Beware of E-Mail identity
Theft
January
29, 2002
I've
just become the victim of email identity theft.
Some
junk mail spammer is using my return email address to send junk email
(spam) to people who are not on any of my own opt-in lists.
A
person who doesn't know anything about me or my company sent me an
email with "Remove" in the subject line. Included in the message was a
copy of the header in the email this person received.(I've altered the
name of the recipient for his privacy.)
-----Original Message-----
>From: aps@rpifs.com
>Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 6:41:44 PM
>To: john_smith@y...
>Subj: Got Debt?
>
I
knew that I did not send that message because I have never sent bulk
email to anyone who didn't ask to be on one of my lists and I never
promoted any product or service involving "debt". I'm a CPA with a
focus on international tax law and I don't provide any debt related
products or services.
But
I have received junk email with my own email return address.
One
of my email domain addresses is www.rpifs.com. That was the address I
used before I changed the name of my company from Research Press, Inc.
to Offshore Press, Inc. and acquired the domain of
www.offshorepress.com. However, the old domain address is still valid
and can still be used for email.
About
six months ago, I noticed that some of the junk email I get every day
has a return address "info@rpifs.com" or some similar address. It was
an annoyance, but not worth the time to try to eliminate the
practice.
But
now, someone has decided to promote his or her product or service using
my email return address by sending junk email to people who did not ask
to receive any email from me.
From
a marketing perspective, it doesn't make any sense.
Who
would want to buy anything from someone who disguises their return
address? But some spammer obviously thinks it's worth his or her time
and money to play this game.
Previously,
seeing junk email with my own return address was only irritating. But
now they are creating the impression that I'm sending out spam/junk
email. That can easily and quickly ruin my reputation as a responsible
Internet business.
It's
the email version of identity theft.
If
they can do that to me, they can do it to you as well.
At
the moment, I don't have a solution and I would welcome any suggestions
from anyone about how to prevent this from becoming a common practice.
If you know how to prevent this practice, please let me know by sending
an email to me.
I
will post any useful information I acquire on this subject on my web
site at www.offshorepress.com/identity-theft.htm
-- along with
some
material I've written about the more common kind of identity theft.
Beyond
that, if you get junk email from someone and send them a request to
remove you from their list, don't be surprpised if they respond by
saying they have never sent any email to you.
And
feel free to reprint this or to forward it to anyone.
Vern
Jacobs, CPA
www.offshorepress.com/identity-theft.htm
www.vernonjacobs.com
Vernon
Jacobs
President
Offshore
Press, Inc.
P.O.
Box 8194
Prairie
Village, KS 66208
Phone
: 913-362-9667
Fax :
913-362-9667
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