I keep getting spam mail sent to me at iamsendingthisleter@pftq.com

That address doesn't actually exist, but I'm a bit lost how anyone got that as an address to send to in the first place.

Is anyone else getting this?

The mail always reads:
======
Subject: Hi <random first name>

Message:

Hi iamsendingthisleter

How are you? Call me.

<random two letter phrase>
======
Very numerous too I received about 20 just today.

One thing I noticed was that all the senders had an email that began with "debora" - after that it's random other words/letters and then a different @blah.blah - but they always began with "debora"

Oh yeah, that's a newly common one. I'm also getting complaints from my customers.

I'm getting the same letters TO that email address: iamsendingthisletter@domain.com.

If you are getting that letter FROM that email address, than you're being spoofed! The simple way to help block this is to setup an SPF Record, which supposedly helps, and using Box Trapper (cPanel > Mail) helps block spoofing also.


If you think about it, those emails don't really make any sense at all. There isn't any attachment on them, but there might be some code in there to trace the email or something. Perhaps it's mass "research" from these stupid spammers.

Good luck. We're all going through it. Even friends and customers on non-Hostony boxes are having this problem, so it's not HOSTONY.

Hmm... how do you set up an SPF record? Also not sure how a boxtrapper helps prevent people from sending from your email. Could you explain that?

I'm not sure how it helps prevent it, but it does.

As far as the SPF Record: Are you on shared, reseller or dedicated hosting with HOSTONY?
In this case, everything depends on this ^

Shared

pftq, please submit a ticket using your login details(not as a system user), point a domain name and our support will install a SPF record for you.

How cool is that?! They're gonna do it for you. Good service!!

What is an SPF in the first place tho?

Here it is:
http://www.openspf.org/

Just like it says, it is a "Sender Poicy Framework" and helps block email forgeries.

Make sure to get one!!

So it's like a 100% positive thing right? No cons or anything (ie longer email times, emails require validating reply, etc)? Does it automatically apply to all email addresses I create on my domain (and subdomains)?

I'm just a bit confused why this isn't done already to begin with.

From what I know, there are no drawbacks. If anything, emails should send faster, because hosts like gmail, aol, hotmail, etc. check for SPF records. If you don't have one, it will send the email through more tests to see if it is spam.

It will apply to all emails addresses on your domain, but if you're a reseller, it won't apply to your customers' accounts.

I've gotten some feedback from people claiming they received spam from my domain.

The SPF record doesn't seem to be working

I'm definitely not trying to push my company to you, but I've spent a large amount of time making this, so hopefully it will help you to check the SPF installation, assuming you have WHM: http://knowledge.phirefast.com/?q=node/13

Ya I think the SPF record is gone or something. I'm receiving tons of emails sent back to me (failed to find whoever the spammer was sending to) that I didn't send.

I have Linux btw.

I think this has become an issue only support can handle. Please contact them through a trouble ticket @ http://secure.hostony.com

- Cheers.

Argh I dunno what happened. They say I need to upgrade my plan or buy 2 IPs for the nameserver because the DNS server doesn't support my SPF record.

I don't think so...

So strange - it was all up and working for over a month and now it's gone... Not sure if I really want to buy a 2 IPs tho