Question Spam emails to my wife with my name and address?

[Linollieum]

Hi! This is a bit of a random question and I don't know if this is the right place.

My wife has gotten a couple of emails pretending to be energy surveys or electricity rebates for me at my old address with my first and last name and old physical address on them. Normally I'd just mark them as spam, obviously not touch anything on them, and not care, but the fact that they have my full physical address that I moved from a few months ago, and my full name being sent to my wife's email, is just making her nervous about our security.

It probably isn't anything to be worried about, but it's just odd since it's not like my old physical address or her email address or my name were really public or connected at all... and we just got married and moved in together a few months ago. I know a lot of information is easier to find than you would think, but any thoughts on how this could even happen and if it's something we should just shrug off and mark as spam and accept that people can find this stuff even without any security breaches? Or did one of us get hacked and they're trying to get us to click links now by making the emails more personalized?

The first one was from "mike@hudsonvalleyrugby.com" which is just a travelling rugby team's website, the second from "unitedenergy@angsoftech.com and angsoftech seems to be some disreputable nepalese website. Both of them have a signature for "Bohr, Heisenberg, & Planck Applied Technology. 523 Lakeside Circle, Sunrise, FL, 33326 which is just a bunch of names from quantum mechanics and a random house in Miami.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

It's just SPAM. Handle it as such. They obtain your info from publicly available sources (property records and such). Nothing you can do about that.

 

[Ralston18]

You are doing the right thing by marking the emails as spam without touching or opening the emails. Just delete.

Someone, somewhere has scraped websites, databases, contact lists, etc. etc. trying to come up with email lists based more on the quantity of email addresses (and other information) more than quality.

Likely the starting link was some public record. Or some joint account you set up (not necessarily financial) but with a company who maybe sold your email address. [Companies claim to not sell email addresses. The unscrupulous ones use a loop hole - they trade email addresses. But some just don't care, and sell anyway. Especially oversea scammer types.]

Just married: Probably the link was the marriage license. If you think about you can probably come up with the few more possibilities.

With your names they found your old addresses, with the marriage license link they found her and her addresses.

Along with a lot of other information email addresses, other associations, public records on both of you to exploit.

Do some googling using your names: lots of sites will show up offering to provide information on the name being searched.

The search process goes though various steps" searching this, searching that" and at some point will end. Offering a report.

The search is "free" but you actually will need to pay to get full report results.

Still there is a good chance that you will still find quite a bit of information about yourselves.

And all the more so if you have Ancestry, Classmates, and other research databases available.

 

[USAFRet]

Junk.
I've gotten spam addressed to Me, from Me.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Junk.
I've gotten spam addressed to Me, from Me.

Very much like getting a SPAM phone call with the caller ID showing your own number as the caller. 😛

 

[Co BIY]

Watch the links and tag phishing attempts as such is about all you can do.

I enjoy the emails from the Hitman hired to kill me that from watching me decided I'm too nice to kill and wants to help me get the people after me. It's totally ludicrous on it's face but it must work on a certain percentage of people because the scam keeps rolling.

 

[Old Molases]

Just try to find information where it might be listed and delete it for good.

 

[GreatCrowd]

Hi! This is a bit of a random question and I don't know if this is the right place.

My wife has gotten a couple of emails pretending to be energy surveys or electricity rebates for me at my old address with my first and last name and old physical address on them. Normally I'd just mark them as spam, obviously not touch anything on them, and not care, but the fact that they have my full physical address that I moved from a few months ago, and my full name being sent to my wife's email, is just making her nervous about our security.

It probably isn't anything to be worried about, but it's just odd since it's not like my old physical address or her email address or my name were really public or connected at all... and we just got married and moved in together a few months ago. I know a lot of information is easier to find than you would think, but any thoughts on how this could even happen and if it's something we should just shrug off and mark as spam and accept that people can find this stuff even without any security breaches? Or did one of us get hacked and they're trying to get us to click links now by making the emails more personalized?

The first one was from "mike@hudsonvalleyrugby.com" which is just a travelling rugby team's website, the second from "unitedenergy@angsoftech.com and angsoftech seems to be some disreputable nepalese website. Both of them have a signature for "Bohr, Heisenberg, & Planck Applied Technology. 523 Lakeside Circle, Sunrise, FL, 33326 which is just a bunch of names from quantum mechanics and a random house in Miami.

This is interesting because I recently received the same email. It contained one of my old addresses, an email address that I rarely use and my legal name that I don't go by. This information wouldn't be that easy to find on the internet. I believe it was from someone who knows me and had access to some of my records I'm also a married woman and my phone got hacked by a person stalking me. I had to replace it. The person that I suspect recently moved from overseas to NY.

 

[Ralston18]

This:

"This information wouldn't be that easy to find on the internet. "

No disagreement per se.

However sites such as Ancestry, Classmates, etc. along with online public records (courts, real estate, county property records, etc.) can find all sorts of things.

As more and more records are scanned in and otherwise made available many organizations use AI to find and list possible links.

Especially for those who are willing to and can pay for the provided services. That is how the mass media can so quickly find family members and other contacts sometimes just with just a name, location/address, phone number, or other "minor" bit of information.

Google yourself. If you know someone with an Ancestry subscription, for example, have that person search your name(s).

Google real estate websites using your old addresses.

Likely that a stalker has even more information and can delve even deeper based on just that information alone.

Stalking is a serious issue so document what you can and keep local authorities advised. They are all so often over-worked and restricted by law with what they can do (and not do) it all ends up meaning that they can actually do very little.

I am not a lawyer so none of the above is legal advice. However, consider talking with a lawyer to learn what options you have and what, if anything, you can do.

Especially since you have known suspect person to deal with.

 

[USAFRet]

Google real estate websites using your old addresses.

I just googled the address I grew up in and our last name.
No town or state, just the house number, street, and our last name.

hahahaha....so much info and connections.

Parents who sold it it in 77-78.
Myself, who has not lived there since '76.
My kids, who have never ever been within 600 miles of it.

All just in the first page of google results.

Given another 10 minutes of investigation, I'm sure I could link up to my ex-inlaws in London.