Dodgy emails

[monel]

I hate using email anyway, but I keep getting spam and phishing emails from obfuscated addresses, seems to be from someone in Japan? They sometimes use people on my contacts list or large firms like Amazon. I also got some of those weird threatening mails last year, what's odd is they tried to list my passwords but they weren't quite right, how would they be close but not right? This is all a pain, I don't really care but they just keep coming.

[charlesr]

What email service are you using? I rarely get any because my provider blocks know spam servers

[monel]

I use the big free webmail providers. I've been meaning to get a paid account but never figured out who with.

[charlesr]

I use zoho now. The new server doesn't cater for email too, so I moved the bordersdown emails to zoho, like it and then moved all my other emails to zoho too. It's a bit fiddly, but I have one account and multiple folders that get populated with emails from various accounts via auto-rules, same with sent items. Saves loads of money.

[MartyG]

I also got some of those weird threatening mails last year, what's odd is they tried to list my passwords but they weren't quite right, how would they be close but not right? This is all a pain, I don't really care but they just keep coming.

Your email address will be on one of the many hacked userlists where companies were using no or weak hashing on their database passwords and your post suggests you're using the same or similar passwords everywhere. Stop doing this and get a password manager and use unique strong passwords on every site, even on forums.

Very little you can do about getting emails, but gmail usually does a good job of hiding spam, mark them as spam in your email client and similar emails should go into spam. You can check your email address to see which lists your address is on: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

[Brad]

Yeah I get loads of those emails. All of them have my standard throwaway password for sites that aren’t important. All of them bar one threatened to send a video of me to my friends and family unless I sent some bitcoin. One of them though reckoned he was a hitman tasked with killing me, hired by a rival business lol.

[charlesr]

The plot thickens

[monel]

What I'm curious about, is how are they spoofing people on my contacts list?

[charlesr]

They have hacked a friend's account probably, so similar contacts.

[kryss]

Very little you can do about getting emails, but gmail usually does a good job of hiding spam, mark them as spam in your email client and similar emails should go into spam. You can check your email address to see which lists your address is on: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Interestingly that site doesn't mention the VGP breach a few years back which I was definitely on.

[MartyG]

Interestingly that site doesn't mention the VGP breach a few years back which I was definitely on.

I don't think Have I Been Pwned was around then so is unlikely to have the dataset.

[monel]

When they're spoofing my contacts they get the name right sometimes but the address wrong. I don't reuse passwords usually, with password managers I don't know how convenient they are, like logging in without them.

[wakka]

They are way more convenient IMO but then I have a lot of different stuff I need to log into on a daily basis. I'd never been without one now.

[kryss]

Even worse, some dullard in the UK with the same name as me thinks he has me email address.
I've had everything from his kid's swimming team coach emailing me, to him signing up for a courier company account.
I take little pleasure in reporting all his crap as spam.

[vanpeebles]

Only one kryss-boh!