# Does this mean I'm being watched?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167 "2001-10-23T21:51:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![keno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f9ae1b/32.png) [@keno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keno)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167/1 "2001-10-23T21:51:10Z")

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I recently received some SPAM mail where the return address was the ‘first initial last name and four [digits@earthink.net](mailto:digits@earthink.net)’ where the name and initials were those of someone I had lost touch with more than five years ago. I responded to the email and received a response from the system administrator that the mail was undeliverable. Then I remembered doing a search through ANYWHO looking for first initial lastname!?!?!

Are they that desperate and so fiendishly clever that they would go to all that trouble just to get me to open some SPAM, or was it merely co-incidence.

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**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167/2 "2001-10-23T22:06:16Z")

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I’d bet it is coincidence. Spammers constantly rotate their forged reply-to addresses to avoid spam filters. Many email clients allow you to automatically add spammers to a kill file, so they change their address for subsequent mailers. Generally, the reply-to address is bogus anyway, so it’s trivial to change frequently. Some spammers use numbers, but they know you’re more likely to open the mail if it looks like it came from a person.

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**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2001, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167/3 "2001-10-24T00:17:08Z")

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One way spammers get email adresses is to strip them from mailing lists. Maybe you and jsmith1234 were on the same list five years ago. And maybe the spammer is using pulling its bogus return addresses from its pool of adresses to be spammed.

Or coincidence. Was the last name fairly common?

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**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167/4 "2001-10-24T02:48:27Z")

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Keno, mess up one more time and that’s it! We see you. 🙂

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**Author:** ![keno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f9ae1b/32.png) [@keno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keno)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2001, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-mean-im-being-watched/89167/5 "2001-10-24T13:53:01Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> heresiarch  
> Maybe you and jsmith1234 were on the same list five years ago. And maybe the spammer is using pulling its bogus return addresses from its pool of adresses to be spammed.
> 
> Or coincidence. Was the last name fairly common?

Is _Balla_ a common name? I don’t think we were on common email lists since the one I’m on now is a new job related address unknown to Balla 5-years ago.

**P.S. to Starfish**

This is not really Keno, we just usurped his ID for purpsoes of this post, so leave him alone.