Intrusive, malicious emails
le cuirassier
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le cuirassier -
le cuirassier -
Hello,
Last July, I received a rather strange email, personally addressed to me, which seemed to have malicious intent. Someone wanted to contact me to "collaborate" in a particular field, thereby requesting my mobile number. It was someone who was quite informed about my activities, particularly my cultural ones, and clearly wanted to lure me into providing certain information.
It was a fake identity, with an Outlook address (given the migration from Hotmail to this platform, when creating a new address, it is under Outlook, which partially confirms my suspicions of it being fake).
I did not reply to the email.
Today, I received another email (from an Outlook address, of course), more focused on my hobbies or professional aspirations: a so-called contest organized by Fnac (no logo, no Fnac address, rather poor punctuation, but no spelling or syntax mistakes...), reserved for certain students in a particular field (mine, of course). However, the questions are quite intrusive: my parents' address, my student accommodation address, how often I return to my parents' home, what time I finish on Friday night or Saturday morning, etc., etc., along with other questions to flatter me or stroke my ego.
It is obvious that a malicious person, who likely holds certain grievances against me, wishes to obtain some information. For what purpose? Possible assaults, threats to my residence, intimidation, blackmail? I have a Twitter account that has been the subject of minor controversies several times, as well as a website that, according to the information leaked via email, is being "monitored" by the person/people trying to contact me.
What can I do to remedy this? My goal is not to stop receiving these kinds of emails, but to distance such parasites from my sphere.
I await your recommendations and thank you in advance.
Configuration: Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) / Firefox 23.0
Last July, I received a rather strange email, personally addressed to me, which seemed to have malicious intent. Someone wanted to contact me to "collaborate" in a particular field, thereby requesting my mobile number. It was someone who was quite informed about my activities, particularly my cultural ones, and clearly wanted to lure me into providing certain information.
It was a fake identity, with an Outlook address (given the migration from Hotmail to this platform, when creating a new address, it is under Outlook, which partially confirms my suspicions of it being fake).
I did not reply to the email.
Today, I received another email (from an Outlook address, of course), more focused on my hobbies or professional aspirations: a so-called contest organized by Fnac (no logo, no Fnac address, rather poor punctuation, but no spelling or syntax mistakes...), reserved for certain students in a particular field (mine, of course). However, the questions are quite intrusive: my parents' address, my student accommodation address, how often I return to my parents' home, what time I finish on Friday night or Saturday morning, etc., etc., along with other questions to flatter me or stroke my ego.
It is obvious that a malicious person, who likely holds certain grievances against me, wishes to obtain some information. For what purpose? Possible assaults, threats to my residence, intimidation, blackmail? I have a Twitter account that has been the subject of minor controversies several times, as well as a website that, according to the information leaked via email, is being "monitored" by the person/people trying to contact me.
What can I do to remedy this? My goal is not to stop receiving these kinds of emails, but to distance such parasites from my sphere.
I await your recommendations and thank you in advance.
Configuration: Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) / Firefox 23.0
2 answers
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"It is obvious that a malicious person, undoubtedly having some grievances against me, wishes to obtain some information."
There is no malicious person sending you these emails; it’s Facebook and Twitter who are aware of your activities and are selling your personal information to marketing companies.
How do you think Zuckerberg became a billionaire?
These emails are not malicious; at worst, you can sort them into spam.
Ubuntu 12.04
Firefox 11 -
Sure, of course. A marketing company is therefore sending me:
"Hello *** (my first name),
I am contacting you because a lady mentioned you to me in a café. Indeed, we were chatting when suddenly this young lady who had been listening said that besides being a talented young writer, you were also a fan of *** (a very, very little-known writer who doesn't even have a Facebook page), and that I absolutely had to talk to you.
It turns out that I just finished my master's in journalism in Paris and I'm returning to Dublin where I will be the editor of the literature section in a fairly well-known weekly newspaper there. I would like to know if it would be possible for us to speak. It seems that you live in the South; I am currently in Paris, but I will soon be heading to Turin before returning to Ireland, so it might be possible for me to stop in your city.
If you had a phone number, it would be very helpful; mine has stayed at home.
Hope to see you soon, perhaps,
*** (fake name of the sender)"
So? Marketing company? Of course not.
Having not replied, I then received a second email from another person, still from a fake Outlook address, containing very specific questions which, indirectly, in one way or another, I have already answered in some of my texts. I doubt that companies would go to such lengths in stalking, would they? Also, never on Facebook or Twitter have I left any of the information reused in these emails. I have not liked any groups, any writers, and I use a pseudonym as well as another email address for my Twitter accounts.
