New twist on spam email? Help....

[joossa]

Hey everyone.

Starting since about three months ago I have been getting certain spam emails that seep through my spam filter. Most of the time my filter is really, really good at doing its job, but these certain ones always seem to get through.

They are your typical Canadian pharmacy, house mortgage, etc. etc. emails with varying email subjects. However, under "sender" they always have MY email address!!! I guess they are somehow fooling the system in believing that I am sending myself an email.

At first, I did not want to hit the "Report as Spam" button on my email toolbar because I was afraid I would block emails that I send to myself. Instead, i just hit delete. As they kept coming in periodically though, I eventually hit the "Report as Spam". Sadly it did not work. The action did NOT block the masked spam emails nor did it block my own emails. Now they still keep coming in periodically... I'd say once a week.


Do any of you know how to possibly fix the problem? I'm referring to a paid AOL unlimited size email account that I have had for about ten years now (if that is at all relevant...)


Thanks!


EDIT: Here is what my Filter currently looks like.... Should I change the filter level to "High"? Should I activate the words and phrases filter? Will any of these help knowing that my own email appears as the sender in all of these certain spam emails?

 

[swords]

I used to get those a lot too when I was getting my internet through AOL - are you? I used to have to delete 50+ spam emails a day on AOL and I had all the spam settings you could think of, highest setting, word filter (including the spelling: V1@gRa).... After I changed to my local phone company's DSL in 2006 or 2007 I get almost NO spam or phishing emails at all.

I have an icky feeling that AOL and those free email providers like Hotmail probably sell your email to spammers or something cos I don't do anything different online and I don't get swamped anymore. And there's nothing in my "spam" folder to be cleaned out either which I assume to mean it's not even heading my way anymore. (thankfully!)

Edit: I just opened your screen cap, that is AOL. My suggestion, escape now while there's still time!

 

[joossa]

I used to get those a lot too when I was getting my internet through AOL - are you? I used to have to delete 50+ spam emails a day on AOL and I had all the spam settings you could think of, highest setting, word filter (including the spelling: V1@gRa).... After I changed to my local phone company's DSL in 2006 or 2007 I get almost NO spam at all.

I have an icky feeling that AOL and those free email providers like Hotmail probably sell your email to spammers or something cos I don't do anything different online and I don't get swamped anymore. And there's nothing in my "spam" folder to be cleaned out either which i assume to mean it's not even heading my way anymore. (thankfully!)

Yes, AOL is my ISP and the email address is directly linked to the account and has been linked to it ever since it was created about ten years ago. Generally, I don't get and never have gotten a lot of spam and I am satisfied with the service. I'd say about 10-15 spam emails per week tops. However, nearly 100% of them go directly to the spam folder automatically.

I am not concerned about those... It's just these recent and tricky ones that use my own email address as the sender address that I am concerned with...

 

[cool85k5]

I use Gmail mostly and never have that problem,but my Yahoo account is a different story!

 

[scottychaos]

There is nothing you can do about it..
its just regular spam..the "sender" is spoofed..in this case, its your address..
no different than any other spam really..
all you can do is delete them..there is no way to fight it..

I wouldnt bother to hit "report as spam"..I doubt that really does anything anyway..
just delete the few that make it through the filter..
and be happy 99 out of 100 dont make it through the filter!

yahoo and gmail are AWESOME for filtering spam!
absolutely brilliant..
yahoo has basically made spam a non-issue for me!
even though I get about a billion spam messages a day in my yahoo account, I never even see them!
I LOVe the spam folder!

I seriously have no spam problems at all..its totally solved..
even though my address gets massive amounts of it..
yes, a few make still make it through..but thats no big deal..
5 spam messages a week is much better than 5,000..

Scot

 

[Neps_N_Things]

I agree with scottychaos. My free yahoo account is excellent at filtering spam. Occasionally I'll get some emails trying to solicit my help retrieving money or something but I might get five that get through over a couple of weeks and then I won't get anymore for months.

