Spam, Spam and More Spam

No not the luncheon meat, but hackers. People wanting to get a hold of your data to cause you harm.

Occasionally, I looked through my junk mail and report the spammer. Today, there was one spammer that announced from the very first word they were a spammer. Here is the heading of the email.

Do you see the problem with it? Okay, I did highlight it. Amazon never ever refers to anyone as “Dear”. They are always blunt and to the point. Also, that red exclamation mark is another indicator. I did open the email (shame on me) to see how many times the spammer announced they were a spammer.

  1. My name is not SARAHCATH.
  2. What is “Command n & deg”? – probably something they forgot to program.
  3. Appears they can not type in Mixed Case.
  4. Oh, what is up with that date “Today , 2023.04.02 -“
  5. “Your commands” – missed something else in the program.

This was my giggle for the day. Giggle, giggle, giggle.

Seriously, the majority of my junk mail is from spammers. A small percent is actually from businesses I have contacted in the past. Below are just a few of the emails I have received from spammers.

How do I know they are spam without even opening the emails?

  1. Most of the companies listed I have never done business with.
  2. Again, my name is not SarahCath
  3. If is highlighted it is spam.
  4. If it has a cute little character or text, treat it like spam.
  5. Ad Partner – spam – someone pretending to be someone else.

You may wonder why I consider the apparent email from Paypal and Microsoft Account Team to be spam. Simple explanation; Paypal is not affiliated with this account. Now, the Microsoft look legit, however…

I have two-factor identification setup on my Microsoft account. But, I wanted more security on this account, so I set up the Microsoft Authenticator. It will notify me anytime someone tries to log onto my account, and I can deny their access. I can approve my access, if I am trying to log into the account from a different device. I no longer receive these emails from Microsoft, and if I did it would go directly to my inbox.

During the last week, there has been 14 attempts, from all over the world, to sign into my Microsoft account. They were all stopped from the start because they were attempting to use a very, very old password.

2022 Election Scam

Below is another text I received on my phone. Yes, I believe that hackers have my phone number from the Dark Web. How? There are numerous companies that have my contact information and a several of the larger companies had data breaches, such as T-Mobile, CafePress, LinkedIn, Android, Facebook… Those were just in 2021.

+1 (386) 297-5094

Message from Donald Trump Jr. -> I can't lie to you guys. This election is going to be a tough one so it is REALLY important we hear from you. We need you to take the Official 2022 Nationwide Census. Take 2 mins and get it done: https://winitback2022.org/r.wr?id=JW0FCe4l

ReplySTOPToEnd

This is why I believe it is a scam:

  1. The phone number: It a phone number, not a 5 digits text number. It has a +1 in from of the number. And, when I looked up the number it did not return a legitimate organization.
  2. The web site “winitback2022.org” was created on December 23, 2021.
  3. The web site is hosted by GoDaddy. Okay, that makes it appear to be more legitimate. But, the domains registrant’s contact information has been withheld.
  4. The domain was registered by: Domains By Proxy, LLC. If you look them up, you will find they have a very bad rating with the BBB (Better Business Bureau).
  5. Finally, there no Official 2022 Nationwide Census. The only official Census takes place every 10 years; 2000, 2010, 2020, 2030….

Again, don’t click any link in a text message. Don’t reply to a text message.

Next step, I will report it to GoDaddy as abuse.