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Question

Contact names used in phising emails

Mar 25, 2018 5:53PM PDT

I've received plenty of phishing emails with 'recognizable' names eg minor celebrities etc, which I'm sure are designed so people are more willing to open them. One thing that has since happened is that I've received an email using the same name as someone who has sent me a legitimate email. It may be that this is a common name, but is this concidence, or has the senders/my email been read by a third party?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Not to alarm you
Mar 26, 2018 6:45AM PDT

But almost all email is read by other computers now. Such has been in the news so that's an easy yes.

As to the names, such lists are out there and to improve phishing effectiveness they now try to match your address with a name, company or use a celebrity to get you to open the email.

The advice has not changed. Do not open, mark as spam and delete. Also, DO NOT TRACK THEM DOWN. This only creates more spam.

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Not alarmed ;-)
Mar 26, 2018 4:22PM PDT

That's along the lines of what I thought was happening. I seem to spend a lot of time deleting fake invoices/DocuSign/LinkedIn/tax office etc documents. I almost miss the old Nigerian scam...