 

[Frilleon]

A long, informative answer and solution

Ok, so this is known as spoofing, as previously mentioned. I am a former IT Manager and have dealt with this a lot. No matter who your internet service provider is, yahoo, aol, yadda yadda, you can be a victim to this. This is how it happens:

First off, this starts with a SPAM message being sent to many addresses at once, then the invalid e-mails that bouce back are stricken from the list, the e-mails that accept the message and do not bounce back, well those are fair game. They are used by the SPAMMER, sold to other SPAMMERS, and so on. Anyone who thinks they can make a buck.

This is how it is possible: When someone is using an e-mail program like Outlook, Eudora or many others like them, there is the ability to customize the name and address that your e-mail comes from. It is as simple as going into the e-mail settings, adding yourname@yourisp.com and it will send the message, just like it is coming from that address, even if the e-mail is not actually being sent from that address. This instantly makes you your own SPAMMER, cute huh?

This is what you can do about it:
***AOL does not make this easy as they are in complete control of your account and your ability to get your own full non-convoluted information VERY difficult and time consuming. It is in my own opinion that you should run away from AOL as fast as you can, they are the anti-christ, again, an opinion.*** I use Earthlink and have no issues, LOVE THEM!
OK, so what you do is this: In your mail program you should have the ability to "view headers" on all of your e-mail messages, this is possible even in webmail. If you can't get your headers, call your tech support and get them to help you with this, this is what they are paid for. Next, you copy this message, including the headers and then paste it into a new message and send it to your e-mail provider's technical support department and demand that something be some about this. The headers will show the path that the message was originally sent from and the offenders CAN be tracked this way. The police do it to find criminals and it is a perfect way to end your issue. Every communication online can be tracked by the servers it goes through, NOTHING is anonymous.

This is the long of it, but I have had to deal with this myself as a former support specialist and while a hassle, it is possible.
The Internet wasn't always like this, it sucks that people have to ruin everything! Take it back, it is for our information and not manipulation!

-Jenee (Frilleon's wife)

 

[joossa]

Ok, so this is known as spoofing, as previously mentioned. I am a former IT Manager and have dealt with this a lot. No matter who your internet service provider is, yahoo, aol, yadda yadda, you can be a victim to this. This is how it happens:

First off, this starts with a SPAM message being sent to many addresses at once, then the invalid e-mails that bouce back are stricken from the list, the e-mails that accept the message and do not bounce back, well those are fair game. They are used by the SPAMMER, sold to other SPAMMERS, and so on. Anyone who thinks they can make a buck.

This is how it is possible: When someone is using an e-mail program like Outlook, Eudora or many others like them, there is the ability to customize the name and address that your e-mail comes from. It is as simple as going into the e-mail settings, adding yourname@yourisp.com and it will send the message, just like it is coming from that address, even if the e-mail is not actually being sent from that address. This instantly makes you your own SPAMMER, cute huh?

This is what you can do about it:
***AOL does not make this easy as they are in complete control of your account and your ability to get your own full non-convoluted information VERY difficult and time consuming. It is in my own opinion that you should run away from AOL as fast as you can, they are the anti-christ, again, an opinion.*** I use Earthlink and have no issues, LOVE THEM!
OK, so what you do is this: In your mail program you should have the ability to "view headers" on all of your e-mail messages, this is possible even in webmail. If you can't get your headers, call your tech support and get them to help you with this, this is what they are paid for. Next, you copy this message, including the headers and then paste it into a new message and send it to your e-mail provider's technical support department and demand that something be some about this. The headers will show the path that the message was originally sent from and the offenders CAN be tracked this way. The police do it to find criminals and it is a perfect way to end your issue. Every communication online can be tracked by the servers it goes through, NOTHING is anonymous.

This is the long of it, but I have had to deal with this myself as a former support specialist and while a hassle, it is possible.
The Internet wasn't always like this, it sucks that people have to ruin everything! Take it back, it is for our information and not manipulation!

-Jenee (Frilleon's wife)

Wow, thanks for the detailed info! I'll look into it... even though it seems way more complicated than just hitting delete every one and again.

Thanks!