posted 01-30-2007 11:11 AM            

SPAM is out of control on the Internet. In the recent past SMP/SSF would get a few hundred spam messages a day, now it jumped to few thousand. We have a white list but so many new important messages are blocked by the white list that we end up having to review our SPAM Filtered email. The challenge mail techniques don’t work for us because there is list-serve and bulk e-mail we need to get. With so many SPAM messages to review it is very possible that we will miss an important message from you.

To help us notice your message, please start the subject line with:

Silver

Please know that we don’t send SPAM. In fact we haven’t sent out a generalized notice to our SSF members for well over a year. It is also important to recognize that the SPAMmers are using SPOOFing techniques to send their messages so if you get an e-mail from made up name at SMPub.com it didn’t originate from us. We know this is happening because we get the bounced undeliverable SPAM return mail (another 1000+ a day).

If you get such an SPOOFed e-mail please DO NOT FORWARD IT TO US. Instead, please properly decode the e-mail headers and forward the SPAM to your ISP and to the originating ISP’s abuse department.

Properly decoding headers can be time consuming so you may be inclined to use one of those automated header readers/decoders.

My advice is to only use an automated header reader/decoder if you already know how to properly manually read headers. WHY? Because my testing has the automated header readers/decoders getting it wrong fifty percent of the time. If you do use an automated header reader/decoder please verify the results are correct especially if the results indicate it originates from our ISP (Earthlink).

To learn more about SPAM

• How to Read Email Headers by PoBox (a good tutorial)
  
• Reading Email Headers
  
• Reading Email Headers
  
• Headers of a Legit Email Message

Thanks

posted 12-03-2012 10:17 AM            

The most recent two originate from locations in Iran and Peru. The subject was:
Gibraltar rooted corporation searching for white collar laborers in European regions. .

Its junk email NOT from SMPub.com.

It is a Phishing/419 scam trying to get you to respond with personal info to an address at eurotrade-consult.com.

DON'T RESPOND!

posted 12-03-2012 09:41 PM            

This one is from Lima Peru:

Subject: Gibraltar organization aggressively recruiting for European-based work force.

It is a Phishing/419 scam trying to get you to respond with personal info to an address at pilotconsultingeu.com.

DON'T RESPOND!

posted 12-22-2012 01:16 PM            

Because the address is posted in public it gets a lot of SPAM. Most of the SPAM goes straight into our SPAM trash bucket and is never seen by us.

From time to time we spot check the SPAM trash bucket to make sure everything in it really belongs in SPAM. Very occasionally it traps something that doesn't belong in SPAM. Because of how voluminous SPAM is and how rarely we find something that shouldn't be classified as SPAM, we don't spot check often.

Of late, we are seeing more and more SPAM from registered SSF members. Sometimes the registered member has picked up a computer virus. The computer virus then sends the SPAM from the member's computer. So alerting the member that they seem to be infected most often stops the SPAM. Occasionally when the member is unable to easily fix the infection (i.e., a Rootkit, etc.) then we stop looking at any email from them.

What is now happening more often is the member's address book is getting hacked and stolen. There are too many ways a user can be hacked to describe them all here. In short, the bad guys break in and steal your address books. With your address books the bad guys start sending out SPAM e-mail to all the people you know spoofed as you. They send the spoofed SPAM from the bad guys server farms and bot nets (which are often in Asia, Russia, South America, etc).

When the bad guys get your address book there is nothing you can do to recover your address book. And if the bad guys send the SPAM out spoofed as you, then any email from your address will be treated as SPAM by most ISP's.

If the above, or something similar, has happened and we (& the SSF) are not responding, let us know by saying as much in a post. Then we will then reach out to your SSF registered email address. DO NOT POST EMAIL ADDRESSES.

There are too many ways to get hacked and to have your address book stolen... sometimes it is just as simple as visiting a compromised web site. Most recently, hacked members believe they were hacked at Facebook.