Who is Really Spamming You?

Before you report an email address for spam abuse, be sure you know if the email is spam and who really sent it. Be sure that the email is not an opt-in newsletter or simply a surprise email from a virused computer that automatically sends to everyone in its address book. See Too Much Junk Mail? Tips to Reduce Spam or Junk Mail in Your Email to detect and reduce spam. If anyone knows your email address, you can be the unknowing sender of spam abuse. How are they doing it and what can you do about it?

Of course, your kids abuse your email address simply by giving it to anyone online or offline. Sometimes you may get an email that says that it is not only TO your email address, but also FROM your email address. Spammers use automated sofware to collect email addresses and also to send email. Once they get your email address, they use it until it is reported and blocked. So, before you report an email address, find out who sent it.

I have just become a victim of this spam tactic. My website form was completed by automated software and sent to my email address. It had fictitious results, so I deleted it. Soon after, I began to receive "postmaster delivery failed" messages for messages I did not send. The email contents were spam and who knows how many emails were successful. I immediately contacted my web host, Hotmail and AOL. The true spammer has a Hotmail address, uses Outlook Express, and attempted to send email to Hotmail and AOL accounts (according to the failed messages). I sent an email to the original sender successfully, and I am waiting for a reply. Check back for updates.

To know the true sender of the email, visit "Who sent you that e-mail and where are they located?" from Visualware.
See a portion of one of the email:
The email is Received: from my server by Hotmail using Microsoft at a specific time.
The time is -800 which is different from my time of -500 for my location, but correct for California which is the time for my web hosting company.
The email is From: emailjcos@powerpageswebdesign.com which is not my email address, but anything before the @ will appear by default in my main email box.
The email is To: several hotmail addresses starting with the letter "a" which suggests a mailing list or database.
The Subject: Are You Rich Yet? definitely proves that the email is spam and not from me!
The Date and time shows -1000 which is where? Not here. The X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 also shows the email is not from me, because I don't use Outlook Express.

Received: from powerpageswebdesign.com ([218.7.16.120]) by
mc5-f32.law1.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5600);
	 Wed, 5 Mar 2003 02:04:39 -0800
Message-ID: <83e91175329e$ede16b19$db269b1f@mqalw.fq>
From: emailjcos@powerpageswebdesign.com
To: alarrosa@hotmail.com,
	alarrondo@hotmail.com,
	akadirk@hotmail.com,
	albietracy@hotmail.com
Subject: ____ Are You Rich Yet? ____					   
			       4974rJSj7-491ANIb3866R-21
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 19:40:57 -1000
MIME-Version: 1.0
content-Type: multipart/alternative;
	boundary="----=_NextPart_FCE_3AE9_99C5CFCD.BFDF3C9F"
X-Priority: 1
X-MSMail-Priority: High
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200
Return-Path: emailjcos@powerpageswebdesign.com
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Mar 2003 10:04:42.0428 (UTC)
FILETIME=[A434A7C0:01C2E2FE]

------=_NextPart_FCE_3AE9_99C5CFCD.BFDF3C9F
content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit


------=_NextPart_FCE_3AE9_99C5CFCD.BFDF3C9F
content-Type: text/html;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

So, please be careful before reporting someone. In my case, you can easily find my website and contact information to notify me of any unsolicited emails. A spammer would not offer any contact information. Recipients of such email should report the email to the sender's email server, if they cannot contact the sender. Anyone who has been affected by the person abusing my email address should contact me immediately. If any legal action is taken against this spammer, you may be entitled to compensation. If you are the offender, you better apologize and discontinue spamming.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, March 6, 2003 - The bounced spam continued for a week and suddenly stopped! I didn't hear from anyone, and I don't know if the spammer is still using my identity, so the articles stays intact.

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