[iyonix-support] Re: Spam!

In article <468CA632.9090905@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
   Kris Adcock <iyonix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have started receiving spam to my iyonix@ e-mail address. This address
> is ONLY used for this discussion group, so does that mean that address
> lists on freelists are available, or does it mean that another
> subscriber has a compromised PC?

Like Martin, I would suspect the latter. However.... quite a few spammers
actually make up huge lists of random email addresses by combining both
parts of an email address together, from addresses they've harvested.

Thus, if a spammer picks up the following addresses;

iyonix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
sue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

for example, they could have a list of three email addresses (iyonix, david
and sue) and two domains - somedomain.com and anotherdomain.com

They then combine both lists to give six addresses;

iyonix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
sue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
iyonix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
sue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Obviously, several of these will 'bounce', or spam an innocent person - but
the spammer obviously doesn't care about this.

Now, presumably by now, the word "iyonix" is probably quite widespread and
known about, thus is probably a legitimate word to include in email lists.

Your domain obviously exists, so in theory your email address could be
formed by putting two sections together and coming up with something that
happens to be genuine, and hence how you got your spam.

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