Yet Even More Online Culinary Delights from the Sloppy and Slimy Side of
the Internet:
Who the Heck Is Sending All This Spam?
Of my several active email addresses, only the Gmail account gets an amount of spam that's worth considering. I believe that is the case because whenever I have had to subscribe or apply to anything that might have been the least bit questionable I have used the Gmail address. Now, the Google Spam filters are quite good. Only occasionally does any new spam not get sent directly to the Spam folder.
I have been asserting for some time now that it is important — indeed sometimes critical — to analyze and evaluate the domain names of those sending you email and that you do not immediately recognize. On July 7, 2022, I posted the article, "Anatomy of an Address." The article discussed how to see the complete email address of a sender to your Gmail account without actually opening up the email. In the same article, Domain Name Lookup was also discussed. Domain Name Lookup gives us keen insight into the legitimacy of the web domain from which an email was sent, among other tools.
What follows below is strictly for Gmail. The means to examine the email sender address would be the same if Outlook is your email application. The steps to get to the sender address without opening up the email is far more complex in Outlook. For that, Outlook users will need get access to the email headers. I discussed how to enable Outlook headers in a post of 08/22/2024. There are several steps. Nonetheless, if your Outlook email is getting inundated by spammers it might worth while to enable the email headers in Outlook. As far as other email providers like AOL or Yahoo, I really can't comment.
Gmail has now changed how to see the sender email address without opening up the message. Now, to see the sender complete email address requires a few more steps. The steps below assumes the message is already in the Spam folder.
| Click the message in the
message list. Mouse over the sender's name in the message list. Scroll to the right until you see the text icon. |
 |
| What you want to click on is the
icon for text that appears next to the truncated email address of the sender. |
 |
| The email address will be copied to the Windows Clipboard where it can then be pasted into any test editor program. Since the address will be in plain text, I suggest pasting it into Notepad. Your list of spam addresses will look similar to the ones below. |
|
iiijriykqayspldlaiod@katina***lm.baby validacion@yo***o.com.mx kvthorclckxoec.40900502164502@43gokx.vyvyin.xue1lx.us Renewal-by*Andersen_wb@poly-***ge.com contact_support.ocp@e.krycoqlhlf.myncro***pp.com |
Using this process, I have gathered together a collection of spam senders' addresses. One thing becomes clear when analyzing the collected email addresses. Many of these addresses simply cannot exist.
Take this email address:
ytygnommfbqurx.98423578262847@xid68g.t15bwz.a7vjn9.us. A
quick Google search on the
top level domain, "a7vjn9.us", will
tell you that there are no matches for that domain. Obviously,
that domain is spoofed from a real domain.
The email had to originate from some server somewhere.
One of my favorite examples of this is: ghatxyuvkmwkyrsvswyq@carre4fr.baby. A Google Search revealed that there is no such place on the web. A domain lookup, however, showed the domain is only one day old as of this writing. Although, the top level domain does exist, tthere is no website, according to Google Search. All sure signs of not being a legitimate domain. Nonetheless, this spammer wanted me to take advantage of Elon Musk's latest invention for generating electricity. Mr. Musk has recently become a growing favorite among spammers to reference in their subject lines.
What is more alarming is how many spam messages originate from otherwise legitimate businesses. I will not list any examples here. I have inserted asterisks to obscure the domain name of those senders. I don't want to get sued. Using Google Search and Domain Name Lookup, two facts can be gleaned from an examination of these otherwise legitimate email senders' addresses. First, there are many commercial entities that have compromised email servers. Second, the majority of these entities are businesses that offer differing types of web marketing services. Kind of makes sense to me.
Most of the spam emails had familiar themes. That my loan, which I had never applied for, is approved was the most common. The subject line implored me to, "Click here to receive the funds." Somewhat like the mirror opposite of that recurring theme was the loan company, which I had never done business with, has opened a law suit against me for the nonpayment of the past due monies. The first tell-tale sign that these spam emails were bogus was that the spoofed spender was like, lawyerbob@gmail.com. It is almost always the case that attorneys have their own domain name from which they send email, like bob@lawyerbob.com.
Reflecting a current trend in the culture was this one: ~GENericoZEMPIc***@box****raw.com. So it is highly unlikely that I will be able to order any generic Ozempic, which does not exist, according to CNN. Of course, generic Viagra does exist, and I get a fair number of offers to buy some from various spammers. Maybe I should partake of some before I look at the pictures she has so lovingly sent to me. Whoever she is.
Another growing trend spammers employ is to include long underscores inside the email address like this one. "GENERIC0_ZEMPIC2293276442023569746428________________________________VUXHREZBSPVPA@herr****es.com." Imagine trying to type that into your smartphone email app. But, hey! You can get generic 0_zempic. Apparently most email service providers are now flagging generic Ozempic emails as spam since no such thing as generic Ozempic exists in the real world.
My overall favorite, however, came from "vvebbglmronvly.25507703611282@w870go.748dkd.50a9yz.us." Whoever is at top level domain, 50a9yz.us, was kind enough to offer me support for my ovarian cancer. Ironically, however, no spammer has yet to offer me any support for my diabetes. Of course, they might now.
Honestly, I find all this kind of amusing. For what possible purpose could all this online activity be? Are there really enough incredibly guilable people online who would click at the mere mention of generic Ozempic to make all this effort worthwhile? I mean don't these miscreants have a hospital system somewhere that is ready to attack?
Now if they offered me a 1958 Corvette, then maybe...
Gerald Reiff