OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

...Is it possible to spoof the 'To:' line of a spam? Because I just realized that a spam I recieved doesn't appear to have been sent to me e-mail address.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

I believe it possible to hide the CC: line of an email so that everyone you send it to doesn't learn other peoples addresses. I reckon it's standard for newsletters. By hiding the CC: line the spammers can possibly make you think they really are sending something personal to you without you seeing they sent it to a million other people.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

If your address is in the BCC: field, does it appear anywhere in the e-mail?

I have a friend who routinely forwards things to a list of people which just displays "Undisclosed Recipients" in the To: field.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Thanks, that explains it.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

I just recieved a peculiar spam...
No attachments, no links, just random text.

I dunno, maybe they expect me to reply?

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

do you have an email program/site that deletes suspicious attachments?

A few months ago I got spam that went like this.

"Dear sir,

I am sure you would like to talk with someone you can trust. To make it easier why don't you turn off your virus detector so we can converse more easily"

um yeah right http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Not to sound rascist or anything but if they want to fool you they really shouldn't give their name as something like the honourable Richard Nbanga. If it sounds African then I don't want anything to do with it.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Not unless Thunderbird or my internet service does.

That might present a difficulty if you know someone from Africa.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Yes, easily. There's a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) line (usually hidden until you change your e-mail client's options) that sends the e-mail to people without mentioning where it's going.
They're fishing for valid e-mail addresses to send actual spam. The random text is to get around certain types of spam filters. What they're doing is sending out e-mails to check for bounces. If it doesn't bounce with "User Unknown" or similar, it's a valid e-mail address.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Thanks, that makes sense and is what I was sorta thinking.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Don't EVER send an "opt-out" reply unless it's to a known emailer. That's another ploy they use to verify your a legit email address.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

I know that.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Yes, the phenomena you described has been happening on the Usenet for some time now, it's called sporge {wiki link} but this is the first I've heard of it occuring in email.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

My ISP uses Barracuda, and that catches a lot of spam. Even so, some of it gets through, and I can notice an increase in the amount that gets through just over the year or so they've been using it. I didn't realize that the utter garbage messages were actually fishing expeditions, but now that you say it, it makes perfect sense.

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Re: OT: Spam is puzzling me again...
 

In response to the thread title...

...Spam should always puzzle you, you just have to make sure not to eat the abominable stuff.