US Telco Support > AT&T > AT&T Northeast > Got an Email about old Snet "Account Validation"

Got an Email about old Snet "Account Validation"

Whoever composed that mail is not a native English-speaker. Full headers would be helpful.

If I were a gambler, I'd wager at least $50 that the mail came from Russia or somewhere in Eastern Europe. The grammatical and usage errors suggest that the author is a native speaker of a Slavic language.

reply to oldOscar
It is a common "phish". Ever since ISPs have locked down outbound port 25, the only way for spammers to get their message out from compromised computers is to still steal ISP accounts and send through the authorized SMTP servers. It is a very clever bit of "social engineering", and still hooks people. I first saw similar with an old IM service, which used numeric UserIDs, and the low numbered accounts (8 digits, and less) brought a premium; if they could be stolen, they could be sold. Now the "premium" is the ability to spam through legitimate SMTP serves from compromised systems, using stolen accounts. This can result in AT&T MTAs being blocked by other services (and AT&T blocking other services whose users have been "phished").

No service sends email requesting that sort of information. If they want you to manage your account, they just tell you to go to the account management site. And for that, it is best not to follow links in the email, but to have the account management site bookmarked, so you can get their direct from your browser.

And, if you would like an analysis of the routing to your Inbox, the suggestion by DrStrange to submit the full headers is valid. Just be sure to redact any personally identify information (your user name in your email address; IP address is not "personally identifying").
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

reply to oldOscar

Re: Got an Email about old Snet "Account Validation"