I was wondering if anyone here has any idea how to find out if someone has signed them up for spam. I suspect someone has taken my email address and has been using it to sign me up for junk email by visiting various Web sites. Is there a way to trace these emails that would reveal who this person is?
Try reasoning through it…you're receiving the junk emails, so you may know where those are coming from, based on email header analysis.
At that point, where would you look to find out who signed you up? I have yet to see an email header that says, "X-Originator Signed up by Dave Jones, using IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx".
Your best bet is to simply get another email address.
H. Carvey
"Windows Forensics and Incident Recovery"
http//
http//windowsir.blogspot.com
Or you could try installing some sort of junk mail filter. E-mail clients such as Thunderbird have junk mail controls that can be configured to automatically dump mails of this sort in the trash.
Or you could try installing some sort of junk mail filter. E-mail clients such as Thunderbird have junk mail controls that can be configured to automatically dump mails of this sort in the trash.
I remember reading somewhere that someone was able to track down a person who had signed them up on junk email lists, but the article didn't specify how they did it. Do you think it's possible that if I contacted the source that is sending the emails that they would tell me the name or IP address that signed up using my email address? I figure if they kept logs of IP addresses that I could then use that IP address to figure out who did it. Is this possible?
I would say no. Firstly, if it's the originator of spam that you're trying to track down then your chances are very slim as these people obviously keep hidden underground. If it's just junk mail (which is spam?) then you may be able to locate and contact the originator but it's highly unlikely they'll divulge the who, how and where of you getting signed up. Even if it's your lucky day and you get an IP address then this could simply resolve to a proxy or a NAT or a home user who has his IP changed automatically by his ISP every several hours, in which case you wouldn't be any the wiser. Finding the person who kindly signed you up wont stop the spam anyway so you need a spam filter and/or a new e-mail address.
If the user has a dail-up ISP, does that mean that their IP address is different each time they conenct to the Internet and go online? Would this make it more difficult to track that person's info?
Essentially yes. Unless someone actually pays for a static IP address then their ISP will rotate their IP automatically, usually every few hours or so. This means that if you manage to get an IP address from somewhere the person who's using it today might not have used it yesterday. The ISP’s do this because they can’t afford to permanently assign an address to everyone who has an account with them.
Hmmm…looks like I am just plain out of luck. I suppose my best bet is to configure my spam filters on my email or get another email address. I appreciate everyone's input on this subject. Thank you.
Yeah, I reckon that's your best bet, you'll never get your email address off those spam lists anyway, even if you did track down the culprit who signed you up.
