Author Topic: Spam on my email address soley used here.  (Read 32347 times)

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Stalka

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #30 on: March 31, 2012, 01:38:43 PM »
That is exactly what the bot programmers know and do. They find a domain and then try from a list of male then female names, then application lists, online seller lists etc.   So they look at avast@ domain.com then Avira/Eset/Commodo etc.etc.

Are you trolling? Do you honestly believe an email harvester will RANDOMLY arrive at an email address such as 20060809_forums.avast.com_stalks@domain.com

E-mail harvesting via repeated failed attempts to a domain doesn't happen that often. I manage an ISP with over 3000 domains served by a Postfix installation. We use fail2ban to scan logs for repeated failed delivery attempts. I get an e-mail whenever an IP is banned. For that particular rule I get an e-mail once a week or less.

Please give it up, you are just creating unnecessary noise.

Straydog

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #31 on: March 31, 2012, 05:19:15 PM »
To start, you can take the previous complaints as my own because I couldn't agree better.

I post here the e-mail I sent to Avast's PR, frink@avast.com, only obfuscating my e-mail address.


It is unbelievable. Avast forum does not allow communication with its administrator. Well, this clearly shows how the administrator is hiding from being accused of what is considered criminal actions or procedures.

I registered on that forum about two years ago (can't remember exactly when). As you probably know, Yahoo mail offers the possibility of having disposable mail addresses, so that we can use individual different addresses for different contacts. That is what I do when I register anywhere. When I registered at the Avast forum I used (name)-at@yahoo.co.uk. I haven't given that address to anyone else. Therefore, no one else in the world could write to me using that address apart from Avast forums or someone to whom that address would be given by Avast or stolen from Avast.

Now, I am starting receiving spam on that address, like the two attachments. Now that is started, it is no going to finish. Clearly, Avast sold or otherwise gave away my e-mail address or allowed it to be stolen, and it is not even possible to tell the forum administrator because forum registered users are not allowed to send messages to him.

I want to know what you are going to do about this proven dishonesty. Just thinking of it: you make programs to fight spam and you are feeding spammers yourselves!



I don't attach here the e-mails sent to frink@avast.com because they would reveal my address.

From what we can read on the following thread, this occurrence is not a new one of its kind. Maybe there are many more, but I didn't search for.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=49786.0

spg SCOTT

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #32 on: March 31, 2012, 05:34:29 PM »
Hi straydog,

I will not comment on the reasons as to why/how this is happening, since I (a) have yet to receive such spam, (b) don't know the full story of what is going on. All I can say is that I have been watching for the spam myself, and also reading the threads on the subject.


To start, you can take the previous complaints as my own because I couldn't agree better.

I post here the e-mail I sent to Avast's PR, frink@avast.com, only obfuscating my e-mail address.


It is unbelievable. Avast forum does not allow communication with its administrator. Well, this clearly shows how the administrator is hiding from being accused of what is considered criminal actions or procedures.

<snip>

I will however comment on this.

You can contact the (one of the ) forum admin, in fact he has asked for it (albeit in another thread):
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=96437.msg769084#msg769084

You may want to forward the email to him as well, just for completeness.

It is also possible to search for them here too. (use by position). It is also possible for personal messages to be sent to him, however you possibly may not be able to due to restrictions on newer members, including profile limitations such as personal messaging. (to avoid PM spamming - Yes, I see the irony of the situation)

He has asked for information, and so is aware of the situation and is investigating.

Just trying to clear up what I can, and I hope that this will be resolved soon :)

Scott

exocet

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #33 on: March 31, 2012, 08:47:02 PM »
Oh dear is this still winding people up? It is SPAM FLOODING and the addresses are just bot generated.

These messages are being received all over the net and are not restricted to users here.  I have seen this and other spam flooding to plenty of addresses. I know of a company system that is purley for internal use but the domains there are receiving this garbage to the catchall address.

...

That may well be, but, once again, we're not talking about random, Dictionary-attack style email addresses. We're talking about specific email addresses created for use for specific services we provide them to.  For example, if I give my email address to avast, I give them THIS_EMAIL_COMES_FROM_AVAST@mydomain.com.  If I give it to Best Buy, I give them BEST_BUY_SENT_ME@mydomain.com (or something along those lines).


