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Getting spam with my friends email address in the subject line

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SKesselman:
I use gmail.

The sender's name is an obvious sign that they're a spammer.
But, I'm wondering where the spammer picked my friend's email address up.

Does anyone think maybe my gmail address book, or his, has been hacked?
Or worse, our Outlook address books?

I'm hesitant to open it, just to see what it says.
I've heard of worms that have the friend's address in the sender field, but not in the subject.

If this is a known phishing tactic, please forgive me.
I've never read phishing articles, I can spot a phishing email a mile away.

Thanks,
Sarah

4wd:
They could have got your friend's email address from virtually anywhere.

eg.
1) Your friend used it to register at a site that was hacked, has a less than 'nice' policy regarding sharing of personal info, or was of a 'questionable' nature.
2) Your friend responded to a spam email by clicking a link in it which confirmed a working email address.
3) A friend of a friend of your friend had their PC infected with virus that sent emails to everyone in their email addressbook and so propagated a list of working email addresses.
4) Spammers bulk email millions of random addresses, any that aren't bounced are classed as valid, (one problem I wish GMail would fix instead of just forwarding to the closest sound-alike).
5) ad infinitum.

I'm hesitant to open it, just to see what it says.-SKesselman (June 17, 2009, 03:57 PM)
--- End quote ---

Never, ever open a suspected spam email unless you have your email client properly configured.

By properly, IMHO, at the very least only configured to send/display all messages as plain text, (see here1), and to never send a receipt saying it's been received or read.

1. Yes it's old but still valid - there is no reason to send HTML in an email.   Any sent to me usually end up deleted rather than read and I blame it on a message filter if someone asks  :P

tomos:
It happened me once (2001 or so-ish) when I didint have a clue* that my email address was used and people received spam from my address. No idea how, but as I say I had absolutely no clue then about anything (I had first started using pc's a year or two prior to that).

What should one do in this situation? (if it's your address being abused) - abandon the account, tell the provider?


* I'm not a whole lot better now . .

SKesselman:
Never, ever open a suspected spam email unless you have your email client properly configured.-4wd (June 17, 2009, 04:17 PM)
--- End quote ---
I don't really trust that I'll ever have an email client so properly configured that I'd feel safe, so I filter my mail manually before downloading it.
But, maybe I'm being silly. Are the consequences similar, no matter where I open the potentially harmful mail from, be it webmail or Outlook? Hmm...
1. Yes it's old but still valid - there is no reason to send HTML in an email.   Any sent to me usually end up deleted rather than read and I blame it on a message filter if someone asks  :P -4wd (June 17, 2009, 04:17 PM)
--- End quote ---
I tried that for a while, and all it did was piss people off. Seriously.
Someday, when I'm working again, I'll probably (again) have little say in the matter.
But I looked at the links you posted anyway, & bookmarked them - you're right, these are still valid reasons to avoid HTML mail.

Thanks for all the help, and for the quick reply, 4wd...much appreciated.

Target:
it's old but still valid - there is no reason to send HTML in an email.-4wd (June 17, 2009, 04:17 PM)
--- End quote ---

is anyone aware of a reason why HTML mail persists?

wouldn't some sort of rich text format be a far better alternative?

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