Getting 3rd party SPAM from people who know the names of people in your address book.

**Gistok** · September-08-12, 04:47 PM

OK... many of us have gotten an EMAIL where someone we knew had their Email Address Book compromised... and SPAM went out to large groups of people from their address book in alphabetical order. Seen it happen a few times, and have notified them that their address book has been compromised.

But something strange has recently started happening to me. I have Earthlink... so there is a Suspect EMAIL Folder where folks who contacted me and are not in my Email Address Book go to... which I check every day. No big deal.

But recently I started getting about 1 EMAIL a week from people who are in my address book... but the EMAIL goes to my SPAM folder... and although the name of the person is in my regular Address Book... the associated actual Email address is not them [[some one else who sent it). And the Email itself is just some link... which I probably should not have clicked onto... but since I know the name of the "labeled" addressee, I probably made the mistake and clicked it on.

The websites have always been "how to make money from your computer from home".

Is this some new sneaky sophisticated way to advertise? Or has my EMAIL address book been compromised [[again the EMAIL is only going to 1 person... me).

Just wondering if I should be worried or just annoyed at a new SPAM methodology?

**gazhekwe** · September-08-12, 05:30 PM

I think it comes off Facebook. I am getting tons from people who are my FB friends. Subject says "For [My name]". Under the address it says "Reply to [somebody I don't know's e-mail address". The message is a link which I have never clicked.

Just got another one "No Subject" and the link is to Banzaiek.info everyone entrance/brian roberts 88 and some other stuff after that. Reply to naturale zaza @ yahoo.es

Riiiiight!

Another one, from my granddaughter this time, no subject. This one is from abstract impressionist art cakeartistic and reply to osita 22 osita at yahoo.com.

**rb336** · September-08-12, 07:01 PM

I've been getting Spam "from" famous people, Michael Nesmith, Michael Stipe, Eric Burdon, Avril Lavigne, Rob Zombie, even Declan MacManus [[Elvis Costello's real name)

**Gistok** · September-09-12, 01:12 AM

Thanks Gazhekwe... that makes perfect sense, since both occurrences were of Facebook friends of mine... That I can deal with without worrying....

I was worried if my Email Address Book had somehow been compromised. And as I mentioned... if you're on a long list of alphabetically listed cc:'s from someone you know [[and is in your address book), and the subject is SPAM... then the originator's Email system has been compromised.... and I usually let the originator know...

**Pam** · September-09-12, 04:32 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

I've been getting Spam "from" famous people, Michael Nesmith, Michael Stipe, Eric Burdon, Avril Lavigne, Rob Zombie, even Declan MacManus [[Elvis Costello's real name)

Are they selling Viagra? I seem to get lots of ads for that. [[From "Canadian Pharmacy" not M. Stipe.)

**rb336** · September-09-12, 12:55 PM

no, these seem to be for some fake multi-level marketing scam. the links go to pages that are added on to a legit website, like www.blahblahblah.com/scampage. I have forwarded the info to those sites that are being hijacked

**wolverine** · September-09-12, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by rb336

no, these seem to be for some fake multi-level marketing scam. the links go to pages that are added on to a legit website, like www.blahblahblah.com/scampage. I have forwarded the info to those sites that are being hijacked

I wish some level of government would ban companies from using proxies that makes it look like you are receiving email / phone calls from local numbers or familiar aliases. It's an awful marketing technique and I realize thousands of companies in the US do it. So what, thousands of people losing their jobs involved in these shady marketing techniques is worth it for not receiving 1 inconvenient text or spam message.

**detroitsgwenivere** · September-19-12, 12:17 AM

When the contact list hijacker program got it's grubby little paws on my list, I noticed that the perp sends the emails out in alphabetical order. So I made the first contact: AAAAAAA@AAA.AAA. Obviously, this address doesn't go anywhere, so the send fails, and that failure prevents the following emails in the mass sendout to go anywhere either. Worked for me, it hasnt happened in the last 2 years. Worth a shot.