- Tim

That is exactly what the bot programmers know and do. They find a domain and then try from a list of male then female names, then application lists, online seller lists etc.   So they look at avast@ domain.com then Avira/Eset/Commodo etc.etc.

I used to have a server where I had a different email address for every account I set up on the net and yes I got spam to specific addresses and have seen spam to my addresses where the company I had purchased from no longer existed .

If that being the case then I should be getting Spam from many addresses, I DON’'T, only one, the one used for AVAST, this is the first Spam I have had in 11 years.

Those who know me, know to use BCC if the you want to multi email, when anyone does not comply I remove the mail address and never give them a new address. One person who never did learn did this to me three times after being told, I won't divulge what I did, but they do now regret that.

At the end of the day it is not Spam generally all over the net, its Spam arising from this forums database. This issue is exacerbated by the apparent lack of care or concern by Avast, as previously stated the clock is ticking.



tbessie

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #34 on: March 31, 2012, 09:06:31 PM »
That is exactly what the bot programmers know and do. They find a domain and then try from a list of male then female names, then application lists, online seller lists etc.   So they look at avast@ domain.com then Avira/Eset/Commodo etc.etc.

I used to have a server where I had a different email address for every account I set up on the net and yes I got spam to specific addresses and have seen spam to my addresses where the company I had purchased from no longer existed .

I'm still quite doubtful - I've been tagging my email addresses for years (more than 10), and on the occasional case when I get spam directed to the address, very rarely a dictionary/random address, but much more frequently the specific one I used.

Call it a hunch, or a guess based only on long years of experience (since I don't know exactly how the spammers got/generated the address), but I have a very strong feeling, informed by all these years and stats, that when I get emails to these specific addresses, it comes from someone having the specific email, and not from smart bots that are using their AI go guess.  They might be using their AI to scrape addresses from sites, but I don't think guessing is happening here.

Just my thoughts. :-)

- Tim

Offline essexboy

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #35 on: March 31, 2012, 09:09:31 PM »
Have you received any more or was it just a one off ?

Offline bob3160

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #36 on: March 31, 2012, 09:09:55 PM »
I haven't had any spam from this or any other forum and am active in a few.  :)
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Gargamel360

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #37 on: March 31, 2012, 09:30:06 PM »
I just checked my box....have not received any more yet.

tbessie

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #38 on: March 31, 2012, 09:44:45 PM »
Have you received any more or was it just a one off ?

Just one this time 'round, though I have received many on a previously registered Avast forum address.  They had come in bursts before, and seem to have died down.

- Tim

VicVegas

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #39 on: March 31, 2012, 10:03:55 PM »
Really? This is such a big deal? >:(

Compared to my reasoning for leaving Kaspersky this is just silly. Though seeing as even the free version of Avast! is vastly superior to KAV, I may just be especially forgiving.

Also I specifically registered last night and have not received anything from "Lonely Girl" just thought I'd mention that. Heck I've got this e-mail registered to a bunch of different sites and I've never gotten any spam, so maybe I'm just lucky. Or perhaps it's because my e-mail is neither a real word nor a jumble of numbers, I don't know.

Have you tested other AV forums for this as well?

YoKenny

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #40 on: March 31, 2012, 11:55:21 PM »
I haven't had any spam from this or any other forum and am active in a few.  :)
No spam for me also!

FlyingRobot

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #41 on: March 31, 2012, 11:58:44 PM »
One important question is whether 1) this is only affecting email addresses in the forum database,  or 2) whether it is [also] affecting email addresses shared with avast via other mechanisms.  My impression after going through this thread is that there is no useful evidence of #2.  If anyone has useful evidence of #2, please report it here in very clear terms.

FWIW, I do have some reason to doubt #2 and it is this:  I use recipient-unique, time-limited throw-away email addresses for software registrations and forum registrations.  My older avast-specific email address which was hit, which I think I might have once used in the forum, was for some reason tagged incorrectly and thus it was not automatically deactivated.  What I realize today is that in the past I used several other email addresses *just when registering avast software*.  Those were properly deactivated, but I found them today and thus could double check my logs to see if they were a RCPT TO within the past year or so.  None of them were.  This "two of two avast forum email addresses were targeted,  zero of two avast registration only email addresses were targeted" is non-conclusive but I consider it a good sign.


tbessie

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #42 on: April 01, 2012, 12:20:49 AM »
One important question is whether 1) this is only affecting email addresses in the forum database,  or 2) whether it is [also] affecting email addresses shared with avast via other mechanisms.  My impression after going through this thread is that there is no useful evidence of #2.  If anyone has useful evidence of #2, please report it here in very clear terms.

