# Sudden uptick in one particular kind of spam, arriving at more than one of my mail accounts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 14, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950 "2013-03-14T20:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950/1 "2013-03-14T20:27:44Z")

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I’ve recently experienced a very sudden increase in a specific kind of spam, arriving in my personal mailbox, my Hotmail account, my Yahoo account and one or two others.

[ul]  
[li]The emails comprise just a link, a few blank lines and the name of the purported sender (haven’t followed any links, but they’re not the same each time and they look quite conspicuously spammy).[/li][li]The apparent sender (I realise this can be easily spoofed) has varied, but more often than not, it purports to be the name of someone I do actually know. In some recent cases, the purported sender is my own address.[/li][li]Not all of the purported senders know each other though (so it’s unlikely they were all copied in on some message that got harvested for addresses or something)[/li][/ul]

Is this just something that’s widespread and new at the moment (like the fake casino spam that was doing the rounds a month or two ago)? Or is it evidence of one or more of my contacts having been hacked?

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950/2 "2013-03-14T20:41:53Z")

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Also (and maybe ominous): a vast number of delivery failure reports in my Yahoo Inbox, talking about messages I never sent, but clearly related to these spam links.

I guess I’d be seeing these as responses to messages where the from address had been spoofed as me.

I’ve changed my Yahoo password as a precaution, but it’s been a really long time since I even used that account - and I’ve not divulged my credentials by falling for any spoof/phishing emails.

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950/3 "2013-03-14T23:03:21Z")

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Yahoo has had a number of [security related issues recently](http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/01/how-yahoo-allowed-hackers-to-hijack-my-neighbors-e-mail-account/) - resulting in contacts lists being compromised and vast amounts of spam generated. It is also not just yahoo email addresses - many isps use Yahoo as an email provider, and so their customers have been hacked.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950/4 "2013-03-14T23:32:28Z")

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Yeah, you naughty person, you. I’ve received two spam messages from YOU in the last two days! :eek:

Well, they were from “Mange Tout.” Just hyperlinks to an advertising site.

Didn’t know what it’s about, but your post makes it more understandable.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2013, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sudden-uptick-in-one-particular-kind-of-spam-arriving-at-more-than-one-of-my-mail-accounts/652950/5 "2013-03-15T08:04:39Z")

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> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> Yahoo has had a number of [security related issues recently](http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/01/how-yahoo-allowed-hackers-to-hijack-my-neighbors-e-mail-account/) - resulting in contacts lists being compromised and vast amounts of spam generated. It is also not just yahoo email addresses - many isps use Yahoo as an email provider, and so their customers have been hacked.

I think it must be this - my Yahoo account is the one on my SDMB profile, so that would also account for the spam **samclem** received purporting to be from me.