thewayne: (Default)
If a mailer is trying to send more than 5,000 emails a day to Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, or Live.com email addresses, and the server is not configured to standards, Microsoft is going to block the emails from going through their networks with an error message. Yahoo and Gmail have been doing this for some time.

Specifically, "... (the) SPF record must clearly identify which IPs can send on your domain’s behalf. DKIM must sign the message with a valid key. And DMARC needs to be published, with alignment to either SPF or DKIM. Preferably both. Without all three in place, Microsoft will silence you."

This will make it harder for fly-by-night spammers to get messages through as they often do not have top-shelf IT people supporting them. It will also cause problems for legitimate mass mailers who use third-party email providers who also do not have top-shelf IT people who may be a little soft on their mail server configuration.

But this is the price paid because scammers are determined to make sure that we cannot have nice things.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftdefenderforoffice365blog/strengthening-email-ecosystem-outlook%e2%80%99s-new-requirements-for-high%e2%80%90volume-senders/4399730

https://betanews.com/2025/05/05/microsoft-email-blocks-start-may-2025/

https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/05/1817247/microsoft-cracks-down-on-bulk-email-with-strict-new-outlook-rules
thewayne: (Default)
No, that's not the word. What's the word?

Not. Guaranteed that I'll not open it.

The subject line is: Ꮯοոցrаtսⅼаtіоոѕ Υοս hаⅴе ѕսссеѕѕfսⅼⅼу Ԝοո аո ΝFΤ іtеⅿ !

You send me an email with shifted case and multiple fonts like that, you ain't gonna win me over, skippy! Not to mention trying to hook me into an NFT scam?

Nope.
thewayne: (Default)
These might be appearing in your Inbox, not your Spam folder, so be aware.

Fake Best Buy Geek Squad invoices.

I've received two that were properly flagged as spam. It says that your Geek Squad subscription is about to renew and $419 will be charged to your card.

This hits on some good psychological pain points. It's a good-sized chunk of money, it's possible that you may have a Geek Squad subscription for computer support, and there's the time pressure element.

But they always have at least two tells: they don't have your name on the 'subscription invoice' and they always originate from an odd email address, perhaps Gmail. NEVER call the phone number on this 'invoice' as that could easily get sold to other scammers, just delete this crap and be done with it.
thewayne: (Default)
Found two variations in my spam folder today.

Dear Customer,

Thank you for placing an order with PayPal. Your order description is given below.

We have received your order request and the charge has been authorised.
Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop, Intel i7-10750H



1350 USD
Your order was placed on 05/27/2021 and will reach your doorsteps on 05/29/2021.

If you want to make changes to this order or cancel this order, please call immediately at + 1-833-999-9999 (number obfuscated for obvious reasons)


Spelling is good, albeit British. The main difference with the second message was a slightly different phone number, different high-end laptop, and it was shipping to a different address.

The 833 telephone exchange is a toll-free exchange.

There was one major difference between the two emails: the first contained blocked graphics, probably lifted the Paypal graphics from their web site to look more authentic and might have embedded tracking pixels to see if you opened the email. I block all inbound graphics, so no tracking pixels ever activate unless I decide to load graphics, which is very rare. The second message had no embedded graphics! Quite surprising, that!

Obviously they want to frighten you into panicking and calling their number, in which I expect a person with an Indian accent will run you through phone tag. I can't imagine how this plays out, and I'm not going to bother finding out: if you call, since they're paying for an 833 number, they get all your call info and will sell that info to other scammers. If I could call from a pay phone, I would consider it, but I'm not sure where any are around here.

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