Virgin Media Community

[ALF28]

recently getting spam emails from admin@dynamis .com.

the emails have no content, just a series of multiple right hand slashes and dotted lines and a long string of numbers,the latest one is for an asda voucher, with the same body content, prompting to click on a download in each email.

looking at the headers it appears to be spam , the ip address is amazonaws which often is the source of the spam. The spammers are switching sender address regularly so that filters are not blocking their emails, and change on a daily basis.

I ignore these rubbish emails, and do not invest in bitcoin ever, especially with unknown spam emails from unknown persons . Best always to deal with well known traders with a good reputation.

I have put this notice to inform the community and see if others are getting this one as well as me??? or am I a hacker target.

usually they start with a single email and then increase in frequency with the same email repeated but with some word changes.

the spam appears to be unstoppable but is not identified as spam by virgin so the spam looks like a genuine email so very clever spammer at work, and worrying that the spam is getting through virgin servers.

[ALF28]

Have done some research and think the repeated use of symbols in spam emails  may be deliberate to act  as a hash blaster to confuse the spam filters.

spam filters look for typical spam Content found in known spam emails, so by putting oddball strings ofsymbols this confuses the spam filters.

This may be why the spam is not picked up, the spammers know many tricks to avoid spam filtering so beware emails with strange  character strings.

Examples I have seen.

////////////////

......................

@@@@@@@@@@ usually in bitcoin spam emails.

I also get squares mixed up with text, not sure what that is, could be Russian or Chinese symbols.

Does anyone else get these, post your reply please.

[ALF28]

Correction the correct term is  hashbusting not hashblasting

[ALF28]

I have extra information regarding "hash busting computer program"  (google non-sense word and gibberish in emails), used to  send emails to my ntlworld email address.

finally the confusion is explained, the spammer uses software to evade the spam filters.hash busting is used by spammers to bypass spam filters (random noise),random insertion of  characters or words to defeat signature based filter,the addition of nonsensical words to confuse spam filters.the spammer may add invisible html tags between words or intentionally misspell words so the suspect words will not trigger filters.the email may appear gibberish to the viewer but is designed to get past the machine filters which think it is legit.A hash buster is a program that generates a string of text to insert into a spam message so each email is different to get past filters looking like a different message.The text can be inserted in the "from",  "to" or "body" and can be either coherent text or gibberish.

I have had this type of spam since 2016, and it is generated by a program the spammer is using which explains why they can be duplicated with small changes and also random and sent 24/7

perhaps virgin may be aware but find it difficult to stop or to track the senders who probably cover their traces well??

hope this helps explain the strange spam with old email accounts that are on hackers lists

[ALF28]

further comments on spam- ALL unsolicited email is spam.

there are about 200 groups doing spam in usa/europe

they constantly switch isp to avoid being blocked or use own server perhaps

they claim to give you rewards etc but the true aim is to collect data, make money and possibly infect your computer

email can be a source of infection malware, better to read email in text only format, virgin settings allow that, some email client also.

also good to switch images off to prevent tracking pixels in images, unless it is a genuine company you trust.

spammers use distribution lists so if your email is on a list you will get spam. view all emails with some caution and do not click on links, even the unsubscribe link can be dangerous, can download cookies or malware. use a  good  antivirus software and adwcleaner which is free to keep your pc clean. I find at least one infection every week or so. If your  email  address  is getting spam the best thing to do is change email address or have several email addresses and use one for general use and others for secure purposes. there is no way to stop spam although some email software can identify spam or use the spam settings on the webmail as I do.

the battle to stop spam can not be won but you can at least minimise your exposure to this dangerous unknown spam email.It is sad the abuse of the internet spoils this method of important communication.

there are some good articles on spam on bbc website, daily mirror and gammadyne but can not display links in these posts.

I will close off this subect now and hope my comments help others.

[ALF28]

correction sorry, the web site sending spam is dynamis.co.uk,  a uk company but it could be spoofed, also there are similar websites dynamis.com and dynamis.edu

it is common that the spam appears to come from a legitimate web site so the email looks genuine to the spam filters, but can be spoofed, in the past I have reported the spoofing to the actual company often banks, paypal, and many other companies, just like fake news it is best to be aware the web site may be fake and used to  deliver malware (or get your bank details and passwwords) as in recent hackings in political elections. I use grc fingerprint checks to check websites have genuine certificates thumbprint before using them.(right click on padlock symbol in browser and should be https:// (s = secure)

also the web link may look genuine but if you check with the real company there may be a small difference in the web address that takes you to a fake website that looks real. I also have several computers and use one for secure transactions and others for browsing which can be risky these days.

[ALF28]

unsolicited email continues from direct mailers like minutemail for example using spoofed sender address disguised to look legitimate with known sender companies.

the frequency and repetition indicates that this may be done by bots as I can watch them come in every few minutes sometimes with identical emails following each other perhaps I am on multiple mailing lists.

The sender changes address and almost daily will have several new sender address sources.

many appear to come via icloud or amazonaws.

flters and balcklists need continual updating to keep pace, the bots can bypass any filtering by automated software known as hash busting.

I get a mixture  of fixed address's which can be blacklisted and also address's which change a number in address each time but the fixed part can be used to filter.

the battle to stop spam is impossible to win, it is like a flooded river and difficult to ever stop.

"so it is best to  accept it can not be stopped at all" using conventional filters etc and virgin servers obviously are allowing the spam through.

The use of  a bayensian  filter can reduce spam and needs software, some email clients use it. and spam filters are available commercially, but ones that just use whitelist/blacklist still require a lot of manual input. I have tried free ones but unless the paid version is used they do not work very well or only for a trial period. (Bayesian filtering is a method of spam filtering which has a learning ability using algorithms)

Perhaps it is time virginmedia  looked at the  spam issue looking at the hundreds of posts on the subject?, they are excellent for tv/phone/broadband but the email has issues. My email is an old ntlworld.com which is on lots of spam mailing lists. With modern technology there should be a solution. While typing this post about 5 spams have arrived mostly repeating ones, about one every minute caught by the blacklist.

[ALF28]

CLOSED