New Spam

[TryingToBeHappy]

So, a while ago it seemed that we were all suffering an avalanche of SPAM.. 

In the last couple of weeks I have seen a persistent stream of quite obvious spam from a domain including "itunesees.com"  

Its pretty easy to filter - but after a couple of weeks again left wondering why VM internal systems are not stopping this nonsense at source.. In the off chance that they have not noticed this is all junk from "itunesees" and needs to be stopped. 

As I say, filtering stopping it for now... but, VM, I do hope this is not the start of another inundation! 

Thanks 

[Matthew_ML · Accepted solution]

Hey TryingToBeHappy, thank you for reaching and I sorry to see you are getting some spam emails

Our security team do hard to skim through these sort of emails however sometimes they do manage to get through.

This is a good thing you are doing by setting up a rule this will help going forward.

I will also pass the feedback on regarding this. Thanks 

[TryingToBeHappy]

Thanks.. 

[ALF28]

I was also getting the new spam which has a sender address which changes each time with format info@xxxxxx.eu.and seem to be from Spanish servers in Europe.

My spam filter does not work at the moment and these are not tagged as spam.

I have managed to block them using the email setting filters  - condition "body" and listing the company name(s) which appears in the email text message 

They cover a wide range of spam including loans etc.

alf28

[ALF28]

Spam from unknown sender-

The VM spam filters are working again now which tags most spam emails.

I discard a lot of the regular spam now using filters in email settings.

One thing I have noticed is that gmail.com and outlook.com emails do not disclose the individual sender IP address, just the domain  server IP address so the true sender Identity/location remains anonymous and they often send via a VPN so the IP address is that of a VPN server and can change with each spam email.

I do get sent spam from an email sender gmail.com address with my own name, for many years usually sent via a desktop client and often using VPN so any IP address is just a server and not be traced to its true origin sender. Similarly, outlook is used for scams and the sender IP address details are hidden.

The neat solution with such emails is to set a filter to discard (delete out) specific emails, this can be done easily with filters using the full sender email from address and selecting action discard.

I also filter some other nuisance spam emails to the spam folder, using conditions -domains, extensions or even subject.

eg- emails from Europe ending    .eu or a domain such as gmail.com.

alf28

[ALF28]

SPAM EMAILS WITH SHORTFORM LINKS. (typically, will begin with "bit")

Some spam emails use shortform links in the email text body rather than putting the full website address.

This could direct to a phishing websites or malware downloads and trojans, and odd they hide the true name of the website.

However, the shortform link is also used legitimately but you do not know what will come up if the link is clicked 

I get regularly a hyperlink in some scam emails which consists of a link- "bit" followed by .ly, followed by a string of letters and numbers.

The service is run via a company in Libya hence the .ly.

These scams emails are from unknown senders who will often include a "known contact" to trick you into clicking on the link thinking it is genuine or even sending from your own name.

These are rare as most spam emails display the full website links, but I also notice they repeat many times over a long period.

My latest one is a lotto scam from a gmail.com sender with a shortform link for a video, and I have had a few other gambling emails.

The wise thing is to not give out any data or click on any links in the email body/text or images.

The emails will also have unusual unsubscribe links which could also connect to dangerous sites, so best to ignore them.

They are usually tagged as spam by virgin email, but some do get through.

I presently receive approx  bettween 3 to 7 spam emails per day to my ntlworld.com email, which is attached to my  VM account and the email can not be selected to delete , other wise I would dispose of the email. (only secondary emaIs can be deleted)

Some emails also contain embedded images/content which are usually from unknown spam senders or companies amd may be dangerous to click on.

I have set up filters for the spam, but the filters do not always work as expected and can give unexpected results, but I contiue to train my filters.

alf28

[ALF28]

URL SHORTENERS

I often get these and typically they are links to unknown websites and can appear in emails or texts.

I often get links like bit, owl , goo etc, but there are many-

see

URL Shortener - the express to Infected & Phishing Websites (avira.com)

How Spammers Conduct Mass URL Spam Attacks - DataVisor

230 URL Shorteners Services- [Download Free List] (techmaish.com)

How hackers use spam to maximize the impact of a cyber attack? (seqrite.com)

If the spam filter is set to tag spam these are usually picked up and are tagged as spam.

The important thing is not to click on any links or attachments (downloads) in spam emails, in some cases the url shortener may be genuine as used by some mobile phone text messages but usually has the company name in the shortened version, not just random letters and numbers in the url link.

alf28