# How is this spammer doing it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-spammer-doing-it/705902>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-spammer-doing-it/705902 "2014-11-29T19:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-spammer-doing-it/705902/1 "2014-11-29T19:15:36Z")

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So, it appears to be from my mom’s [yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com) email address, but it’s actually spoofed from a .cl domain. The addressees are a bunch of people I know via my mom–but then one of my old girlfriend’s addresses is in there too–a person whom I think she has never communicated with via email!?

So does this spammer piece of shit someone have ahold of both my mom’s info and mine somehow?

(The only thing I can think of that this ex may have been in my mom’s email inbox through a fwd or something at one point. I don’t see any other addresses from my address book except for one person that we both definitely know.)

Sigh. Thanks for your help.

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**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-spammer-doing-it/705902/2 "2014-11-29T19:34:01Z")

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Well my mom said she’d seen her in her contact list before, so I think that explains that part. Maybe just standard spoofing beyond that. Argh.

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**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-this-spammer-doing-it/705902/3 "2014-11-30T14:52:21Z")

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Still, if the addressees are people in your mom’s circle of contacts, then it’s not just spoofing: her contact list has been stolen. If she hasn’t already, she should change her Yahoo password now before the bad guys do.