have an inkling of one.

 

[Stompwampa]

I want to know whom gave out my private email. I have an inkling of one.

Like I said in my previous post, your email address likely got stuck into someone's mass FWD and then made it's way out from there.

 

[oban]

The IP traces aren't necessarily accurate. In fact, it's rather likely they're not. If you only have a few people who know that particular account, you should be able to reverse filter (i.e. disallow mail from any address that isn't one of those).

 

[skihard]

Maybe someone has it in for you, got your Email address and sent it of to as many sites as they could possibly think of so that you would be assaulted by tons of emails

Luckily my IP's show up from Ohio and Indiana not my home state since my host accounts are in those states.

 

[LunarSolaris]

Sorry for the malicious e-mails you're getting Zodi. I wish I had something substantive to offer in the way of advice, but sadly I don't know enough about blocking and such to offer much useful to you.

One suggestion that I think is good is what oban suggested - a reverse filter to block anyone except for whom is on an approved list.

 

[bg1256]

In the last two years, I've registered for three different hotmail accounts, and I've only give the address to three people: two family members and my gf, none of whom would have any reason to give the address to someone else.


Yet, each of these addresses was filled with spam in a matter of weeks.


So, if it's Hotmail, I'm not at all surprised.

 

[zodiac66]

In the last two years, I've registered for three different hotmail accounts, and I've only give the address to three people: two family members and my gf, none of whom would have any reason to give the address to someone else.


Yet, each of these addresses was filled with spam in a matter of weeks.


So, if it's Hotmail, I'm not at all surprised.

No its a private email with a private server. It is not even a .com so I know it just wasn't guessed.

 

[bg1256]

No its a private email with a private server. It is not even a .com so I know it just wasn't guessed.

Ahhh....wierd. Someone must have a big mouth.

 

[Dondrei]

Like I said in my previous post, your email address likely got stuck into someone's mass FWD and then made it's way out from there.

I think this is the most likely explanation.

 

[Drosselmeier]

Some sort of evil web-crawling bot might have picked it up somewhere. If you've given it out to someone outside of 100% private chat or mail conversation there's a chance it might leak. I think.

Isn't there some way to block everything but mail from specifically allowed accounts?

Nice to see you back Zodi. You seem to be pretty busy these days.

 

[zodiac66]

Nice to see you back Zodi. You seem to be pretty busy these days.

*Hugs to you Dross. Yeah..I am busy. I do so miss you. You need to get your butt in chat so we can talk. Or better yet..get together and watch some movies :wink2: .

There are perhaps 5 people from this forum who know my real addy and 3 from KOL.

I am an obsessive when it comes to my privacy. I have junk email accounts for emails like this. When they start creeping into my personal, private email..I have issues with it.

What I may do is have Steve bounce all emails except for the ones I give to him. My main email is VERY private and some putz seemed to have broadcast it.

I will give Steve the emails and let him have at it. He is always up for a challange.

I am just a bit sad that someone that I trusted with my private email either had a very insecure box..or decided to be nasty. If that is the case..they better watch out. Either Steve or I wil find them. And believe me, Steve can do things with computers that I could only dream about. He can be nasty if I ask him to.

 

[Stompwampa]

I am just a bit sad that someone that I trusted with my private email either had a very insecure box..or decided to be nasty. If that is the case..they better watch out. Either Steve or I wil find them. And believe me, Steve can do things with computers that I could only dream about. He can be nasty if I ask him to.

I still think it's more likley that you received a forward from someone who had your email addy, and that forward also went to a bunch of other people. All it takes is one person to forward that same email along to more people, and it copies all the previous email address over by default usually. It's really dumb, but people rarely take the time to delete the previous information in a forward when they send it off.
Though, it isn't impossible that someone has it out for you. However, I would have picked other methods to get back at you than spamming an email account. I think if someone really has mal-intent, they would have done something more damaging, IMO. But having Steve look at it won't hurt at all, I'd probably do it too :thumbsup:

 

[AeroJonesy]

I found an intersting site about how some e-mail addresses are harvested:
http://www.private.org.il/harvest.html

I didn't know about the IRC one.

And it seems like a whole hassle for someone to go through if they had it out for you. I'd think they'd just sign you up for excessive amounts of porn or something, not try and hide their identity and send .exe files.

 

[zodiac66]

I found an intersting site about how some e-mail addresses are harvested:
http://www.private.org.il/harvest.html

I didn't know about the IRC one.

And it seems like a whole hassle for someone to go through if they had it out for you. I'd think they'd just sign you up for excessive amounts of porn or something, not try and hide their identity and send .exe files.

Actually I don't think anyone I have given it to has it out for me..they have had a big mouth or shared certain things about my server.

I do think Ski was the one who said someone had it out for me..and he also deleted his blurb about me making it up for pity.

Regarding irc..they have my spam account.

Jonsey..if you knew the lengths someone went throught to scour every single aspect of my blog..you would think differently. 40 plus footprints they left. It bordered on obsessive and stalkerish.

 

[Lord Nyax]

On the note of spam, I read an article about the future of e-mail. They mentioned something about how it only takes ~1/10000 people to respond to a piece of spam for it to be profitable for a company, so even if 9999 out of 10,000 people are smart enough to filter or delete it, that one person makes everything worthwhile.

But on to the point: there was talk about a way to stop the spam, and the most reasonable solution I saw was the make the computer delay like, 1 second for each person you send a piece of mail to. That way the spam company's either have to settle with 3600 people an hour or buy more computers, and buying computers is expensive, so it stops being profitable. It doesn't affect the normal population, but it stops the spam companies flat. Sound good to anyone else?

 

[ModeratelyConfused]

That wouldn't really work. As long as there's software, someone will crack it.