Getting really crazy emails

TechnoMage2016 · 11 Oct 2020

I use Windows Mail, and GMail for my email.
Every day I get many emails allegedly from Insurance Companies, addressed to "something@aol.com". I NEVER use an AOL address!
The "Something" might be my name, or just a scrambled group of characters. It varies!

??? How can they email me, without even using my legal email address?
And when I click on [OK] or "unsubscribe", I get to the same place, with a blank screen.
What's going on ? Any ideas?

I tried plugging the 'From' addresses into the "Filter" at GMail, to no avail.

file3456 · 11 Oct 2020

First, read what I said here about email.

Now you should have a couple email addresses. One for online junk signups and what not and another for your bank, PayPal, Amazon, etc. Though, I'd be apt to have a separate email address for PayPal and eBay because some sellers will either sell your email address out for spamming, or the seller gets their contacts list jacked by malware and now you'll get spammed.

Now to your question. The apparent To: is not your email because it could either be A) This email was send as a CC (Carbon Copy) to many users not using BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) to mask the recipients. Or B), the headers can be crafted in such a way to spoof it.

Sign up at SpamCop and report the headers their. SpamCop.net - Beware of cheap imitations

Edit-

Refrain from using unsubscribe. If it's not a legit company website that has to put that link in there, you're just opening yourself up to a can of worms, and if the HTML or image content didn't rat your IP out, the unsubscribe link will. If it is a legit website email say from, eBay, Amazon, your favorite online retailer, etc, you can use unsubscribe and you should be unsubscribed. If not, you could file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission I suppose. But this is ONLY with legit companies. The FTC used to take spam reports, but now they don't and just run honeypots or what ever.

TechnoMage2016 · 16 Oct 2020

I've read a lot about SPAM (bogus email) but nowhere have I read the short answer as to how I get rid of it.
But I guess it was Divine Inspiration, that caused me to log in to GMail (webmail) where I can select "Options" on any piece of mail and then block the Sender of that email.
It's working like a champ! The stupid email has stopped.

What I never did understand is how anyone can send an email to "(my first name)@AOL.COM" and still have it arrive in my GMail Inbox. * I do not have an AOL account.

As ever, I want to thank Y'all for your responses.
I guess I can call this thread CLOSED.

Thanks again,
TechnoMage

file3456 · 17 Oct 2020

Divine intervention lies withen yourself as to how you hand out your email addy and diversification of email addresses for different purposes least all the crap end up in one bucket to sift through...

And I could have swore I mentioned something about email headers and how they can be easily spoofed...

TechnoMage2016 · 19 Oct 2020

I'm having good success, getting rid of spam, when I'm working in GMail (Web Mail).

Currently, I'm almost SPAM free.
I'm using two computers to log into and monitor my two email addresses that have been getting the spam.
I can do things in "GMail" that I can't do from 'Windows Mail' on my PC.
It's weird, and I only found out about it through personal experimentation. No One told me about it.

If I failed to mark this thread as "Solved" I should have.

Thanks, Y'all!