FWIW, I do have some reason to doubt #2 and it is this:  I use recipient-unique, time-limited throw-away email addresses for software registrations and forum registrations.  My older avast-specific email address which was hit, which I think I might have once used in the forum, was for some reason tagged incorrectly and thus it was not automatically deactivated.  What I realize today is that in the past I used several other email addresses *just when registering avast software*.  Those were properly deactivated, but I found them today and thus could double check my logs to see if they were a RCPT TO within the past year or so.  None of them were.  This "two of two avast forum email addresses were targeted,  zero of two avast registration only email addresses were targeted" is non-conclusive but I consider it a good sign.

As for myself, I first registered for Avast with a throw-away Yahoo email address, and can't recall which one Avast has for me now (since I've re-registered); also at first, I used the same address for both Avast and Avast Forum registrations, so I couldn't be sure which one came from which.

Now that I have reregistered, and have separate emails for Avast and Avast Forum, I'm sure I'm getting the spam on the Avast Forum address, but unsure about the Avast account address.  I will have to check what its set to be now.

- Tim

Offline bob3160

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #43 on: April 01, 2012, 12:35:19 AM »
One important question is whether 1) this is only affecting email addresses in the forum database,  or 2) whether it is [also] affecting email addresses shared with avast via other mechanisms.  My impression after going through this thread is that there is no useful evidence of #2.  If anyone has useful evidence of #2, please report it here in very clear terms.

FWIW, I do have some reason to doubt #2 and it is this:  I use recipient-unique, time-limited throw-away email addresses for software registrations and forum registrations.  My older avast-specific email address which was hit, which I think I might have once used in the forum, was for some reason tagged incorrectly and thus it was not automatically deactivated.  What I realize today is that in the past I used several other email addresses *just when registering avast software*.  Those were properly deactivated, but I found them today and thus could double check my logs to see if they were a RCPT TO within the past year or so.  None of them were.  This "two of two avast forum email addresses were targeted,  zero of two avast registration only email addresses were targeted" is non-conclusive but I consider it a good sign.

As for myself, I first registered for Avast with a throw-away Yahoo email address, and can't recall which one Avast has for me now (since I've re-registered); also at first, I used the same address for both Avast and Avast Forum registrations, so I couldn't be sure which one came from which.

Now that I have reregistered, and have separate emails for Avast and Avast Forum, I'm sure I'm getting the spam on the Avast Forum address, but unsure about the Avast account address.  I will have to check what its set to be now.

- Tim

It's a little odd that you who haven't done a lot of posting on this forum should be singled out for spam and someone like
myself who has an abundant amount of posts and some one who makes no attempt  at hiding anything haven't received any Spam from here or any of the other forums I occasionally visit. ???
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FlyingRobot

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Re: Spam on my email address soley used here.
« Reply #44 on: April 01, 2012, 01:02:48 AM »
It's a little odd that you who haven't done a lot of posting on this forum should be singled out for spam and someone like
myself who has an abundant amount of posts and some one who makes no attempt  at hiding anything haven't received any Spam from here or any of the other forums I occasionally visit. ???

Yes it is, but what possible explanations are there? 

1) The spammer only harvested some email addresses and/or hasn't gotten around to emailing all of the ones they have. 
2) An attempt was made to hit your email address but a rule caught it and put it into a spam folder which you don't check.  Have you carefully checked such folders?
3) An attempt was made to hit your email address but a rule caught it and simply blocked or subsequently deleted it without your knowledge.  Do you run your own email server?  Do you know exactly how spam is filtered via static and dynamic rules?  Can you check the logs to see if an attempt was made?  Most don't have full visibility into such things and thus while they might know whether a spam was received they can't rule out that an attempt was made.

Note: I'm leaving some others out which I personally consider to be eliminated already, such as the idea that each user's email address was captured through an exploit targeting their browser/system. 
« Last Edit: April 01, 2012, 01:10:02 AM by FlyingRobot »