There was a brief period about a week ago where the amount of spam I was receiving (in the multiple unrelated email addresses I have) suddenly dropped. Yay!
But, alas, the spam has come back – with a vengance. One in particular that seems to be slithering by most spam filters at the moment is something I imagine was crafted specifically for this time of year – a spam message designed to take advantage of the fact that people are doing their holiday shopping.
This spam message generally has some variation on the subject line “Re: Order Status” or something like that. The body of the message seems to just be a “Click here to view this message as a web page” link. (Of course, if you get one of these, don’t click the link!)
Given how much on-line shopping is probably going on this time of year, this is a particularly nasty trick to use to get past people’s spam filters. Of course, there are ways to “separate the wheat from the chaff,” so to speak.
Most of these spam “Order Status” messages seem to have a “From” address that’s the same as the address they’re sent to – in other words, when they show up in your inbox, they look as if they were sent by you!
So I guess my holiday spam-avoiding tip for everyone this year is “delete emails that look like ‘order status’ messages but that appear to come from your own email address.” Not the greatest of tips, but hey, every little bit helps.
Stay safe from spam this holiday season!
Email image courtesy of the Tango Desktop Project.
