Hide My Email: receiving (spam) mails on addresses that don't exist

I haven’t been able to find any information about this online, so I’m posting it here.

I’ve been receiving emails TO addresses like @icloud.com.

I’ve checked all my hide-my-email aliases (including the archived ones) and I don’t own these addresses so I cannot disable them.

I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this issue?

Syldon,
@Syldon@feddit.uk avatar

If you are responding to spam mails in an attempt to stop them, you are informing the sender that someone is looking at the mails. The best option is to block the sender if the mails are repeated and stick the mail in your spam folder. There is no point in blocking mails that will only arrive one time. Adding mails to the spam folder informs your ISP that it is spam. Some ISPs are proactive with spam accounts and block them at the server.

Romkslrqusz,

An email message can include a tracking pixel that informs the sender the message was read. Just opening a message is usually enough to trigger it, unless your mail client blocks loading external content bu default.

Syldon,
@Syldon@feddit.uk avatar

You should never download pictures from unknown sources. It is relatively easy to hide viral code in some picture formats.

Taleya,

You’re being bcc’d.

If you send a shitton of emails to: blahblah and then bcc everyone else, all recipients only see the to:blahblah address.

chiisana,
@chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net avatar

Yep, if you’re not on the recipient lists, then this right here is the correct answer.

OP you can confirm this by checking the source or original message and check for the “delivered to” info in the mail headers to see which email of yours that it was delivered to. From there you can decide if it is something you can stop (I.e another privacy relay email), or, the more likely case, just not worth the hassle (I.e the real regular email).

Rhynoplaz,

Are there multiple addresses in the TO field? I don’t see how you would be getting email sent to someone else’s account.

My best guess is that they are sending the emails to hundreds of addresses, and yours happens to be one of them, but you are seeing the addresses of other people who also got it.

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