Recently we posted a bulletin about an phishing scam that was going around the real estate community. An agent e-mailed me a few days ago saying that she and a few other agents had replyed to the e-mail scam and since then have had their in-boxes overflowing with SPAM. She asked if the two were related and if so what could be done. A bit of checking around with our tech department revealed the following:
The first thing to know is that when you reply to that kind of email, it gives the sender of the original email some information about you:
- that your email is a valid email address
- someone reads the email messages
- recipient is in the Real Estate business
The fisher then may sell/share the email address to a myriad of people in the internet black market (not by itself but as part of a list of email addresses). So to answer the question, if your spam amount has increased after replying to this email, that is the most probable cause.
To mitigate the spam amount you should contact your ISP (internet service provider) and see what they can do to help. Specifically, your ISP may have tools for spam that they may be able to turn on, if not already, for your mailbox.
Also, getting your own domain might also be something to think about, then you are not dependant on what the owner of the “aloha.net” domain does, and could even host your new domain with someone like Google that has very good spam controls.
The other possibility with that email is you could decide to call that number, however, the 882 prefix is used by satellite phones, and there might an overcharge that goes to the owner.Lastly, there are many sites online that offer suggestions for spam. One from McAfee is located here: http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat_center/anti_spam/spam_tips.html.
Most important is to be vigilant of these types of phishing e-mails. If you receive one, please send to us with an alert and we will be sure to post it for everyone as a warning.