Forum Discussion

Bearlady5's avatar
Bearlady5
New Contributor
7 years ago

Targeted by spammer -- HOW DO I STOP THIS?

I am being targeted by a spammer who is sending junk emails as if the emails are coming from a genealogical society -- However, the name of the genealogical society is always misspelled and the misspelling changes with each new spam mail. Also, the sender's email address changes! (It looks like gobbledygook!) How do I stop this spammer?  Anyone have ideas??

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III

    They intentionally misspell the name to bypass any previously established filter.  If I complain about Gobbledy Company, Cox will set a rule to filter "Gobbledy."  To bypass the filter, they'll then send another from GobbleDeDoo Company...and round and round we go.

    It's the same with those auto-gibberating email addresses.  Cox blocks one; they'll use another.  Microsoft Live had a problem with those back in the day.  I don't know what the big services use nowadays to filter those.

    • Bearlady5's avatar
      Bearlady5
      New Contributor

      This is exactly what my electronics tech hubby and I were discussing a few weeks ago!  Like you say, they do this to continue to get past the anti-spam filter.  Hubby told me that the best I could do was delete them as they come in.  I was hoping someone had a more lasting solution.  <grin>  This is annoying!  Thanks for the reply.

      • Bruce's avatar
        Bruce
        Honored Contributor III

        WiderMouthOpen (not your Hubby but a forum member) previously wrote some Cox accounts were compromised a few months/years ago.  You may have been one.  I suppose the effect is just phishing attempts.

        I haven't received any spam (beam) but I've also never used webmail.  I use Outlook.  So it's hard to tell why some subscribers are harassed and some not.  Maybe users were compromised during the new webmail transition or perhaps my credentials weren't in the batch of stolen accounts.

        I've also never received spam in my 10-year-old Gmail account.  Never.  Maybe Cox should call Goog for help.